Originally Posted by Jamco973

Should check around a bit more.. I live in NJ as well and picked up a one owner 05 G coupe with 32k miles for $16,500. Fully loaded sport package and navi. Def check your pricing, I have seen a lot around lately for less and be careful with Chase, they are a decent bank but hit you hard with a lot of little hiddens fees etc.. Def get a warranty as well these cars are extremly problem prone, look at all the posts here

Originally Posted by Jamco973

Def get a warranty as well these cars are extremly problem prone, look at all the posts here

Originally Posted by dtuna42

This car was listed at $21,500 and I paid $20,800 + tax.

I transferred my old tags, in NJ, and I don't have that cost in front of me. My trade-in was $5800, so I paid 6% sales tax on the roughly $15k difference. Not sure how it works in every state, but in Pa you only pay sales tax on the difference.

I searched within 50 miles of my location for comps and the prices were all in the $19k - $23k range. The cheaper cars usually had accidents and/or multiple owners on the reports, and/or had higher mileage. The more expensive cars had low miles, one-owner, and/or were CPO.

This car is not CPO, but it's still under Basic Warranty until July 2010. The Infinity extended basic warranty (which I will probably buy) is $1300 for 48 months or 48k miles from date of purchase, assuming under 30k miles on car. They also offer 60 months/60k miles or 60 month/70k miles for a few hundred more. It looks like, around here at least, the cost of buying a CPO car vs buying one with low miles & extending Infiniti's warranty afterwards is similar.

By the way - as for financing - since you mentioned Chase - they gave me 4.29% x 60 months for 2006 model year.
Also, if you're doing a trade-in, check out the AutoTrader.com guaranteed trade-in value. It's free and takes about 3 minutes. Even if the dealer you use isn't on their list, or if you are using a place you already know and trust, it's nice to have that paper with "guaranteed trade-in value" printed on it when you're negotiating..

Originally Posted by BuckeyeInMI

The cars that you'll get from Infiniti are lease returns or trade-ins of cars purchased at an Infiniti dealer. They are the top of the line Infiniti's, and are better than pretty much anything you'll find at Mannheim. The only bidders are other Infiniti dealers because nobody else is invited. The cars that don't sell at that auction are then sent to the next tier down in the auction world and that's the Mannheim/dealer only type auctions. You can't buy a 1-day membership to those, you have to be a licensed dealer. What doesn't sell there will then go down another notch to membership-type auction or a public auction. So going to one of these 3rd tier auctions isn't going to tell you much about what a 1st tier car sold for at the Infiniti auction.

The purchase price of just my car (pre-tax, pre-CPO) was below what Kelly Blue Book, NADA Guides, or Edmunds had it listed for. It was also about $3500 less than what a comparable car was selling for down the street at Fox Motors in Grand Rapids.

Originally Posted by ilv2xlr8

How did the Chase process go? Did you go to a branch or apply online? One of the bankers told me they typically give a decision within the business day.

Originally Posted by dtuna42

I was planning on using Capital One Auto Finance - applied online and had the "Blank Check" in hand at the dealer. But the dealer said they could beat their rate, and they came back in less than an hour with Chase about 1/2% better - like 4.3% vs 4.8%. My previous car loan was already with Chase, and I was trading that car in- plus I have a Chase credit card - so it's possible Chase was giving me a better rate based on already being a customer....

Originally Posted by ilv2xlr8

Ah ok, ironically I was thinking about capital one as well. I want to avoid the dealer so that I know what I'm qualified beforehand so that I can haggle freely. If you don't already have it, Chase offers a .25 discount if you also have chase checking and sign up for autopay for your loan. It's not a whole lot but still a nice incentive if you already have a checking account from them.

I don't mean to be too personal but what are you financial figures? Fico? Debt/income ratio? You can PM me with those if you want, I just am trying to gauge what I will be offered. Chase is pretty competitive since they only offer anywhere from 4-7% so if you aren't well qualified, you just don't get the loan.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeInMI

DEFINITELY PM him this info, don't make it public.

FWIW, a car loan rate usually isn't impacted much by debt/income, it's mostly FICO and credit history. Granted, a poor debt/income makes actually getting the loan more difficult, but the other factors have a bigger affect on the actual rate. Debt/income comes more into play for a mortgage, along with FICO and history. Basically, the bigger the purchase, the more debt/income matters. They start to worry more about whether you can make the payment, not if you make the payment.

Originally Posted by dtuna42

Good idea - I will PM some of that... As far as car loans go, I agree with above - If your credit score is over 720 & you are putting down 20%, I think you can expect the best rates.

The thing I like best about Chase Auto Finance account - besides the rate, of course - is that their online services are really nice. You can log in to one page and manage your car loan(s) and credit card(s), and any other accounts you may have with them - including making payments, changing due-dates, making auto-recurring payments, refinance, check history, pay-off amounts, etc... It's a pretty nice setup overall.

Originally Posted by ilv2xlr8

Something interesting to think about...When I went to Chase, he told me the value of an 06 G35x w/36K miles is 17,800. I wonder if that would work as a haggle price.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeInMI

Anything works as a haggle price, but that Chase number is pretty much low blue book value, so don't plan on it having any impact on the sale price. That's all you'll likely get from insurance if it was totalled, so that's about all they'll finance. That was one of the nice things about having Infiniti finance my car, I could finance the entire purchase price. With Chase, I was looking at paying something like like $2000 out of pocket (don't remember the exact number) to cover taxes and such.

Originally Posted by ilv2xlr8

It's interesting though why the insurance value is a few thousand different than the average pricing. Then again, he never asked what packages/options it had and that would sway it higher.

Originally Posted by dtuna42

A lot of people probably find out the hard way that their standard insurance policy only covers a very low Blue Book value. If you're not putting down at least 20% it's time to start thinking about gap insurance. Or at the very least confirm with your insurance company how they decide your "replacement value"....

Originally Posted by ilv2xlr8

Does any of you guys have any experience with putting down a deposit to "save" the car so it doesn't get sold. I'm waiting to shift my car and hoping by next weekend I'll have sold it. I plan on checking out a car tomorrow that looks very promising and I would hate for it to be sold within the next week.

What is the best way to go about that and not get scammed?