More Subaru's found

[Bradley Walker]

Earlier today I revisited the repo show and found many many more subaru's
available. Everything from the Outback Ltd Ed to the LL Beans to the
forresters and standard legacy's. What attracted my attention was a 2002
Forrest green/titatium color Outback 5 spd manual. The asking price was
$19,000, but they were handing out $4,000 coupons. The tenative trade in
value of my 93 explorer is $2000 bringing the cost down to around $13,000.
I'm willing to drop around $2,000 downpayment in cash hopefully lowering it
to around $11,000. Alot of that is dependent on how much the actual trade
in value is, but thats what things are shaping up to be. The kellybluebook
trade in value shows to be $14,125, and the retail price shows to be
$18,640.

The car has excellent outerbody condition and has 43,545 miles on it. How
does that sound for a possible purchase?

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

Trade-in value on that vehicle (which is almost identical to mine except
color) is around $12,000. So you are potentially overpaying by about
$3k. Unless you are getting a kick-ass warranty to go with it, I would
look elsewhere. Also, people who let their vehicles get repoed are not
usually the demographic that takes outstanding care of their vehicles.

-Kurt

 

[b. w.]

why does the blue book value show $14k as trade in then?

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

Then you must be looking at a different resource or entering different
variables.

http://autos.msn.com/kbb/trim.aspx?type=tradein&tid=21872&zip=48017

-Kurt

 

[Jakey]

Because Kelly Blue Book is a garbage source that inflates transaction values
so the dealers can say "thousands bellow Kelly Blue Book..."
Use the NADA book which reflects more realistic prices. It is at most
libraries in the reference room. You can also go to NADA.com. They will let
you price one vehicle for free. Also, try edmunds.com; a very consumer
friendly site.

 

[Bradley Walker]

I just wanted to stop back in breifly to mention that after negotiating I
found out that the 2002 Standard outback was selling for $22,000 because
that is what was left to the bank after the repo from the orginial customer.
The bank was offering $4000 coupons and I also was able to leverage $2000
trade in on my current vehicle bringing the price down to $16,000 and after
much wrangling the price got to $13,000 before a $1500 downpayment because
they would much rather sell the vehicle at a low cost than transport it to
the next repo location. Anyway I came *THIS* close to getting it until
several shocking mistakes on my credit report caused them reason to jack
interest rates way high so I decided $400/mon payments was NOT worth it when
moments earlier payments would have been $225/mon. I walked out.

Back to more hunting and getting the credit report fixed of several
inaccuracies.

 

[Bonehenge]

Because Kelly Blue Book is a garbage source that inflates transaction values
so the dealers can say "thousands bellow Kelly Blue Book..."
Use the NADA book which reflects more realistic prices. It is at most
libraries in the reference room. You can also go to NADA.com. They will let
you price one vehicle for free. Also, try edmunds.com; a very consumer
friendly site.

The last new vehicle I priced had KBB well below Edmunds, both of
which were well below Intellichoice.

Check them all.

Barry

 

[Dom]

Bradley,

FYI - this is "one tactic" dealers will try to get you to pay more for
a car. Had you known your credit history walking into the place, you
would know if they are shamming you.

I hope, in your case that they did sham you...because getting your
credit history corrected can be abit of a pain.
Best of luck...
Dom

 

[Bradley Walker]

Actually I had known my credit history/FICO score ahead of time. Back in
December when I was checking out getting a 2001 model Outback my FICO score
was a solid 733 and had the salesman and banker begging me to take it for
$215/mo. Well that was three months ago and it had fallen to a 615 and
after convincing the banker to let me see the paper, I saw numerous mistakes
such as TransUnion showing me having accounts that only my mother has, me
having balances on cards that are long paid off etc, just tons of mistakes.
What is really odd is TransUnion reported my score just 2 weeks ago at 689.
So I like to think I had walked in with some firepower under my belt because
I don't want to get it checked every month because doesn't multiple queries
on the report knock it down?

 

[Bart]

You can check your credit report as often as you want -- your inquiries
don't affect the score -- only inquiries by creditors affect the score.

 

[Dom]

Bart is correct.
Also - dont close accounts you have had for a long time. Keep them
open to show your good history. This can cause a drop in your rating
too.
Only close those accounts you have had a short time.

Dom

 

[Bradley Walker]

Thanks for the tip on checking the report...

Actually I plan on leaving accounts open and idle... unless I put a $10
lunch on them to keep them active. I've heard that alot that it shows
better credit history and therefore ranks the score higher. I assume
getting a credit report is nothing more than paying say $20 at one of the
TransUnion or Equifax sites? But I assume they will try to sucker me into
getting hooked up and billing me every month for no reason etc?

