What sort of credit record do you need to get a car loan?

If you have a reseasonably good record of credit. Even if you were between jobs, but made every effort to pay off your debts this would look good on your record. If you constantly missed payments and made no attempt to pay them off your chances aren't good. If you have collateral and it isn't used for a loan then you could use that collateral to get your loan. Banks love to make one feel that if they have a lousy credit rating that they won't loan them money for something small such as a car, but the opposite is true. Cars are easy turn-overs, so banks can make money of them. A house is harder for banks to deal with. Credit cards companies in especially the U.S. and Canada just LOVE to have people sign up, spend like there is no tomorrow and they make plenty of money off missed payments. Most people never stop to figure out the percentage on their credit cards (they may know the %) but when they see their balance and then they start to add up the interest building on that balance it's mind boggling and it's tough for people to get out of credit card debt. Something else most people don't know, they can haggle with the credit card company to lower their rate of interest in order to pay that debt off. Go to your bank manager and see what they can do for you. If you have a poor credit rating and haven't paid off all your bills and a loan company practically ties you down to sign that contract for a loan to get a car, run fast and hard! They know that you can't really afford it and 9 chances out of 10 they'll take the car back if you miss payments. Also, their interest rates are much higher than banks. Good luck Marcy