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I was reading a basketball forum that I frequent, and it has an Off Topic section where people talk about all kinds of things. Today someone asked for advice regarding a car purchase. Here is what he wrote.
Needless to say that guy was grilled by other posters, even by the people who don't know much about finances.
Lately I've been really thinking about getting a new car. I'm looking at Nissan Xterras, particularly the 2005 models and above. I've always liked their looks and performance.
Right now I have a 2001 Acura Integra, which is all paid off. I finished paying it off in 2005. But I'm NOT interested in using it as a trade-in. I love the car. I want to keep it.
I want the Xterra as a weekend/"road trip" vehicle, and not as a daily commuter. My price range is at around $15,000. I've seen some 05s to 07s priced at this range with relatively low mileage, as far as I'm concerned. To me, anything less than 50,000 miles is considered low. Now here's the low down on what I can offer to these dealerships:
Down payment: $2,000.00
Length of financing: 60 months(5 years) and NOT more.
Steady job of almost 3 years. I make about $3,300.00/monthly after taxes. It's not much but I work very hard and my goal is to get a promotion by next year. I am certain that this will bump up my salary significantly.
What will definitely "GET ME" is: POOR credit rating of 600. I've been working on restoring my credit rating for the past year or so. Most of the negative marks I have were from several student credit cards that went into collections when I was in college. I was stupid, I know. I've paid off some, and have settled on the big one. To this day I still regret taking my credit for granted in the past.
Now, my questions are:
Will dealerships still finance me? If so, what am I looking at as far as INTEREST RATE is concerned? 21%? 22%?
Co-signers are out of the question. My girl has perfect credit and she's given me hints that she would co-sign for me but I do NOT want her to do that at all. EVER. Plus I know that MOST dealerships want co-signers to be BLOOD-related.
Right now I have a 2001 Acura Integra, which is all paid off. I finished paying it off in 2005. But I'm NOT interested in using it as a trade-in. I love the car. I want to keep it.
I want the Xterra as a weekend/"road trip" vehicle, and not as a daily commuter. My price range is at around $15,000. I've seen some 05s to 07s priced at this range with relatively low mileage, as far as I'm concerned. To me, anything less than 50,000 miles is considered low. Now here's the low down on what I can offer to these dealerships:
Down payment: $2,000.00
Length of financing: 60 months(5 years) and NOT more.
Steady job of almost 3 years. I make about $3,300.00/monthly after taxes. It's not much but I work very hard and my goal is to get a promotion by next year. I am certain that this will bump up my salary significantly.
What will definitely "GET ME" is: POOR credit rating of 600. I've been working on restoring my credit rating for the past year or so. Most of the negative marks I have were from several student credit cards that went into collections when I was in college. I was stupid, I know. I've paid off some, and have settled on the big one. To this day I still regret taking my credit for granted in the past.
Now, my questions are:
Will dealerships still finance me? If so, what am I looking at as far as INTEREST RATE is concerned? 21%? 22%?
Co-signers are out of the question. My girl has perfect credit and she's given me hints that she would co-sign for me but I do NOT want her to do that at all. EVER. Plus I know that MOST dealerships want co-signers to be BLOOD-related.
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