First time new car buyer here. I tried to get approved through my credit union but with less than 6 months of credit card history and only paying on my student loans for about 9 months at the time other than that I really had no credit history, but nothing bad on my credit at least. My credit union declined. Couldn't even get a credit card with them. I had $10k down on a $25,400 sticker price and with $2k in rebates after tax it came out to about $25,100ish I believe. I actually got approved through Ford for a $26k car because I wanted to make sure I was approved before I ordered and my car obviously had no VIN at the time. I got 3.65% for my $15,100 loan. Caught me by surprise. I was fully expecting a much higher rate as a first time buyer. After the first payment I immediately started getting all kinds of credit card and loan offers. I recently refinanced through my credit union for 1.8%. Went with 48 months instead of 60 and my payments are the same.
My friend who recently bought a Dodge Charger and had his credit card longer than I had with about the same time of student loan payments initially got 12% interest... They somehow got it down to 6% so he says, but even that is a lot. I was definitely surprised at that one. Curious what he would have got through Ford. He also put $10k down, but his car ended up being about $30k with tax and such.