You might or might not be able to do better than 6.15% -- bankrate.com says average rates are 6.77% right now, and the last time I pulled my complete score reports from myfico a couple weeks ago it said for my Experian 826 a typical interest rate on a 48-month auto loan in my score range was 6.197%. Also, be careful about rates from dealers: I suspect dealers can find ways of packing a little extra onto the purchase price to pay for an artificially low interest rate on the loan. Especially avoid discussing the monthly payment with the dealer, they looove buyers who think entirely in terms of the payment as you probably realize. Before going to the dealer run the numbers so you know how much you can afford and get a cash price from the dealer, and only bring up financing AFTER you have a cash price quoted. And expect the dealer to suggest rustproofing, extended warranty, pin striping, and whatever else they can try to pack into the transaction (not to mention various junk fees which basically translate into "extra profit")). Some years ago a friend of mine was about to close on a car purchase, but there was an additional 75 dollar fee which had not previously been mentioned. He insisted they take it off. They refused. Sitting right there in their office he phoned another local dealer for the same car and said, "Hi, I'm sitting in the office of [dealer name] about to close but they refuse to remove this fee, here are all the details we negotiated, can you do better..." Can you tell used car dealers are not my favorite people?
Message Edited by MattH on
04-17-2008 06:57 PMMessage Edited by MattH on
04-17-2008 06:58 PM
TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
If you dunno what tanstaafl means you must Google it