 

[Blair Baucom]

Depending on what state you are in, you can get all three credit reports
free online at:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com

31 States are free as of March 1, 2005, the rest later this year.

This is a site created by the three major credit agencies (Equifax,
Experian, & TransUnion) to comply with a new federal law regarding credit
records. There are no charges unless you want to know your FICO score.

Just like the other poster, my parents credit has leaked over into mine due
to similar names and past addresses. Lucky for me, my parents have great
credit also. TransUnion allows you to email correction request.

Blair

 

[Bradley Walker]

I purchased a copy of my FICO score and credit report today because I'm in
an eastern state where the annualcreditreport.com doesn't become available
until September. Anyway to my surprise I have a 690 score right off the bat
from TransUnion. YET... the dealership showed me a TransUnion credit
check/score that shows 608. What in the world is going on here? Last month
I was at 689 and there have been no bills due to even be late on from mid
Feb till now.

Did the dealership conduct some funny business???

 

[D.K.]

Depending on what state you are in, you can get all three credit reports
free online at:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com

31 States are free as of March 1, 2005, the rest later this year.

Seems like a classic case of companies doing everything it takes
to circumvent the law. Out of curiosity I tried the above.
Pretty lame.

Equifax and Experian refused to give my report online - without
giving a specific reason. For my own security, they explained.
Funny - if I pay they are more than happy to risk my
security )

TransUnion made several attempts to deny it: it did not
want to recognize *neither* of my two credit card numbers
(this was kinda hard to believe!) nor my former address or
one of my bank accounts as the proof of my identity; also
turns out I don't know the name of my current employer - it's
not University of Wisconsin or Univ Wisc, it is University Wisc.
All of which seems to have been designed to minimize
chances of me ever wanting to try this service again.

In the end however it did recognize my identity and spit out
the credit report. No credit rating to go with it - this would
be $6.95. I don't really know how credit reports look like
and how complete was the one given by TransUnion.
It gave a list of all of my on time loan payments and an
appalingly long list of companies that used my credit
for "promotional inquires". Nothing else.

DK

 

[Blair Baucom]

Sounds about right, list of all your credit. Each of mine are a little
different. Got 9 pages from one of them. I got the Equifax & Experian
reports with no problem as I used the information from my last loan that was
recent to identify myself. TransUnion I tried my employer information and
had problems as it had my Father's employer listed. So I chose one of the
other options to id myself. Like you said, the employer name has to be exact
which makes that option pretty hard.

May be miss information on your report, especially if your name is common. I
was lucky only to have my Father's information mixed up in mine.

Blair

 

[Blair Baucom]

Did your report show their inquiry?

Blair

I purchased a copy of my FICO score and credit report today because I'm in
an eastern state where the annualcreditreport.com doesn't become available
until September. Anyway to my surprise I have a 690 score right off the
bat from TransUnion. YET... the dealership showed me a TransUnion credit
check/score that shows 608. What in the world is going on here? Last
month I was at 689 and there have been no bills due to even be late on from
mid Feb till now.

Did the dealership conduct some funny business???

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

It is normal for your FICO score to fluctuate from month to month.
Usually, its not as extreme as you note, unless you had a major purchase
or other credit event in the last 30 days. One of those events might be
the addition of an auto loan.

As stated earlier, inquiries by you do not affect your score. However,
inquiries from others do, but only when initiated by you. For example,
Chase Manhattan may want to pre-qualify you for a credit card and get
your score. This does not affect your score. But if you apply to Chase
for a credit card that would affect your score. This is most important
to remember when shopping for loans. NEVER let multiple companies run
your credit report! This will adversely affect your score very quickly
and can take up to 24 months to fix itself.

Best of luck!

-Kurt

 

[Alan]

There are different scores depending on the type of request. For example,
(and my details may be wrong, but the idea is correct), a car loan score may
be different than a general inquiry score or a house loan score. You have
more than one score depending on who is asking and why.

 

[Bradley Walker]

Yes that 690 score was after about 8 inquiries by the dealership which was
shocking to me because I thought they just ran it once. Not nearly a dozen
times. BUT... the score was still 690 after all of that so I feel somewhat
safe that I DO have a good credit score but for whatever reason it appears
the dealership didn't want to see it or let me get a good loan because of
it.

Can someone confirm or deny this... I was told by the bank liazon at the
dealership that car loan inquiries don't affect a person's credit score
negatively because they are so common so the credit beauru's don't lower it
because of those types of checks, compared to credit card checks/home loan
checks etc which do lower it during each inquiry. That would make sense if
my score is a true 690 after 8 inquiries.