I've been pre-approved by TFS, but there's no interest rate listed. Is it fixed or does it vary, depending on the applicant? Also, it was mentioned here on PC that there's a unadvertised 1.9% being given by TFS on Prii. Has anyone else heard of this?
I looked at Liberty, Lawrence & Holman Toyota sites--nothing about financing specials on Prius. (I didn't expect any as they are still in short supply.) I have not received any e-mail specials for September. APR depends on the applicant's credit score.
It's not odd at all, they hope you don't ask! You may want to check with your bank or credit union to see what rates they are offereing. You can use this to negotiate a rate if the rate TFS is offering is higher, or just get pre-approved by your bank and go through them if TFS won't match or better it.
Some great financing deals out there but you have to do your homework or get lucky and fall into one.Depends on your area or individual dealership. This is not a toyota or prius but an example in 2010 my wife bought a Honda with 0% for 60 months at that time Honda advertised 1.9%-4.9% depending on the model. Went to a dealership out away from Chicago area in a small town they had 0% on any model through Honda but only at that dealership others only had the Honda national advertised rates. Good luck and good hunting.
Good luck if you ever call TFS just to ask a question. The only way I got to speak to someone was to hit the key to report a fraud. When I finally got through, I told her the fraud was their phone system. She laughed, so I got someone that would help. She transferred me to F&I at a dealer, who said the terms were 3.9% for 60mos. and 4.9% for 72mos.
You can probably find a better rate through your bank, currently both USAA and PenFed are offering 2.49% for up to 60 months...
The September e-mail ad from Liberty just lists inventory. They have a fair number of cars with packages: Three Nav, Three Solar, Four Solar & Five AT. All told 12 cars for under MSRP. Things must be better in Japan to have this kind of selection around here.
If you are truely pre-approved, as opposed to pre-qualified, then by Federal law they have to give you an interest rate. The financing promotions can vary by region, sometimes a vehicle is selling better in one part of the country than another. Go to the Toyota website, there is a button for "find special deals"
Spike, IIRC I receive credit card offers stating I am 'pre-approved' but I know rejection after application is possible.
correct if you look there is always an asterisk, that if you follow down basically says you are not really pre-approved in the legal sense by the way if you want to stop those, and for ID security I would suggest you do, you can do so thru the 3 credit bureaus, block those kind of blanket credit report searches which generate most of those type of solicitations
Toyota financial does have a "pre-approval" system. When you enter the info on the site, it sends a fax to the closest dealership stating you are pre-approved and what tier you qualify for. It is up to the dealer to get in touch with you and let you know the rate. FYI, TFS currently has 9 different tier levels (1+, 1, 2,...6,7,77) It is solely based on your credit score. Tier 1+ is 720+, tier 1 is 719-690, etc. Each tier minimum drops by 20 points. A good tip would be to pull up your local Scion dealers website and see the tier system in action. Every Scion dealer must post rates and scores on the website. Typically, Toyota buy rates are about .5% higher than Scion. There is no special rate on Prii right now in any region that I am aware of.
