This past weekend I met up with an old friend who just got a great new car using Car Loans Canada. He had been in some financial trouble. A recent divorce left his financial situation a little messy. He also had to give up the family car but still needed wheels to get himself around. He went into a few new car dealerships looking to lease something inexpensive to get from point A-B. Even though he made good money, it would seem that he was too high risk for most primary lenders. He gave me a call to ask me what I thought he should do. My advice was as follows: 1. set a budget, $10,000-$12,000 seemed fair 2. get together 20% down (which he had) 3. Buy as new as possible and just get the basics. 4. Finance for as long as possible in a straight loan with no amortization. 5. If you want to flip in a year or two, try and find an import, even if it was an ex-rental. Although he was disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to get what he thought he could afford, he understood that sometimes it's best to get the immediate need taken care of now, get the want taken care of later. He applied to Car Loans Canada and one of our lenders got him approved on the following cars: 2006 Toyota Yaris (ex daily rental) 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt/Malibu (ex daily rentals) 2006 Alitma with 50k 2006 Mazda 6 with 50k He manged to get approved at a payment, not a price so the cars were actually closer to $15,000-$17000. He ended up going for the Altima and is very happy about it. Although my advice was good, it seems our lenders were better. | 
