President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that his tariffs could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States, saying American kids might “have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” but he insisted China will suffer more from his trade war.
That was absolutely a lie from the dealership. You can apply online at most places now to save yourself some time. Many places even list their loan rates broken down by the type of loan (48 month new car, 60 month new car, 60 month used car, etc) so that you can compare rates without even filling out a loan application.
You might also check your credit score with Credit Karma, or your credit card company, or bank to see where you sit (these will be Vantage scores but should be close to the FICO scores used when applying for a loan) just for some more insight.
Shop around to see who has the lowest rates and then start applying. Once approved you can then walk into the dealership to actually buy a car and even used your pre-approved loan to negotiate a better rate with the dealer since they get kickbacks from banks. Also be sure to never negotiate based on the monthly payment, just the total price of the car because they can really screw you with interest rates and term lengths to make your monthly payment seem low while you end up spending more overall when negotiating based on monthly payment alone.