Going to order a Jeep Gladiator and have a few questions!

[Esloan]

So, my wife and I are going to be ordering a Jeep Gladiator soon. We are extremely excited. This will be the first vehicle we have ever 'ordered' and really, the first car where we are able to actually get something we want and not just settle for something our credit let's us have. Our credit has been a mess for years and we both worked at jobs that did not pay well. In the last several years, I have a job that pays really well and I used that time to fix our credit and things look good now. We will have a substantial down payment ($35,000 or so) and will finance the rest.

So, I have a few questions since this is the first time we are ordering any kind of vehicle.

1. We live in Washington state and I the closest dealership that I have seen recommended on here is Peterson Jeep in Nampa Idaho. Any thoughts on those guys? What can we expect as far as percentage off invoice? Anyone ever traveled to them to pick up their Gladiator? Will they pick us up at the airport or anything?

2. I have seen other programs to get money knocked off of invoice, will that work with Peterson's normal savings off invoice or do you have to use one or the other? Any programs you guys would recommend I use?

3. As I said, I intend to make a big down payment and finance the rest, can we get our financing approved and such when we order or do we have to wait until the vehicle arrives for financing approval?

Thanks for any answers to the above and feel free to throw in any advice you have! We are extremely excited but this is a totally new process for us. For years we bought off of tote-the-note lots because we were just broke all the time. We fixed that and are now excited to order a vehicle that we actually want to own and will be proud of owning.

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[Esloan]

Adding something in here:

Just heard back from the folks at Peterson's and it sounds like they have a max down payment of 5% of total financed in order to get the discounts. I am not 100% sure that is correct as his wording was confusing.

We obviously want to put more down than 5%; a whole lot more. So I may not get all the discounts but I can put down like $35,000 and save on the interest. Anyone know if the above is the case, and if so, is there a way to put a large down payment down and get some of those 'off-invoice' savings?

I reached out to Peterson's for clarification but have not heard back yet.

Thanks again for any help you can give!

 

[Dougstdig]

They may be requiring that for a special kick back from the lender.

Something for you to think about…
find a vehicle that’s close to what you want and add the options it’s missing if they’re really that big of a deal. Why? Interest rates seem to be inching up. With the fed saying they may bump 2 times before the end of the year. I got mine on 10-24 and on 10-23 Saturday I saw my rate bump up just under 1% with cap1 pre-approval. I ended up going with Chase, but the point is rates are moving. With chip shortages you may see actual build times of 10-16 weeks from what I’m hearing. What ever you save in payments getting something that’s just missing an option or two would be much more substantial than paying and installing a couple must have options as time goes by. I don’t know if that last sentence made any sense but I think you know what I’m talking about…It’s late and I’m tired.??

 

[Esloan]

They may be requiring that for a special kick back from the lender.

Something for you to think about…
find a vehicle that’s close to what you want and add the options it’s missing if they’re really that big of a deal. Why? Interest rates seem to be inching up. With the fed saying they may bump 2 times before the end of the year. I got mine on 10-24 and on 10-23 Saturday I saw my rate bump up just under 1% with cap1 pre-approval. I ended up going with Chase, but the point is rates are moving. With chip shortages you may see actual build times of 10-16 weeks from what I’m hearing. What ever you save in payments getting something that’s just missing an option or two would be much more substantial than paying and installing a couple must have options as time goes by. I don’t know if that last sentence made any sense but I think you know what I’m talking about…It’s late and I’m tired.??

Thanks man! That is something to think about. The biggest things we have to have are the max-tow package and the 8.4 inch screen. We really want the Gecko green color, which we can not find anywhere, of course. But if the wait is going to be that long and interest rates are going up then maybe we may need to settle and not order.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[Jefe1018]

1. We live in Washington state and I the closest dealership that I have seen recommended on here is Peterson Jeep in Nampa Idaho. Any thoughts on those guys? What can we expect as far as percentage off invoice? Anyone ever traveled to them to pick up their Gladiator? Will they pick us up at the airport or anything?

2. I have seen other programs to get money knocked off of invoice, will that work with Peterson's normal savings off invoice or do you have to use one or the other? Any programs you guys would recommend I use?

3. As I said, I intend to make a big down payment and finance the rest, can we get our financing approved and such when we order or do we have to wait until the vehicle arrives for financing approval?

1. Yes, I just picked up two weeks ago. They’ll pick you up and make it easy pesay.

2. Peterson will do roughly 11-12% below MSRP or at least did when I ordered.

3. They can’t finance a vehicle that doesn’t exist, when it’s about a week before getting to the dealership, they’ll run your credit. Note however only 5% down payments allowed (so think $50,000 out the door price, you can only put down $2,500). This makes it so you have a bigger principal amount on the loan. The way they keep the price down is via bank kick backs for selling your loan. The agreement is that you keep the loan open for six months before you refi or pay it off, so the dealer makes their money and you get get the lower overall price. However, nothing is stopping you from making an additional principal payment up front. When you are close to picking up ask all the questions away, they’ll take care of you. This is not your run of the mill scummy dealer.

4. Congrats on the decision to buy a new Gladiator, especially from Peterson. I cannot recommend them enough if you are on the west coast.

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

I can’t answer your #1 but for your 2nd question, I would look at Costco’s car purchasing program or maybe USAA if you happen to be a member there.

