Trying to Help a Friend

"Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve)
06/27/2017 at 10:33 • Filed to: don't just don't

He insists on going to DriveTime to buy a car because they’ll approve him. his credit score is in the 540s and his Saturn Vue just shit the bed.

I told him to head over to a real dealer and sent him some old Lehto’s Law and Tom McParland columns about buy-here-pay-here. Hopefully he’ll listen.

DISCUSSION (16)

Chariotoflove > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 10:39

This could be entertaining. Report back.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 10:43

There’s a pretty legit corner dealer near me that’s really jalop for the price. They had an isuzu vehicross, an FJ cruiser, and a disco for okay prices (and a subaru impreza non-WRX with a 555 inspired wrap)....but their “budget line” had an early 2000s civic coupe with a stick, a sentra SE-R, and a mini cooper S (among others). All were under 5k. And they’d do financing with the local credit unions.

nermal > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 10:45

Does your friend plan on actually paying for the new car?

Getting a score that low requires commitment to borrowing $$$ and not paying it back. Getting a car loan will be doable, but expensive from an interest rate perspective.

Tekamul > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 10:45

his credit score is in the 540s

He is not left with a lot of options.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > nermal
06/27/2017 at 10:47

Or, extreme overutilization of credit with short history. Plus a repo about 2 years ago.

nermal > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 10:48

That too. The repo doesn’t help.

X37.9XXS > Chariotoflove
06/27/2017 at 10:56

Seconded

Let me know the interest rate?

Nothing > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 11:03

When I bought the FoST, there was a little piece of paper buried in the stack of papers to sign. That paper said if they couldn’t secure “regular” financing, you agreed to a dealer loan with 29.99% interest. (This was a regular old Ford dealer). Incredulous, I asked if that ever happened, and the F&I guy said nearly half of the people that went through there ended up with the 30% loan. People are crazy.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 11:06

Honestly I’d try CarMax 1st they work with a lot lenders. Santander will loan to just about anyone

OPPOsaurus WRX > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 12:07

540 score? Saturn Vue? sounds like someone has a habit of making bad decisions.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > OPPOsaurus WRX
06/27/2017 at 12:10

He grew up poor and just now has a job that makes enough to take care of himself. He’s 35. Although in a way he can’t be blamed for the bad decisions. He never had great family examples, either.

Nibbles > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 12:34

I highly doubt any “real dealer” is going to write him any sort of loan with a 540 score. If anything, they’ll send him over to their last-chance lot which is no different from your local BHPH, except that it’s owned by the same asshole that owns the franchise dealership. DriveTime etc are a bit different than your standard BHPH shops. At least they are a national company with some sort of reasonable reputation.

Sucks to be in his position - I was there a few years ago and crawled back out by buying cash cars - but if he has to finance, there’s plenty worse places than DriveTime

Nibbles > Nothing
06/27/2017 at 12:38

Good lord

I just looked it up, Colorado allows for 45% maximum interest.

Forty-five god damned percents.

Nothing > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 12:54

Ugh, that’s a really recent repo, his score will be hosed for a while. Has he started working on his credit? Dispute everything on all the reports using the free reports (annualcreditreport.com). Might get lucky with some things falling off when a creditor doesn’t respond.

Azrek > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
06/27/2017 at 13:30

Ahh man. I had to do this with a friend as well like 7 years ago. His credit was a wreck. So we went to a Buy here Finance here spot. We found a Pontiac GranAm that was nice.

During discussion process, I noticed someone went over to my car (A 2001 Audi S4) and started writing. I walked over there and asked WTF.

Apparently, they wanted to see what kind of car the client arrived in. Umm...what? My car has nothing to do with my friend getting a car. That is him as a fully functional adult. His truck blew a head gasket and couldn’t drive there on his own.

So I argued with the guy, but he apparently already got the information and they jacked his rate pretty high. I wasn’t in the room during the handshakes, but I was concerned they jacked the rates because his friend (me) had a decent car.

He later blew a fuel pump, his alternator died and then his tail light went out and he was never around for me to replace it for him. This tail light later led to a DUI. His car was Repo’d shortly after the DUI and he was forced to ride with me to work every day for about 6 months.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Nibbles
06/27/2017 at 14:26

Here in the Carolinas it’s not that difficult to get written with a low score. He’ll be paying 15% or more anyway, but I haven’t heard from him or his brother today.