Our months of talk & review my gf is finally ready to get her mini. Only problem is the interest! We went & test drove (again) and shes finally set on the cooper. But the pricing we got seems ultra high for this car price. I was not sure if anyone has had any luck getting the interest to be lower or if anyone has any suggestions?

We even went through every car site the other day to see if there was anything else that she could get instead of a mini... I kept getting emphatic no's (she did give a mustang a little credit but that was about it)... all I keep hearing is MINI MINI MINI.

The cooper that we priced out is $21,535. To buy the car for 60 months it is $468/month & 72 months is $403. She is going to put money down but for whatever reason the dealer quoted it with 0 down. So that is the numbers I posted above.

For mini select it is $362/48 months & then $12,275 to buy after the 48 months.

Any help that anyone could give would be very helpful. This is all for the 2008 Mini Cooper.

 

I probably forgot one of the most important parts. We got this pricing in NJ, but may also look for pricing in PA.

 

what you need to do, is find what the intrest rate is they are giving you . the montly payment has nothing to do with what car you are gonna buy, but how much the bank or finance company (your dealership is working with) is willing to give you. sounds like you are about to pay 11% on the loan. either she has really bad credit or you need to shop around different banks. I seen banks give as low as 5.0% for people with great credit. I would definately do some research on rates if i were you. 11% is excessive, unless your gf is a deadbeat, or is so young she has no credit history.

 

Whenever I get to the point of working out financing my next step in the process is
http://www.bankrate.com/


Click on Auto and you'll be able to see what interest rates are across the country. Click on Calculator and you can calculate your payments based upon cost of car, down payment, term of loan, apr, etc.

Its a great site and will arm you to understand exactly what you can expect per month.

After reviewing rates and figuring out what you expect to pay per month you should ask the finance person at the dealership to explain their numbers. It should be obvious the difference if they are higher. Like another poster said it could simply be your credit score puts you at a high interest rate.

Also you mentioned you looked in NJ. I think, please someone else confirm, your financing options are based on where you live and not where you purchase the car? This means that a dealership in PA won't be able to change your financing options but may be able to help with the price of the car.

Good luck. I don't think interest rates on auto loans are very good right now.

 

I got a three year loan at 3.25% from Navy Federal Credit Union earlier this yeear. Could have paid cash, but at that rate there is no point in it.

 

bad link

 

I did MINI Select with MSRP $24,600! I put 3 grand down and my payment for 36 months is $371. I owe $16,000 at the end of 36 months, which is a little high only because this is my first loan/car payment. Credit was good but I had light credit, this is the reason why I owe a little more than usual at the end of my first set of payments.

 

thanks, corrected, http://www.bankrate.com/

 

they definitely didnt even take into account any of her personal information. i think he said it was 8% interest but it seemed very high to me. and these numbers are even after i got a bmw 335 from them. i figured they would work in some kind of help since im a return customer. apparently not. i did not realize i could use another bank besides the one mini offered, so i will definitely look into that. thanks for the help so far. she definitely has at the very least good credit though.

 

You can get 6.25% APY from Commerce Bank for a new car.

 

the bankrate.com link helps a lot. looks like i can lower the monthly by almost $100 per month for the 60 month term. Can I go in there & say I would like to use so & so bank instead for the loan? I am not exactly sure what her credit is but she definitely does not have bad credit... shes at the very least 700+.

 

Yes you can do exactly that. Tell them you have a bank that you'd like to use. They'll most likely ask you the rate to see if they can beat that. If they can't and you decide to go with the bank, then the bank just gives you a check for the full amount made out to the dealer.

 

You can use whoever you want to for the loan, and have all of your financing arranged before you even go into the dealership.

Be aware that if you're ordering your new car, rather than buying "off the lot", that may throw a little wrinkle into things. When I went to Navy Federal, they gave me a check good for up to $XX,000 dollars, that I could use at any dealer, for any car. The problem is, the check was only good for 60 days. My MINI was delayed in shipment, so I had to go back to NFCU and get another check before I took delivery of my car. The rates had changed slightly since I got the first check, so the interest rate ended up being 0.1% higher.

