Auto Loans

[drroberto]

Any advice on auto loans??

I am finishing residency in June and would like to dump my old grand am for a 3 series. I have good credit score and $30,000 school loans. I have been looking around especially on www.bankrate.com and E Loan seems to have the best interest rates around. Anyone tried their loans?

Any advice is much appreciated including experience on other auto loans.

Thanks.
Dr. Roberto Carlos

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[bkpa2med]

Sometimes the dealer's themselves offer really good rates on their vehicles. I would check them out first, like their website and such, and then go to bankrate if their rates aren't that great.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Agree with the last poster. Find the best deal from your bank(s)/credit union and get pre-approved. That way, when you go shopping for the car, financing will NOT be a negotiated issue. Bargain with the dealer to get the price down as much as possible, and THEN, after you have finalized the price, see if the dealer can beat your financing (in my recent experience, they always have.)

Be wary of junk fees that they add on like life insurance for the loans, etc. Check the numbers on your sales contract closely and understand every line. Every time I have tried to buy a car recently, the dealer has tried to slip something by me (one time it was life insurance on the loan, another time it was an extra charge for some anti-theft/car recovery system that they said was automatically activated because everbody wants it that way)

But I am straying off of your original topic. Happy car shopping/buying!

 

[etf]

i'd probably start saving a little and maybe pay down some debt first, but i can tell you from experience that the bmw 3 is probably the best car under 75k.

 

[MedicFL]

Forget the 3 series save up for the M3 when it comes out again next year with the V8...

 

[acrunchyfrog]

Why not just bite the bullet, save up some cash after you leave residency, and buy the car you want with cash? There's no interest charges, and there's no monthy payment sucking you dry.

Even the 0% car loans are a raw deal, due to the depreciation of the value of the vehicle. New cars lose something like 40% of their value in the first couple of years. That's a really crappy use of that money. How about buying a really nice used two year old car that still looks hot, and you save yourself a nice chunk of change, versus having a car worth less than what you still owe.

my Finance counselor recommends not having more than half of your yearly income tied up in cars or things that go down in value.

I'd wait until you're making bank, have all your loans (school and otherwise) paid off, and have some spare cash in savings aside from what you plan on spending for the car.