Guaranteed Car Loan Approval is a Big Fat Gigantic Lie!
Read this little bad boy all the way through and I’ll help you out if you’re looking for car finance. Let’s get something straight here, right now though… There is no such thing as ‘guaranteed car loan approval’.
Let me tell you a little story…
In 1998, I was standing in Jacksonville, FL on the showroom floor of a well-known dealership. An old man got dropped off at the car lot by a taxicab and walked in. He said, “I’m here to fill out a loan application to get approved for a car”. Odd, he didn’t care what car… he just wanted a credit app.
So, like a good car dealer I gave the man exactly what he wanted, a credit application. He sat down, filled it out and asked me to see what I could get him approved for. With the lenders that we had at the time, there was no hope for this guy. He was in the middle of a bankruptcy that hadn’t been discharged and he also put on the application that he was unemployed. I was thinking that this guy is either crazy or he’s got some sort of issue.
Either way, he was not getting approved for a $1000.00 car with $999.00 down.
I sat down and politely told him that due to his present bankruptcy and not having any income, I was sorry but there wasn’t anything that I could do for him. He asked me if I was sure and I said yes. He asked me again if I was 100% certain that I could not get him approved. Once again, I replied with certainty that no lender we had would approve him.
He smiled.
He then pulled out a crumpled up piece of newspaper with an advertisement for our dealership. The advertisement read in clear English, “Guaranteed Car Loan Approval or We’ll Give You $1000.00 Cash”.
That was one of the few moments that I considered changing careers. This guy obviously needed the money and he was right by any amount of common sense. The ad read in big bold letters. In small fine print at the bottom, it said, “see dealer for details”. The nice old man didn’t get a thousand dollars, but if it had been up to me, I think he deserved it. The finance manager simply told him that he could get approved if he put down 95% of the purchase price. Not a good feeling. I did pay for his taxi ride back home.
The point is, dealerships that advertise guaranteed car loan approval or guaranteed auto financing are not telling you the whole story. They’re just trying to get you through the doors so they can talk you into a cosigner or seeing if you have cash. If they get 10 people through the door with that type of advertising and one of them buys, then it was worth it. It’s all a numbers game to dealers.
So, if you have really bad credit and need auto financing, where can you get a real car loan?
There are a few websites that will search through a database of lenders to match your credit history with a lender that will approve you for a car loan with little to NO down payment. This is the closest thing that you will find to guaranteed car loans. If you’re in the process of bankruptcy, foreclosure or have no income – you will not get approved. Other than that, you’re in good shape.