That's pretty typical though - if you get a pre-approved draft from your bank or credit union, the interest rate you end up paying is usually whatever the interest rate is on the day you actually *use* the check, not what it is on the day you *receive* the check from your bank/credit union.

 

Scott thats good info as well. Thanks for the input I will certainly keep that in mind as well.

My only question about the bank rate site is that it does not show down payment. So basically if we get a loan for $21,535... I could then give a $2,000 down payment to bank & then my monthly payments would be adjusted from there correct?

 

No - generally, the bank/credit union gives you an upper limit on the amount they'll loan you. If you're making a down payment (which you'll give to the dealer), you'll be using less of the bank's money, and so your monthly payment will be lower.

Let's say that you get a draft from your credit union for up to $30,000, at a certain interest rate. If you use the whole $30,000, your payments will be X per month. If instead, you give $5000 to the dealer and only use $25,000 of the bank's money, your payments will automatically be less.

Basically, if you go with a pre-approved bank/credit union draft, they don't calculate your actual monthly payment until you've used the check and the dealer has presented it to the bank/credit union for payment. Then, the bank looks to see how much of your pre-approved limit you actually used, and they base your monthly payment on that amount.

If you look at the bank/credit union loan paperwork though, it will give you a breakdown like "Your monthly payment will be $xx.xx for every $1,000 borrowed". That will let you figure out in advance how much your monthly payment will be depending on how much of "the bank's money" you use.

 

The "loan amount" is the amount you need to borrow. So, if you have a down payment just subtract that from the total price of the car (car, tax, title, doc fee, etc.) and this number is the loan amount. Its this number you can put into bankrate.

You write a check to the dealer for your down payment and use the bank loan to pay the difference.

 

If you can, try to pay the taxes, title, license, etc. separately, up front. No reason to pay interest on them. Also, check the paperwork to make sure they're not adding a ridiculous amount for the paperwork. Some dealers try to pad their profit with $600 document fees, etc.

A credit union would probably be your best bet if you have an established relationship with one.

It is possible that the prime rate will be lowered in the near future because of the increasing chance of a recession, so keep that in mind--bank rates may fall a bit.

 

Also might look at USAA if that is an option for you. They were considerably lower than even my local credit union rates.

 

sorry see post below

 

don't forget sales tax and registration if they are part of your purchase. wher I live sales tax and registration could add between 2500 to 3500 on a mini depending on the cost of the car. Maybe the dealer quote added in these type of costs to your total price. ???

Example Car $22,500
Tax $2,000
license $ 500
Total $25,00

Down Payment $3,000

Loan Amount $22,000

so...

$22,000 for 60 months at 7% interest will be 435.00 a month

Down Payment $ 3,000
Total of Payments $26,137
Total cost of car $29,137
Total Interest $ 4,137

It costs money to borrow money.

chuck

 

Boy, copshopcoupe, you live in an expensive state! I can't believe what you pay in TTL--where are you?

Don't give me a ticket...

 

Those were just estimates but not all that far off. Tax rate here is 8.5% on a car and registration is horrible, not really sure how they calculate it. Those numbers were a little high but I wanted to make my point about the cost of borrowing money.
Chuck

 

thanks for all the great info everyone... is DSC a must have? obviously its more fun to turn it off, but for driving purposes such as rain, snow, etc should DSC be a must have?

 

I think so. Also, LSD and Xenons. Just my opinion, but that's what I ordered, and I'm very happy with these options. I personally think all three are safety items. I might add that when you sell your car down the line, these options will be desired--in fact, DSC (or systems like it) will be required in a few years.

 

Is the tax rate different for a car?

In California they base it on your tax rate for the city you live in. Even though my dealer is in an area that is 8.5% (might have been 8.75%), where I live the sales tax rate is 7.25%, so I only paid that in sales tax. The dealership also ended up sending me about $30 back for over charging on the DMV fee.