[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by eikond

It depends on the manufacturer and what incentives they are offering at the time.

When a manufacturer really wants to push their vehicle sales, they will offer rates that are lower than market standards... say 0% for 60 months or .9% for 60 months, etc.. These rates are artificially lower than a bank or credit union rate because the manufacturer is subsidising the rate to make it more attractive to help sell more cars.

For a new release like the BRZ, I'm quite sure Subaru will not be spending any money to offer special incentives like low interest rates. So, they will offer their standard financing packages.. probably around 4% right now.

Dealers have multiple lenders to chose from in order to finance their customers. They have the manufacturer and then a number of local or national banks/credit unions/ or specialized auto finance corporations. Each of these sources publishes a wholesale rate to the dealership.. then dealer then chooses which of these to offer to you. When they offer you the rate, they normally mark that rate up a little to earn some profit for the dealership.

The key for the consumer is to shop around to compare rates. But keep in mind that if convenience is a big deal for you... the dealership has the huge advantage in that area. I've taken a slightly higher rate in the past just so that I had the ease and simplicity that comes with dealerships handling everything.

Rates may vary considerably depending on your credit as well.

^^What he said.

Try to pay off any balances you can if your credit score isn't at least 720 (equifax, no one around here uses anything else so it's the only one I pay attention to). Depending on whatever my current business card balance is (tends to be anywhere from 0 to $25,000 any given month) my credit score can change a fair amount so I plan on not using it for a month or so before purchase just in case (not that it matters, 760 is the same as 800 as far as a car purchase is concerned, but still).