scrubbedexpat099

A friend bought some excavating equipment, he was going to pay cash but the 0% would be the same so financed it.

Harveyspecter

Interesting, on new AND used or just new? I always thought credit scores had to be above 750 at least to be considered very good. I think my FIL has a score of 804.

It's partially irrelevant anyway, the specialist Mustang I want is not being offered at 0% finance like the base GT is. Hell they don't even offer X Plan on it!

civilservant

I have never seen 0% on a used vehicle personally, doesn't mean you can't get it though.

BenK91

I can't say I've ever seen 0% on used.

I feel like every now and then they throw the term 0% around on ex-lease vehicles, but not explicitly 'used' ones as such.

Steerpike

I just looked at my FICO and it's 824. Is that good enough for 0% ? Since I'm semi-retired there seems little point financing anything these days! I feel pretty certain that if you finance at zero down, you are severely limiting your ability to negotiate on the purchase price...

chawkins99

Nail down the purchase price before even discussing financing.

Even if they won't do 0%, you'll usually get money off for financing with them. So, sign up for the financing to get the discount and pay it off before the first payment is due.

Steerpike

ah, so you are saying they WANT you to finance. OK, I guess that makes sense. Since I would pay it off right away anyway, it wouldn't matter what the interest rate was!

Trouble is I tend to buy used. I can only justify 'new' when there are new features that are only available on new vehicles. I'm so disgusted with built-in navigation, and so enamored with google assistant ("OK, Google") that I can't see myself wanting a new car anytime soon. I drove a 2019 Lexus RX450h today, with a beautiful 12" display, but the actual user interface SUCKED and was nowhere near as good as my Samsung phone. And, it didn't have Android Auto or Apple Carplay - on a $50k+ car! Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are perhaps the only two things I'd spring for. My current 2013 Lexus has the wonderful "BSM" (blind-spot-monitoring) and that's pretty much the best 'new' safety feature of late ... although I have to admit, 'lane keep' might not be bad on long, boring freeway rides where there's a risk of nodding off.

Mr Weeze

100% do this. You may also find they will then knock money off if you take the low APR finance, that you can pay off in full after 3 months. The money knocked off far outweights the interest from 3 months of finance - I've had that happen before too.

civilservant

Despite the fact that I think car loans are stupidity writ large, in the case of 0% it may be worth doing if they then move on the purchase price. Dealers get money on the back end from financing incentives (often more than they make on the car) so they might be more inclined to work on the purchase price.

Harveyspecter

Ok, so the message I'm getting here is it is better to get the car on finance because you can negotiate a better price/deal, then just pay it off in full at the first installment. I get that. However my question which I have asked before is, is it worth the resultant affect on your credit score? Say a credit check pulls at least 5 points from your score. My experience thus far is that paying a debt back in full the following month does NOT even recover those lost 5 points, let alone boost them.

So is it worth it? Or am I worrying about credit score too much?

SpoogleDrummer

Toyota and Lexus seem to be way behind when it comes to the software they use in their entertainment systems, Entune is a load of old garbage. It does look as though they're finally catching on and giving Android Auto and Carplay a chance this year though so you would have to buy new if you wanted it.

civilservant

You're worrying too much. The negative affect of the inquiry and new account will be more than offset in the longer term by the reporting of the account in good standing. Credit scores have to be thought of in the years terms, rather than obsessing over them month to month.

Steerpike

I'm getting a mixed message from folks here. One is saying, nail down the purchase price first, then talk financing, but if using the dealer's financing will help with the pricing, then you want to discuss financing before nailing down final price.

Be aware that many loans have pre-payment penalties so you'd need to look into what the penalty is, and how long you need to keep the loan before the penalty period runs out.

I'm not sure how transparent credit score evaluation is; I've heard many stories about what's good and what's bad for your score. I paid off my mortgage last year and I dropped from, say, 840 to 820 ... not that I cared much, but I was told I should run up a few credit card bills (don't pay them off for a few months) to get my score back. One thing I haven't done is tell anyone officially that I'm no longer earning big bucks. When I was working full-time I was making 'good money'. I've since gone over to part-time/semi-retirement but I haven't publicized that to the credit card companies. I remember being asked to 'confirm' some numbers and I just clicked through leaving the 'big numbers' in place. I'm assuming this isn't 'fraud' ... I presume the rating agencies don't have access to tax returns, so they have no way of knowing what my income is?

Mr Weeze

Steerpike

I've always focused on 'mechanical reliability' so Honda and Toyota have always been my choices. But my friend who is in the market now is a realtor and she spends a LOT of time on the phone in the car. Of course, 'abstinence' from phone use is the safest policy, but that's like preaching abstinence from sex to teenagers ... ain't gonna happen. So she's looking for a car with the best phone support. Rather than pick any one 'proprietary' solution, my thinking is, go with Apple Carplay (since she's an iPhone person, unlike me the Android guy!) since Carplay is essentially universal across cars (that is - if they have it at all, it's going to be the same across all vendors), AND - perhaps more significant - carplay will naturally evolve and get upgraded while proprietary solutions tend to get frozen in time at the time of purchase (Lexus, for example, aren't releasing the new features that include carplay to existing models due to their OS not being compatible).

Having said that though, I did read that Nuance / Dragon (of 'naturally speaking' fame) are now pushing their product to car makers, and they are providing the brains behind some high-end BMW and Mercedes models. Nuance do a great job at natural language support, so that may be worth considering, but at least for now I don't think they are showing up in any models on my friend's radar. She's asking me to go look at an Audi SUV today ... Looks like the Audi Q7 has a great ride and great technology but ... gets dinged big-time on reliability.