Article: Slate will offer full loan financing at ~$400 a month. LA, San Francisco, and Seattle are top three markets

[Frozen North]

Yeah, and I may be the only one crazy enough to order this thing in the arctic.

 

[tubes]

I'm also wondering about "Club DWCS" and the effect that may have. Early pre-orders reported here had a good deal of Q1 and Q2 GA reports. One of the later pre-orders was DWCS.

Now that we're getting to the last 10 days of the window, I hope Slate gets more of our members out of DWCS hell.

 

[Frozen North]

The wait is hell, period.
The anticipation is Almost like the excruciating wait to see your new girlfriend when you were 17.

 

[E90400K]

Number 1 rule in buying a car is not focusing on the monthly payment.

If they're offering financing, I just want to know the loan terms. What's the rate and how long is the loan? My credit union is about 5.5% for 60 months and 5.74% for 75 months right now (neither is amazing).

Assuming no accessories, ~$1000 destination fee, and subtracting the $300 preorder - plus local tax for me, that puts the financed amount at $27,830.25.

At 5% for 5 years, that's $525/mo. and $448/mo for 6 years (same rate).

So I'd love to know more of what they're thinking here. I'm really hoping for a promotional rate - but even 1.99% at 6 years is still over $400 ($410).

I'm definitely putting some cash down (no trade)... but their math is... very questionable without knowing the terms.

The number one rule in selling a car is getting the customer to focus on the monthly payment. Slate is no different here.

Low-qualified buyers are going to pay a higher interest rate, so to get the monthly rate below $400 will require a healthy down payment (+20%) combined with a six to eight year loan on a $26.5K Blank Slate (destination included). I say "low-qualified" because a market target of individuals who can't afford a $35K - $45k automobile are not going to be well funded nor have a credit score that will garner a decent finance rate. There is just no way to get around it. Slate is going to use the existing lender base to finance customers; it will not be its own bank.

Being that Slate is selling direct to the consumer AND directly financing the sale leaves them with no place to obfuscate the numbers as the Legacy manufacturers can using their franchise dealership sales model.

Have fun Mr. Faricy.

 

[E90400K]

The wait is hell, period.
The anticipation is Almost like the excruciating wait to see your new girlfriend when you were 17.

I'd go with just "girlfriend"... new has nothing to do with it when you are 17. Just saying.

 

[ClayJar]

I'm also wondering about "Club DWCS" and the effect that may have. Early pre-orders reported here had a good deal of Q1 and Q2 GA reports. One of the later pre-orders was DWCS.

Now that we're getting to the last 10 days of the window, I hope Slate gets more of our members out of DWCS hell.

As a charter and still-current dues-paying* member of Club DWCS, I'm in the blank-looking Louisiana part of the smile. I haven't posted anything to the forum's survey, but I'm also not likely to do so once I actually have a window. Still, it would be nice to have a window to look (far) forward to, and who knows, maybe I'll get one before my third weekly Club DWCS newletter update post.

*dues-paying meaning my preorder's been in since early First Shift.

 

[danielt1263]

I say "low-qualified" because a market target of individuals who can't afford a $35K - $45k automobile are not going to be well funded nor have a credit score that will garner a decent finance rate.

Sure, but I strongly suspect that few of the early adopters are "low-qualified". As Rod Copes said, their eventual target market is not the early adopter market.
Bankrate.com is showing plenty of sub 5% rates for well qualified buyers.

 

[dmon4u]

I was hoping to put down 2/3 to 3/4 and the rest financed !

 

[kotaKat]

Sure, but I strongly suspect that few of the early adopters are "low-qualified". As Rod Copes said, their eventual target market is not the early adopter market.
Bankrate.com is showing plenty of sub 5% rates for well qualified buyers.

I'm in the 'low-qualified' group. I'm watching this space heavily. I'll be candid - I've been working on rebuilding my credit, but it's still in the high-680 space right now. I'm prepared for a down payment and I'm honestly still kind of expecting to be walking into this at a $500-600/mo payment.

Just managed to luck out that my Fusion's lasted me 6+ years now, it's paid off for a year, and now I can sit and shove cash aside for the down. I figured I'd bit the bullet super early on the preorders guessing I'd get my credit up good enough in the interim and jump on something that I could possibly truly afford new and call my own.

Hrm. I almost think I'm Slate's target customer from their introduction to the media...

I know Carvana will already technically approve me around the ~12.49% mark based on their soft preapprovals in the past (and that's still better than their worse 24.49% they'll offer to anyone that can come up with the down payment with a job and a pulse).

 

[E90400K]

Sure, but I strongly suspect that few of the early adopters are "low-qualified". As Rod Copes said, their eventual target market is not the early adopter market.
Bankrate.com is showing plenty of sub 5% rates for well qualified buyers.

I think those rates are as "available" as the mythical $27K Maverick...

 

[cadblu]

More groundbreaking analysis right here!

The population of the US maps to "a little bit of a smile."

And thus the inspiration for the Amazon logo.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

I'm in the 'low-qualified' group. I'm watching this space heavily. I'll be candid - I've been working on rebuilding my credit, but it's still in the high-680 space right now. I'm prepared for a down payment and I'm honestly still kind of expecting to be walking into this at a $500-600/mo payment.

Just managed to luck out that my Fusion's lasted me 6+ years now, it's paid off for a year, and now I can sit and shove cash aside for the down. I figured I'd bit the bullet super early on the preorders guessing I'd get my credit up good enough in the interim and jump on something that I could possibly truly afford new and call my own.

Hrm. I almost think I'm Slate's target customer from their introduction to the media...

I know Carvana will already technically approve me around the ~12.49% mark based on their soft preapprovals in the past (and that's still better than their worse 24.49% they'll offer to anyone that can come up with the down payment with a job and a pulse).

Hang in there. We've all been there. I like your plan in socking away monthly payments now until your delivery timeframe. You'll enjoy your Slate even more then!

 

[Rocks]

Good to see AZ hanging in there.

 

[AZFox]

A podcast mentioned that you currently can lease a Tesla for $329/month so I searched for that and found this:

Presumably there's a catch.

 

[FloppaEnjoyer8067]

I'm in the 'low-qualified' group. I'm watching this space heavily. I'll be candid - I've been working on rebuilding my credit, but it's still in the high-680 space right now. I'm prepared for a down payment and I'm honestly still kind of expecting to be walking into this at a $500-600/mo payment.

Just managed to luck out that my Fusion's lasted me 6+ years now, it's paid off for a year, and now I can sit and shove cash aside for the down. I figured I'd bit the bullet super early on the preorders guessing I'd get my credit up good enough in the interim and jump on something that I could possibly truly afford new and call my own.

Hrm. I almost think I'm Slate's target customer from their introduction to the media...

I know Carvana will already technically approve me around the ~12.49% mark based on their soft preapprovals in the past (and that's still better than their worse 24.49% they'll offer to anyone that can come up with the down payment with a job and a pulse).

Carvanas soft pre approval is crazy. I’ve got a 780 credit score and looked just to check and it’s also 12.5%…
My last car was 5%…