Same experience, but there’s a lot of social pressure (which I’ll never understand, as an only child) to put ‘family’ ahead of your own interests.
Yup he lost out on all the origination costs as well as the commission because she pulled the ‘cancel right before signing trick’ and he made the loan no cost. (But it cost him, that’s for sure)
It’s a pretty dick move to do that in normal business, but to do it to a friend…yikes
BTW I’m friends with her as well but after that, I have a ‘Do not Engage personally’ note in my head with her.
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Wow. She needs to sell it. Like, NOW.
Will she want to get rid of the X2 is you tell her it’s basically a tarted-up Mini?
It’s already out of your hands b/c she’s the one who made these decisions. You are a good friend to try to help her out as much as you have.
Not that it matters, but I kind of wonder how much $ she put down on that Civic…
not that long ago I was 22 yo and had a 700 score and signed for a jetta with dealer financing at 14% apr… Only a couple years ago I signed for a demo 330 at 25+% off MSRP, and still didn’t qualify for Tier 1 with BMWFS, with a 760+. Credit score really doesn’t mean much
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Try your best to give best advice but leave it up to them to take it or leave it. Never get too involved. Never do the work for them.
obviously plenty of other factors, like thin file, etc. That said, either way something is not adding up about the friend’s credit and it doesn’t seem to indicate that person will easily get a low interest loan to refi the car. Though at 16%, there’s plenty of room for improvement.
I am genuinely surprised that folks here are having a hard time believing that she got 16% with good credit score. In the world of used cars we see it all the time, especially whenever there is negative equity involved. I’m pretty sure that OP’s friend didn’t put much or any money down which makes a big difference as-well. The lender is financing way more than what the car is worth.
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Credit score is important, but it isn’t the only factor to consider.
I’ve never had anything with anywhere near a 14% rate, other than credit cards (and they don’t see a damn penny of interest paid).
Did they make payments or did they get repod lol?
I don’t know why people are saying credit score doesn’t matter. I have bought and leased cars with a little over 790 score throughout with about 50-60 credit card accounts(reported to personal), always got Tier 1 regardless of lender.
Either way though it’s insane that anyone would voluntarily sign up to pay 16% interest on something like this. A relatively lavish expenditure. A used luxury CUV rolling negative equity as a second car…
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16% is on the lower side if we are talking about insane stuff. 25-30% is quite common, it all starts with a dream of owning {insert a luxury brand}.
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My friends dad wanted a new Rav, i told him lmk what he wants and I’ll find it. He knows I get new cars every week so would make sense that I know what I’m doing but fast forward 3 weeks and i see a new Rav in his driveway. Ask him whats the deal and he paid $4k markup on an incoming unit plus $4-5k lifetime warranty. He he’s all in at 51k on xle premium $38k sticker. He went on saying the market is crazy so markup is justified blah blah blah like I couldn’t have saved him from all that 
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I have never paid higher than a 4.5% APR on an auto loan and qualified for a 2.2 by the time I was 22 with no co-signer. I never put money down and most of my trades had negative equity…
I assure you, I did not know or understand how car loans really worked until only a few years ago as well and by then I had bought and traded a dozen cars.
I would never accept anything near sub-prime, let alone a 16% interest rate. It was always relatively easy for me to shop around and get good rates with negative equity and average credit so I do kind of find it hard to believe people with good credit getting 16 or 13% rates.
Otherwise it just sounds like they’re getting fleeced by the dealers.
I once went with my best friend to buy a G37 coupe from Infiniti dealership. Car cost 27k at the time and he was putting down 14k. He was about 24. Dealer came back with a rate of 9% at the lowest and would not budge. We later found out he was approved by the dealer bank for about 4.3%. Dealer said 9 was the lowest the bank would go which was obviously a lie.
He did not buy the car from them.
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I have a family member who from time to time pretends to want help and advice, but what he really wants is for me to feel bad and lend him some money he won’t repay.
I also have a friend who says she wants help, but won’t implement any of the suggestions.
Don’t misunderstand, if either of them needed a kidney I’d be the first to consider it, but I’ve stopped providing all but the most cursory responses to financial or car-shopping questions with these two.
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The real answer no one wants to give is gap insurance and parking in the lowest-lying area in the county and waiting nature out.
You can’t just buy GAP in the middle of the loan term.
Also, i don’t think anyone wants to suggest insurance fraud or an attempt at it.
2 things. 1 this is not “fraud” this happens all the time. Driving it into a river or lighting it on fire is fraud.
2 all major insurance carriers will allow gap at any time unless its a lease. I sold insurance for more than 20 years. In their eyes any monthly fee is a positive on the risk reward. But if you file a claim a week later I am sure you will have issues.
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Whatever advice your friend needed, they’ve gotten and they can take it or leave it. 64 posts later it’s been so beaten to death the only new answers coming out are the ethically dubious kind.