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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

Bradley Walker wrote:

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

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

-Kurt

b. w. wrote:

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.

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.

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

Check them all.

Barry

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

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 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

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?

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

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

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???

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

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

Did your report show their inquiry?

Blair

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

Bradley Walker wrote:

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.

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.