AW: "New" car!

AprilZ81 · August 2016

We just got one hell of a deal on a 2013 Nissan Rogue SL with only 18,000 miles on it. We (well, mostly me and my Mom) felt that DH's Saturn Vue just wasn't safe any more (lots of shaking/rattling) and it was time for something new. Low mileage, clean CarFax report, single owner, and all the upgrades we wanted on our list.

The Kelly Blue Book value for this car is $21,000 and we got it for $18,000 (plus tax, title & fees). We got a fair value on DH's trade in but almost walked over the financing.

DH and I have superior credit and we originally got a decent interest rate. When we went to sign the papers I double checked that there was no pre-payment penalty and it turns out there was. We had to wait even longer for them to switch us to another bank and we had to pay a very slightly higher interest rate, but there is no pre-payment penalty. I'm so happy I thought to double check about the pre-payment or I would have been FURIOUS when we paid off the loan early and then we received another "bill" for a penalty and additional interest owed.

LillibetteV · August 2016

that's fantastic! I remember the last time I bought a car I almost walked over financing too - even though I qualified for a new-grad deal they said "well there is a lot of paperwork for it and the interest rate isn't that much better". Actually it was 3 points lower! So yea it was that much better. And he hadn't even run my credit yet so I said "let's have this conversation after you run my credit". He came back, apologized and said I had the highest credit score he'd ever seen, and gave me the best rate they had even without using the new-grad deal.