Arrrgh! Are you serious? 
And just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water!
When shopping around for cars, I specifically asked the finance manager what credit score was needed to get the lowest interest rate and was told anything from 725 and up was considered great. Now I hear this ~ but to tell you the truth, I was afraid it was too good to be true.
I know absolutely nothing about finance ~ if I negotiate with the bank I have two accounts at ~ a regular checking account and an account that I get investment incom on ~ will that help the bank give me a lower interest rate?
To tell you the truth, I'm just about to the point where I've decided to ride a bicycle around for the rest of my life, keep all my money under a mattress, pay everything in cash and not worry about my credit score! 
Some dealers are great --aboveboard and ethical, and they will give you their best rate. Others, alas, are not.
One great piece of advice that I've read here is to print out your FICO scores, including the reports. Just hit "printable version", and it will all be there. Take this with you when you are ready to make a deal. Your scores might be a bit different from what they pull, as they might use an "auto-enhanced" FICO score that gives extra weight to any car loan history you might have, and also there are those semi-random wanderings up and down of your scores that you already know about. Unless you pull your scores that very day, there is always that possiblity.
Anyway, take your scores with you. If any lender --dealer or otherwise --tries to convince you that your scores are way below where you know they are, you can show them your print-outs. Again, they might well not match identically, but they ought to be in the ballpark, unless you have some sort of horrible car loan messes in the past.
And again, I really don't believe that some 30 days that occurred 4 years ago will be a factor. You might be ready to explain the circumstances, but if they look down their noses and try to manipulate, I would tell them that I was taking my business elsewhere. And you might want to let the general manager know as well.
edit: By the way, you said you have your accounts with a bank. Definitely speak with them, but also check out credit unions. CU's are often a great source of auto loans.
edit again: Also also, if you haven't visited the Mortgages and Loans board, you might check it out as well. I do think you're going to be fine. Despite what you read about the average score being 720 or something, I think yours are a lot better than many that they see. If they want to sell you a car, they'll find a way to do business with you. Do your research first to find out what a reasonable price should be for what you're looking at. (For that info, I am definitely the wrong person to ask. It might be on cars dot com or carmax or something.)
Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 01-28-2008 12:20 PM
One great piece of advice that I've read here is to print out your FICO scores, including the reports. Just hit "printable version", and it will all be there. Take this with you when you are ready to make a deal. Your scores might be a bit different from what they pull, as they might use an "auto-enhanced" FICO score that gives extra weight to any car loan history you might have, and also there are those semi-random wanderings up and down of your scores that you already know about. Unless you pull your scores that very day, there is always that possiblity.
Anyway, take your scores with you. If any lender --dealer or otherwise --tries to convince you that your scores are way below where you know they are, you can show them your print-outs. Again, they might well not match identically, but they ought to be in the ballpark, unless you have some sort of horrible car loan messes in the past.
And again, I really don't believe that some 30 days that occurred 4 years ago will be a factor. You might be ready to explain the circumstances, but if they look down their noses and try to manipulate, I would tell them that I was taking my business elsewhere. And you might want to let the general manager know as well.
edit: By the way, you said you have your accounts with a bank. Definitely speak with them, but also check out credit unions. CU's are often a great source of auto loans.
edit again: Also also, if you haven't visited the Mortgages and Loans board, you might check it out as well. I do think you're going to be fine. Despite what you read about the average score being 720 or something, I think yours are a lot better than many that they see. If they want to sell you a car, they'll find a way to do business with you. Do your research first to find out what a reasonable price should be for what you're looking at. (For that info, I am definitely the wrong person to ask. It might be on cars dot com or carmax or something.)
Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 01-28-2008 12:20 PM
Wow ~ thanks for all the great info and for putting up with my eight bazillion questions!
No, I haven't applied for anything lately ~ I only received one Visa card in the last year. My credit history is about 25 years ~ I don't know if that's bad or good. The card that was cancelled for inactivity was about three years old ~ had a zero balance ~ and a credit line of about $2000 or so. As to the other cards, no balances on any of them, except the one Visa I charge on regularly. Athough I normally pay about $1,500 a month on it, there's always about a $500 balance as I use it almost every day. Again, I don't know if that is good or bad.
And yes, you're absolutely right ~ I'm going to dig out my unused credit cards and start using them for minor purchases so I don't have any more cancelled for inactivity. I used one today in fact to buy a combo meal at Wendy's and that's all that's going on it this month!
I can't believe how much I've learned about credit scores, alot of it from these forums! I don't think the average consumer realizes how many ins and outs there are in the whole credit scoring process ~ its like you have to be a rocket scientist to figure it all out!
Thanks again for answering all my questions.
Thanks for the reply, and no I haven't bought the car yet ~ I ended up having some work done on my house ~ geeesh, I've spent about the same amount on the house remodel that I would have spent on a new automobile. I just didn't feel comfortable spending money on two big projects back to back. I didn't think that would be wise. I also felt that upgrading the house would be considered an investment as opposed to buying a car, which as everyone know, depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.
You asked how the FICO has been treating me ~ it kinda peaked in December, then took a nosedive, dropping 8 or so points and has slowly been coming back up and now has pretty much evened out. I'm not sure why it went down so much when I didn't miss any payments and didn't charge any more than normal. I guess only the FICO gods know for sure because I certainly don't understand the process!
Thanks again for helping me out with answers to all my questions!
Wow, thanks for the input. If I understand you correctly, the bank may not even really look at the actual history ~ just the score? That would certainly ease my mind, because as you said, the score is at a decent level, but the actual history stinks!