0% Financing Become a Great Deal for Car Buyers

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
0% Financing Become a Great Deal for Car Buyers

© Tero Vesalainen / iStock via Getty Images

24/7 Insights

  • One alternative to high interest rates is 0% APR financing car loans.
  • However, these loans are often offered on unpopular autos.

A JPMorgan Chase customer who wants to buy a new car can get an interest rate of about 7%. Three years ago, that was closer to 3%. The 7% adds a large amount to monthly car payments. One option is 0% APR financing for as much as 72 months, which is available on several models.

Car buyers who take out high interest rate loans can find that they may spend $30,000 on interest for a $40,000 car over 72 months. And there is the problem of “negative equity.” At some point, the price of the car drops 50%, while the money owed declines less than that. People who trade in a vehicle at a low price and have a high loan balance often have to pay off the entire balance of that loan in cash before taking delivery of the new vehicle. Among other people with financial payments, cars are abandoned. Why pay for a vehicle that is worth less than the loan?

Some cars with 0% loans are unpopular and dealers want to get rid of them. Subaru has an electric vehicle (EV) called the Solterra, which has a base price of $44,995. Subaru offers 0% APR financing for 72 months, but car companies are struggling to sell EVs.

The Nissan Rogue, which sells well, has a 0% financing deal for 36 months. The Ford Edge has a deal of 0% APR for five years. Perhaps the manufacturers have excess inventory. It is hard to know. They are good deals for those who find them attractive.

For people shopping for a new car, it is good to look for 0% APR for 72 months, particularly if they are open to more than one model.

The 9 Worst Mistakes I’ll Never Make (Again) When Buying a Car

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618