Soo close...
 

So I've been fantasizing about this car since I found out about it. And when I got my new job 6 months ago I was determined to save the money to get it. At first I wanted a BRZ because subarus were my first love. But after thorough research I came to the conclusion that I don't need any of the things that come with the brz since 2014 frs's come with navigation. My only problem was the scion badges... But I'll just swap those for Toyota ... Problem solved. So now that I'm 2 pay checks away from being able to comfortably put down 10,000 I decided it's time to ask... what I should look out for as a 21 y.o. walking into a dealership?....

Interest rate if you don't have any credit. Don't tell them your putting that down until the end

I will probably be getting a cosign from my father since I have little to no credit. And may I ask why it's better to tell them that at the end?

I'm 21 and bought mine completely on my own. I do, however, have years of perfect credit built up. Exactly like the other post said, the APR % is the biggest thing. Scion is "no haggle" pricing so you're not going to talk them down in price much, if at all. Just focus on getting that APR down as low as possible saying you're putting down like 4k then ask "what if I put down 6k" keep working em down then tell them the 10k at the end. Best of luck!

Because less you borrow less money they make. More money they think they are making more they will work with you.

I'm by no means experienced in the field. Damn, I'm not even 20 years old yet (1 more day!), but from what I figured out when I went in to get my car 5 and a half months ago is that you don't want to tell them you want to put any money down.

Generally, go in with an idea of what to expect. Use the Scion website to get a quote from their Build and Price feature, and know the numbers you got, or print it so you remember. Armed with that knowledge, go in and ask them what they can give you, and compare that to what the website told you. If they're not giving you a better deal than what the website gave you, they're trying to take an advantage of you to see if you'll fall for a crap deal, and if they won't budge from their crap deal, look elsewhere.

Price it out all with $0 down by the way, and make sure their interest rate is as low as possible.

Also, try to put down the least amount of money is possible. Now, people may not agree with this, but the idea is that if you put $10,000 down, they will basically take the money, and divide it by the number of months in your term (let's say 48 months in this case) and that's how much your monthly payment will go down by, or biweekly, in which case they would divide the $10,000 by 96 payments and lower it by that amount for each payment you make.

Depending on your interest rate, ask yourself this: is putting down $10000 upfront at the beginning of 4 years worth it to lower your payments, when you could basically pay the same amount slowly over 4 years? Let's say something happens and you need cash in a different situation, you may have higher biweekly or monthly payments, but you also have $10000 in cash available as a rainy day fund in case you ever need it for something. Is it worth it to tie up that large sum of money right up front by handing it over to the dealer?

When I got my car, they explicitly said there were no penalties for paying my car off earlier than the intended 60 months, or paying more than my monthly every month. So I could pay twice my monthly payment one month when my budget allows and slowly decrease the remaining amount that way if I so choose, but I still have that $10000 I initially put aside in the beginning instead of handing it over to the dealer for a lower monthly payment.

If there's a difference in the amounts you have to pay because of the interest rate, see if you can throw that $10000 in a savings account with a decent interest rate to earn some money from your cash to offset that difference.

Good luck!

Co-sign is a good idea. Don't look desperate for the car cause anything can happen in the finance office. So don't let them know about the down payment till the price is right and set.

Id put down half of that and like the rest said, save it for emergency.

I'm 21 as well and went in without any credit and no co signer. Didn't get approved. Talked to a credit union and they approved me with a very low interest rate.

So definitely try to talk to a credit union as lower the interest rate, the lower your payments and total cost of the car will be.

Savings accounts yield next to nothing. Even online "high yield" accounts at best pay 0.85% or so. If the OP hasn't opened an IRA yet, I would take $5500 of that 10k and immediately fund a target retirement Roth IRA with Vanguard and invest in index funds. Keep the remainder of the money liquid in case of emergency.

My rule of thumb, even though Scion says no negotiation, the dealer will still negotiate.

I just picked my FRS up on 12-23-2013.

Got it with Leather interior, but no Bespoke radio (just standard). 26,876 out the door with 1.9% financing.

Usually, if you can get a car for the sticker price out the door, you did good in my opinion. Mine had a sticker of 26,989

Scion is running a 1000 discount atm on 2013 cars, my dealer gave me 2K off

A vehicle depreciates starting the second you buy it. The best bet is to finance as little as possible, at as low an interest rate as you can get, and pay it off way ahead of the loan schedule.

Why? Interest. The more you finance, the higher the rate, & the longer you take to pay for it, the more you are paying in interest. So the value of the car is going down over time, but you are paying more to whoever financed it.

On top of that, paying it off ahead of schedule and never a late payment is great for your future credit rating. (Caveat, I am assuming you are otherwise managing your finances well, such as not spending every dime you have on your down payment.)

I wish I used the money to move out before buying this car but too late now. That is what I suggest, but if you still get it w/e YOLO right ? :)

He may have to put a certain amount down. When I got my loan it wasn't a problem but none of the banks would loan over 25000 and some wanted high rates. I ended up with ~3.5