Isaac Hill wrote:sardia - Does the dealer have a prepayment penalty? Mine didn't. So, when I bought my most recent car, I took the $2k cash discount with dealer financing over 5 years. Then, I paid the can loan off in the next few months saving (almost) all the interest. I don't know how this affected my credit score, though.
That's weird, I thought it was an either or thing. You either get 0% financing, OR you get $2000 cashback. They really offered you both? How I think it affects your credit score is you take a hit now for the credit check + the reduced average age of accounts, but then you build the total accounts ever listed, so the credit score is higher then you started after 2 years.
Has anyone noticed that buying higher trims/options makes even the cheaper base cars equivalent in price to the higher based car model? I was expecting a car to be naturally cheaper than a SUV. Maybe it's only after incentives?