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Loan Terms

Buying a car and financng with a loan is easier to understand for most people vs. leasing. All manufacturers offer financing programs for their vehicles. A common recommendation from the experts is to line up your financing with a bank or other lending source before heading to the dealer. This way you can focus energy on negotiating the price of your vehicle at the dealer.

Loan interest rate

Self explanatory. This is the annual interest rate on the loan. As you would expect, interest rate can vary based on your credit score.

Term (months)

This is the # of months to repay the loan. The most popular duration for auto loans is 60 months. But as the price of cars trends ever upward, 72 month or even 84 month loans are becoming increasingly popular because it lowers the monthly payment.

# months to defer the 1st payment

One incentive offered by lenders is deferral of your first payment for one or more months. What might be surprising to some (and the dealer won't tell you this) is that while there might be appeal and driving off with nothing out-of-pocket, you will incur additonal interest expense over the life of the loan.