My FICO credit score today is 599 from Equafax, and 634 at Transunion. No late payments for the last year.

I want to put $10,000 down plus my trade-in for my 2000 Civic Si which would probably be $6-8k.

Would I be able to get a new IS350?

 

Sure why not. Someone will get you in. But i wouldnt doubt you will be at some high % rate. who knows how high tho. You ready for 22% APR? LOL

 

Yes. Just make sure you have no "high-impact" late payments. The 599 is kind of disconcerning though. Remember, when they run your credit the score the score the dealer gets is a car FICO, and it's lower.

 

yeah i agree, you can definitely get the car, but at what rate.....

599 is not a high score at all. imho being under 650 is kinda to your disadvantage already. so shop around for more rates i say, even from credit union maybe?

 

Sure you'll get it, but you're going to have to finance $20-27K at 20%+. That's a lot of wasted money. If you take a year to pay down some of your debt load (which I'm assuming you have with said score?) You're score will go up and you'll be able to get a more reasonable rade (and be able to disable VDIM with a button!)

 

Honestly, that is a really bad credit score. I am not sure you'll qualify with that. There are other factors such as income, debt ratio, and amount of revolving (credit card) debt that will come in to play. Debt ratio is not always a big deal with car purchases, but if the debt ratio is over 60% and you have a poor credit score (which you do), you may encounter some problems.

 

I have about 4 credit cards, and owe $110 on one. I also have a student loan that I still owe about $500 on. That's everything I owe. I don't plan on getting a car until September. In two months, I'll have my student loan either paid off, or close to paid off, and nothing owed on my credit cards.

Would it be harder or easier to go through a credit union?

 

I did not know there was a seperate CAR FICO score...interesting. I got 6.8% the other day which was supposed to be good considering the current interest rates for car loans these days.

 

If you have a GREAT income then maybe it makes sense, but otherwise, don't do it - too much debt weighing you down, plus INSURANCE . Won't an IS250 do it?

 

credit union sometimes has better rates, it's worth trying.

what payments do you have besides cc and loan? your score looks pertty low. when you pay off cc and loan your score will rise a bit, but you should have constant payment like utilies or such, that helps on credit score too.

and paul has great point as well. insurance is not cheap on the car, you need to factor that in. payments will not be small, like 500 bucks a month at least. would you be able to afford that? i don't know how the 500 bucks studen loan sound to you?

 

I agree with Paul. It's not just a matter of buying the car either. How does your driving record look? Do you have a lot of tickets...especially speeding tickers ? If so, getting insurance for an IS350 might be a problem. It is considered a sporty car for insurance purposes and has a pretty healthy power-to-weight ratio, which generally works against keeping rates down.

 

I think the consensus here is "don't do it!!"

 

I think you need to be careful. If I were you, I'd focus on building better credit for a year or so before making a major purchase like this.

$20,000 financed for 5 years (60 months) at 20% interest = $11,792.70 paid in interest

That's an incredible amount of money to throw away. What's wrong with your current vehicle? I assume it's paid for. Any mechanical problems? If you absolutely cannot go without a new car - maybe look at the TL or the IS250 (closer to $30,000 than 40) - that will cut the amount you finance down about half and also halve the interest you'd pay on the borrowed amount.

M.

 

It all depends on how bad you want it (and your commitment).
If you can make the payments and lender sees that you are able to make the payments then you'll get it. For what % of interest is totally up to the lender (you'll have to shop around between the banks and credit union). The credit union seems to be a bit lower on interest rates.

Good luck and keep your chins up. I believe you still have time to make your score go up by looking in to your credit file and clean it up until september (get rid of any disputes and such).

 

LFS/TMCC usually pulls BEACON AUTO from Equifax. Score range is same as a FICO. It's heavily biased against people who have the following:

1. Minimum MRC from other debt loads.
2. Have missed payments in the past or have had debt collections.

Cheers,
Kermee