you'd be surprised... the score you see and the score the dealer sends to the bank are usually way different.

we as consumers usually go by our Highest scores

lenders usually go for the medium-low score from multiple credit reporting bureaus

Dealers of course will try to send the lowest possible score to the lender because they get a bonus for every percentage point that they can tack onto your loan

for example, my High according to Experian is 750+
TRW says I have 730+
but jackball Equifax is reporting that I have 680

Guess which Score the dealer sent to their Lender?

Too bad for him, I already had my own financing in my pocket and just wanted to find out if they can get a better loan.

 

The best experiences I've had with financing a vehicle has been getting preapproved for a loan through a credit unit and then shopping for a vehicle. The credit unions offer very competive rates and you learn in advance how large of a loan you quaulify for before heading to the dealership. I financed both my tc and 350z this way at a rate of 3.4% APR.

In my past experiences the financing piece at the dealership was the most painful part of the car buying experience. Financing with somebody not affiliated with the dealership eliminates that painful piece and keeps you from making bad choices based on your excitement of the prospect of owning a new car.

 

CU's aren't always the best. Granted they are for lots of people. But I got a better rate with TMCC then with the CU I work for! And my payments were alot less then what my CU was telling me my payments would be.

But I have seen some CU's with some crazy low rates for new cars.

 

Agreed. I had 3 different credit unions I was a member when I was looking to buy the tc and 1 of the 3 was much higher then the rates currently offered through the dealer. My Best advice is to know what's on your credit report and your credit score and doing your homework before rushing out to buy a car. I find that the dealers will be less likely to try and pull the wool over your eyes if you've done your homework.

 

i got 4.5% my score was 694 at the time. now it's like 720+ shop around

 

The XA we got it at 4.25% with Toyota Financing, My truck though I have it at 0.0% through GMAC, but remember is an american car not import. You will never get a car at 0.0% unless................................................. you pay cash...

 

New car loan rates are high now. I am tier 1 and was able to get a very slightly lower rate from Capital One. The $400 college rebate I get from Scion offsets it so for me it was worth going with Scion Credit.

Those of you saying your friend or whatever got 0% or 1% rates -- well those are promotional offers done by the individual companies, not normal rates. Scion isn't about to do anything like that.

 

Finally someone here really knows what they are talking about when it comes to financing. The fact of the matter is that rates are high right now, thank Alan Greenspan not TMCC. I read on here that "thats where the dealerships make their money on Scion." This could not be any further from the truth. The dealership makes a whopping $250 on anyone who finances with Toyota. The dealership will not make any more or any less than that from Toyota Motor Credit. In fact most finance guys at the dealership I work for run like hell when they see a Scion deal. You can get a better financing deal through some outside lenders like cap one and such but don't expect those rates to be substantially lower, they also must base their rates of the Government. In fact before I worked for Toyota I worked for Wells Fargo and you know how many new car loans I did? Zero! The dealerships rates were always lower. In the normal car world the finance department will raise the intrest rate 3 percent (the maximum the dealer can legal raise it) and keeps the 3% as profit. This is of course against pure price so it shouldn't happen with scion. With Scion we give the customer the Buy rate which is the rate at which TMCC charges to the dealer. In other words its the "best rate" you will qualify for. I hope this kind of explains the way financing with Toyota works.

 

that is horrible fincaing..........i got 3.2% from my credit union......

 

Im not sure anymore what my score is but I got 4.25% from Toyota Credit. Its far better than the 5.75% I could get from my bank.

 

Try toyota financing i got 3.9%