Buying a Car After Bankruptcy
Buying Your Dream Vehicle
In today’s society, it’s essential that you have reliable transportation. You must get to work, stores, schools, soccer practice and baseball games. Of course, you could rely on public transportation or friends and family. But, life is really much easier if you have your own transportation.
However, you may find it more difficult to purchase and finance a vehicle after your bankruptcy. You may find that some lenders will be reluctant to finance a vehicle, and others will provide financing, but at higher interest rates and with less generous terms. As a result, many people just give up and pay cash for inexpensive vehicles.
But, you DON’T need to do this. There are many ways to purchase and finance a vehicle after bankruptcy. And, yes, you MAY pay a higher interest rate than people with better credit. But, we have had clients who were able to obtain zero percent financing shortly after their bankruptcy was discharged. So, it all depends.
We’ll talk about different ways that you can purchase and finance your dream vehicle. But, to be a smart consumer, there are two things that you should do before you ever get near an automobile dealership. First, you should do your homework on the automobile that you’re interested in purchasing. Check its reliability and resale value. Then, investigate the “real” cost of the vehicle to the lender. With this information, you can negotiate the very best price for the automobile.
Second, you should always try to get pre-approved for a loan – BEFORE you walk into the dealership. By doing this, you can negotiate on the purchase price and financing terms from a position of strength.
Therefore, in this chapter, we’ll look at the best ways for you to investigate your dream car – before you get to the dealership. Then, we’ll look at the various financing sources for your dream car, starting with two financing sources that will provide you with a pre-approved loan. Then, we’ll talk about ways to receive automobile financing from the dealership. By the time we’re through, you should be on the road again!
Investigating Your Dream Vehicle
It’s great to drive into a dealership and take a car for a spin. You soak up that new car smell and feel really good about the way you look as you drive down the road.
But, before you know it, you may be driving out of that dealership in that dream car – for good. It’s yours to keep and pay for. But, did you really get a good deal? Could you have paid less for the car? Was there a better car for your needs?
Unfortunately, if you don’t do your homework up-front, you’ll never know the answer to these basic questions. And, in today’s modern world, it only takes a few strokes on your computer to find out everything that you need to know about your next dream car. So, why not take a few minutes and get the very best deal on your new dream car.
Reliability and Pricing Information
The two things that you must discover about any new vehicle are its reliability and pricing information. Of course, wanting to know about the reliability of a vehicle speaks for itself. You don’t want to buy a vehicle that’s going to be in the shop all of the time. Some vehicles are consistently reliable, and others are consistently unreliable. Don’t you want to discover which group your dream vehicle fall into?
There are two things that you should investigate about the vehicle’s pricing. The first is how well it retains its value. You probably should steer clear of vehicles that quickly depreciate in value.
In addition, you want to make sure that you get the very best deal for your vehicle. Although some dealerships have moved towards “no haggling” pricing, most still follow the time-honored tradition of battling you for the ultimate sales price.
Unless you know how much the dealership actually paid for the vehicle, you don’t have any way of knowing how hard to negotiate for a particular price. Maybe you’re trying to get the dealer down to a price that they can’t possibly offer. Or maybe you’re not, and they just want you to think that they can’t go any lower. You’ll never know unless you have the “true” pricing information on the vehicle.
The very best place to get all of this information in one place is Consumer Reports. In addition to providing general pricing information and extensive reliability estimates, Consumer Reports offers services that give you VERY specific pricing information for new and used vehicles. With one of these reports in your hands, you can choose the very best vehicle for you, and command the very best price for that vehicle.
To investigate the reliability and pricing information for a new or used car, or to order a very detailed for a new or used vehicle, visit their web site at www.consumerreports.org.
In addition, to Consumer Reports, you can also get very good pricing information and negotiating advice for new vehicles from www.FightingChance.com.
Once you’ve selected your dream car, you can also insure that you receive the very best price for that vehicle by receiving quotes from any of several on-line automobile sellers. You can check with any of these sources for new car quotes:
Cars.com www.cars.com
Invoice Dealers www.invoicedealers.com
CarsDirect www.carsdirect.com
Yahoo! Autos http://autos.yahoo.com
Autoweb www.autoweb.com
Autos.com www.autos.com
Edmunds.com www.edmunds.com
Car.com www.car.com
Once you have an idea of the real cost of your dream vehicle, it’s time to find out what type of loan you’re qualified to receive. In the next section, we’ll look at two different sources that will allow you to get pre-approved for a loan before you even go to the dealership. That way, you’ll already know if you can truly afford the vehicle, and you’ll know the minimum loan terms that you’ll accept from the dealership’s financing department. So, let’s take a look at two ways you can get pre-approved for automobile financing.
Monica Centeno Law
Suite #204 720 S 4th St,
Las Vegas, NV 89101
702-966-0688
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