no money due at signing necessarily. just the credit score and your income. banks want your car payment to be 20% of your monthly gross income or less. It's through Honda Financial and it's their Preferred and Super Preferred tier levels. Also, you can't have some big derogitory on your report (i.e. forclosure, bankruptcy, etc). If you've done a bankrupcty and have the discharge papers you'll prob be ok if you go to a dealership with a good finance department like ours.

fyi, honda has NEVER done .9% for 60 months before, so jump on this while it's available (until september 7, 2010)

** you may wanna consider putting down your taxes** (you don't really wanna finance and pay tax on tax)

 

Good deal at the end of the year? That depends: Do you keep your cars until they wear out? If so, and if you can get last year's model for more than 10% less than this year's edition, the answer is yes.

But if you trade your car in every few years, no. These cars may not depreciate much in the first few years, and the new last years' model you buy may be discounted a bit. But from a 5 years down the road perspective you'll have lost an entire years' worth of depreciation at trade-in time--- a fact that the dealership you trade in to will certainly NOT overlook. Even selling privately will cost you that extra year because private buyers will see it as a 6 year old car even though you bought it new only 5 years ago.

I sell and then buy new every 5 years so for me, the combination of low price and low interest would have to be very attractive indeed before I'd buy last year's model.

 

I was told 710 was the magic number by a local dealer on Tuesday.

 

710 does sound more likely to me, that's like 2nd tier. In any case, I have a score way higher than that so I'm not worried, it's the rest of the requirements that I lack, like not having a previous auto loan. I'll probably pass up this offer and wait for a used Fit anyways.

 

710 is honda's super preferred teir. That's is true, but for this special the preferred (660-709) as well as the super preferred are getting the incentivized rate. Trust me. This is my job.

 

Another reason to buy now, if you find the model and color you want, is exchange rate. With the yen so strong, prices in dollars have to go up, and/or supply of 2011 Fits will be even tighter than 2010's. If pricing holds, then Honda (Corporate, in Japan) is losing money on them and just keeps them in the catalog to have a "full line" of cars for sale in North America. Even with a higher MSRP, the US made Civic is probably less expensive to build. Toyota is probably in the same situation with the Japanese made Yaris and Scion lines vs. Corolla/Matrix.