We are often asked by Portland residents why they shouldn’t just jump in their current car and drive out shop for a car instead of visiting an applying for an auto loan online. This answer to this question really depends on your credit history and your FICO score.
If you have a credit score over 640 or more and a fairly extensive credit history, you should be able to purchase a vehicle with a traditional prime or near-prime auto loan. But even if this is the case, you should still do some research on the internet. As an example, a used car site such as LotPro.com has an excellent web site that enables you to view the repair histories of most cars, so that you can see how the vehicle you’re interested in compares with the other cars or trucks in its class.
If you have less than perfect credit, however, you may want to hold off driving around Portland (or Corvallis, Salem, Albany or Lincoln City). Here’s why: the bad credit car loans in Portland Oregon buying process is much different. And just as the bad credit buying process is different, so is the dealer that can help you with a bad credit car loan.