Smart Finance Rate

2009Aveo5 · 03-01-2008, 06:58 PM

I'm wondering what kind of finance rate Smart owners were offered by their Smart dealer when purchasing their car. I think I read one thread which used a 6.9% rate. I know this varies based on your credit. My credit score is between 638 to 679 depending on the credit reporting agency. I'm working on getting it back to the 700s, but for now I'm in the fair credit range. I've been trying to get the rates at the local Smart dealership for several days now and I'm suppose to be getting a call on Monday to see when they can schedule me in. I'm going to check with my bank to get their rates. I was working on a home equity line of credit so maybe I will use that instead assuming the bank loan officer is right about being able to get the loan in the first place.

Anyway, my dealer doesn't quite know what to do with someone asking for pre-approval and rates prior to having the car here to buy. She's going to call Monday to figure out what the process is to determine what to do with me. She said nobody has asked her about rates. Seems like a pretty straightforward question to me.

Smartdavis · 03-01-2008, 07:37 PM

My estimate from reading the threads is that Smart is going to give you 6.9% if you have good credit, and it probably goes up from there. If you have a relationship with a bank or credit union you can probably get into the middle 5% range.

Container_Guy · 03-01-2008, 07:54 PM

I just closed my deal today and with EXCELLENT credit, Smart through Daimler Finance offered 6.75%. The best deal at the local bank was 8.25%. Local banks do not have the car loaded in the daabase, so they struggle with it. my local bank advised to go with dealer financing, wait another 6-8 months and re-fi the loan through their used car financing at a much lower rate.

vanslam · 03-01-2008, 08:00 PM

Chase offered me 5% for my Smart loan. I am a good customer and was doing payroll deduction. But I went with other option instead - cash.

LinuxGuy · 03-01-2008, 08:36 PM

Wells Fargo offers 6.75% loans on new cars. I submitted an online application, got an e-mail approval response in 60 seconds and a phone call within 2 minutes. When your car is ready for pickup, just call your Wells Fargo contact and they will overnight a package with a blank check good for your loan limit and a simple one page form that the dealer fills out and faxes in to Wells Fargo. I bought my wife's Scion xA the same way about 18 months ago. It's easy and quick!

BTW, the Scion xA fully loaded cost $13,500 and gets 38-40 mpg on the Texas (flat) highways. It's our big family car and we love it!

Smartdavis · 03-01-2008, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LinuxGuy

Wells Fargo offers 6.75% loans on new cars. I submitted an online application, got an e-mail approval response in 60 seconds and a phone call within 2 minutes. When your car is ready for pickup, just call your Wells Fargo contact and they will overnight a package with a blank check good for your loan limit and a simple one page form that the dealer fills out and faxes in to Wells Fargo. I bought my wife's Scion xA the same way about 18 months ago. It's easy and quick!

BTW, the Scion xA fully loaded cost $13,500 and gets 38-40 mpg on the Texas (flat) highways. It's our big family car and we love it!

Great car. Not nearly the same kind of thing.

4-2NV · 03-01-2008, 10:42 PM

I got 5.25% 60 month no money down with M-B for my Passion-sign and drive. I only did the financing because they threw in most of the cost of tire and wheel warranty if I financed through M-B. I'll likely prepayafter 3 month

Dealers make money on the financing. Folks should be able to get the dealer to throw in a trinket or two ( like my deal) if you agree to go with M-B financing, assuming of course you can't get a net better deal elsewhere.

mvukovich · 03-02-2008, 06:02 AM

5.9% from Bloomington MN. last month.

bigcritter · 04-16-2008, 01:29 PM

I know that I can get 5.29% for 60 mos. through my credit union, but I've been told that Bank of America will beat whatever your lowest rate is by one point. Does anyone know anything about this program, and if so, what paperwork is required by BOA from the lending institution offering the lowest rate??? Any help would be appreciated! I'm trying to tie up loose ends and get everything in place for when my car gets here! Hopefully arriving by the end of this month!!

jpkherd · 04-16-2008, 03:56 PM

I applied for Mercedes Benz USA Financing and got rejected. Nobody could tell me why? The dealer finance guy just did through Chase. It is a 5yr @ 6.95 I think. No prepay penalty so I can just pay it off when I want.

As for me, I didn't really need to finance but I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting liquidity out of my existing investment accounts and I didn
t have the whole amount sitting in my checking account.

I do OK and have a really good credit record. I live in what I would call an expensive house in a very desirable zip code. I am curious why MB would reject me?

My only thought is that I currently have 4 other cars being financed under my name and that may look weird to some people. I finance my business vehicles personally because it is less of a hassle than the paperwork needed to do it through the corporation.

As you can see, I am not a big fan of paperwork hassle!

I also thought maybe MBUSA wouldn't even bother with the paperwork for a $7,000.oo loan?

Who knows.

JPK