I'm going to pick up my Prius tomorrow and I think I'm going to go with Toyota's financing option, at 4.99 APR (I believe). Have any of you had any problems with Toyota's credit? At State Farm, they offered me 5.5 but said that Toyota includes hidden fees for the loan and got me a little nervous, lol. Advice/suggestions? Regrets? Things you wish you had known before signing the contract?
Toyota Financial Services or Toyota Motor Credit or whatever they call themselves has no hidden fees, at least not the several times I've done business with them. And their customer service over the phone and access to your account over the web is good too. I wouldn't hesitate to go with them again, provided they were the best rate on a particular loan.
I just financed with Toyota at 4.24% over 5 years with no other fees. From this and other threads it seems like there's a lot of variation in rates (much more than I would have thought) depending on location, credit, and maybe other factors.
Toyota Motor Credit Corporation is the company name and Toyota Financial Services is the brand name for Toyota and Lexus Financial Services is the brand name Lexus.
have used Toyota Financial Services twice now because there is no early pre-payment penalty. My experience is that a reputable dealer will release the car with few questions asked, everything financed (docs, license, taxes, dealer add-ons, extended warranty, maintenance plans, etc.) and no money down if your credit score is high enough so I now use it as the easiest way to get out the door once the deal has been set. e.g., 1st time, refinanced the Toyota loan at my credit union for a better rate and paid off Toyota loan by the first payment due date. I expect to do the same in the next week with the 2nd Toyota loan. I'm not aware of any hidden fees in the Toyota financed loan process so it all adds up (I can't say that for a previous home loan refinance ... live and learn).
Our credit union has a lower rate for "green" vehicles. We were pre-approved there before we went to Toyota to close the deal on our Prius. DH happened to notice on one of the numerous forms we were signing that they had assumed we would finance through Toyota, but their interest rate was a point higher than the CU. DH asked whether they could go lower, and the finance guy said maybe by a quarter point. We pulled out the CU pre-approval letter and the guy did some good-natured grumbling but agreed to go with that rate, which was 4.75%.
