I bought our new 2006 PT Cruiser ("Touring Edition") through Carmax. Of course, no company is as good as they say they are, but I was drawn to their basic principles of 'no haggling' and such. And they came through. The price online was the same price as when I got there, and there were no hidden or last minute fees or anything. I was further impressed with the fact that they handled all the governmental stuff, so that I literally do not have to step foot in (or even talk to) the DMV.
I also financed through Carmax. But that wasn't the original plan. I figured, that with my excellent credit (it's, like, the one thing I've got going for me), I'd be better off getting pre-approved by someone else before I went in. And this proved to be true, even if it didn't quite work out.
So I called Bank of America, and they approved me for a 5-year, $10,000 loan at 4.35%, which I thought was pretty decent. Unfortunately, they got hung up on my physical address. My driver's license lists the house on Cook Street that I sold three months ago, all my mail goes to a PO Box (which are dispised, for some reason, by any company or government agency whose primary function is doing paperwork), and I live in a hotel. This simply would not do for BofA, who insisted that my driver's license would have to match the address on the title, at which point I would have to somehow prove that I lived there.
Now, to some degree, I get that. They want to make sure they can find me if I stop paying my loan. Makes sense. On the other hand, I have excellent credit, I've never missed a payment or defaulted on anything in my life, and--quite frankly--how, exactly, does a piece of mail with a house address on it prevent me from driving off in my new car and never looking back?
Anyway, rather than sort through all that, I just went with Carmax, who didn't seem to give a shit. Of course, their interest rate for the same loan was 7.25%, but I guess that's the price I pay for my itinerancy.
Proving, once again, that if you want to be normal, you have to be normal.
[-carrier lost-]
You can always refinance the loan once you get back to Orlando and have an actual address, or even use mine. Maybe then you can get the BofA loan at a lower interest rate and save some money. But at least you got everything sorted out and got the car, so that's great. And all by yourself, I'm so proud of you :o)
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