As for #3, try Capital One’s online pre approval tool. They have one that won’t impact your credit score AT ALL. I used it as leverage when I got my Gladiator financed. The dealer eventually got me an even better rate at Chase.

I’m not too sure about that max 5% down thing though. I guess they may get a kickback of some kind from the bank every x amount financed. Who knows.

Edit: What Jefe said

 

[Esloan]

1. Yes, I just picked up two weeks ago. They’ll pick you up and make it easy pesay.

2. Peterson will do roughly 11-12% below MSRP or at least did when I ordered.

3. They can’t finance a vehicle that doesn’t exist, when it’s about a week before getting to the dealership, they’ll run your credit. Note however only 5% down payments allowed (so think $50,000 out the door price, you can only put down $2,500). This makes it so you have a bigger principal amount on the loan. The way they keep the price down is via bank kick backs for selling your loan. The agreement is that you keep the loan open for six months before you refi or pay it off, so the dealer makes their money and you get get the lower overall price. However, nothing is stopping you from making an additional principal payment up front. When you are close to picking up ask all the questions away, they’ll take care of you. This is not your run of the mill scummy dealer.

4. Congrats on the decision to buy a new Gladiator, especially from Peterson. I cannot recommend them enough if you are on the west coast.

Thanks for all the info! I am horrible with APR and all the loan stuff; we wanted to make a large down payment to get our APR and payments down. My credit is a lot better but still not perfect so a large down payment will help. If I finance it with only 5% down, then I am probably looking at a much higher APR and payments, correct?

So, if we do that and then make a huge payment of like $30,000, that will get the total owed down but I would still be stuck with the large payments, unless we refinanced. My additional worry is that because my credit is not perfect, we might order the Gladiator and find out they won't finance it at all with only $5,000 down. That worries me.

Thanks again!

 

[Esloan]

I can’t answer your #1 but for your 2nd question, I would look at Costco’s car purchasing program or maybe USAA if you happen to be a member there.

As for #3, try Capital One’s online pre approval tool. They have one that won’t impact your credit score AT ALL. I used it as leverage when I got my Gladiator financed. The dealer eventually got me an even better rate at Chase.

I’m not too sure about that max 5% down thing though. I guess they may get a kickback of some kind from the bank every x amount financed. Who knows.

Edit: What Jefe said

Thanks! I will look and see if I can find the Capital One pre-approvement tool. I have been wanting to use one but I did not want to take a credit hit until we were ready to get financed, so that will help a lot.

 

[Jefe1018]

Thanks for all the info! I am horrible with APR and all the loan stuff; we wanted to make a large down payment to get our APR and payments down. My credit is a lot better but still not perfect so a large down payment will help. If I finance it with only 5% down, then I am probably looking at a much higher APR and payments, correct?

So, if we do that and then make a huge payment of like $30,000, that will get the total owed down but I would still be stuck with the large payments, unless we refinanced. My additional worry is that because my credit is not perfect, we might order the Gladiator and find out they won't finance it at all with only $5,000 down. That worries me.

Thanks again!

I suppose it depends on your credit score. With $35,000 in liquid however I wouldn’t be too worried in your shoes. Simply take your monthly payment x 6 and store it in a savings account, take a months worth out at a time to make your payment.

Let’s say worse case scenario:

These are all ball park figures, being conservative:

Gladiator MSRP: $48,815.00
Peterson Price: $43,933.50
Tax title and license: $2,900
Down payment: $2341.65
Out the door price: $44,451.85

Here is what the payment would look like:

You have $35,000 right?

6 months worth of payments: $4428
Down payment: $2341.65

That leaves: $28,230.35 for a principal payment when your first payment is due.

Meaning right off the bat your principal due is now $16,221.50. After six months it’s now roughly $10,000.

Again, this is worst case, hopefully you qualify for a way better than 10%.

Hope this helps!

 

[Dougstdig]

I can’t answer your #1 but for your 2nd question, I would look at Costco’s car purchasing program or maybe USAA if you happen to be a member there.

As for #3, try Capital One’s online pre approval tool. They have one that won’t impact your credit score AT ALL. I used it as leverage when I got my Gladiator financed. The dealer eventually got me an even better rate at Chase.

I’m not too sure about that max 5% down thing though. I guess they may get a kickback of some kind from the bank every x amount financed. Who knows.

Edit: What Jefe said

I’m a huge USAA advocate. That being said, the last car I purchased, before my new GRubi, I did the USAA program. 1 year and 4 months later I was still getting dealerships all over S. Florida calling me to try and purchase a car. Being an almost 40 year customer of USAA I shared my experience with USAA. Did it do any good…who really knows, but I found the time in my extraordinarily busy schedule to purchase my new ride without their help this time.

 

[Pescatoral Pursuit]

Research that 8.4 real good. I just had to have it but after having it I wish I'd have passed and used the money to upgrade to aftermarket which have a lot more flexibility.

Look into how you put an address into the nav and it will tell you everything you need to know.

 

[Esloan]

Research that 8.4 real good. I just had to have it but after having it I wish I'd have passed and used the money to upgrade to aftermarket which have a lot more flexibility.

Look into how you put an address into the nav and it will tell you everything you need to know.

I like quite a few of the apps on the 8.4 that the others do not have and I am going to do several after market editions to our Gladiator but for some reason or other I never seem to get around to upgrading the radios in our cars. lol

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