Our parent company pretty much invented subprime auto finance back in 1989, and we're looking forward to celebrating our 20th anniversary next year.
In comparison to all those bad credit Web sites that want all your personal information -- but won't disclose any of theirs -- we'd like to say we have about 60 employees in our home office in Richmond, Virginia. We work in a restored tobacco warehouse with huge beams and lots of exposed brick.
We'd like to say we were named the fastest growing private company in the Richmond area in 2007. We'd like to say we use state-of-the-art computer security measures to protect your financial information. And we'd like to say we're not one of those "Everybody is approved" kind of places. Quite frankly, there are some people who will never get credit from a reputable lender, and we work only with reputable lenders.
A lot of poor credit car loans are in the $8,000 to $10,000 range (as a loan that size offers a fairly affordable payment) so we do a lot of research on the best cars in that price range.
If you want to do your own research on the subject, we first suggest going to Edmunds.com. Every year that site produces an Editors Most Wanted list. So what we do is go back a few years to find cars that have dropped into our price range (for instance, >2003 or 2004). Once you find a promising vehicle, you can get updated price information at a number of sites (including Edmunds) but just to be fair, you can also try NADA Guides or Kelley Blue Book.
When it comes to new cars:
• the cheapest is the Chevrolet Aveo (as low as $10,000 depending on incentives) and it is -- like most on the bottom end of the price scale -- a small, fuel-efficient vehicle.
• The small car that's done the best in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study has been the Kia Rio (around $11,000).
• The 2008 Consumer Reports Auto Issue said the Toyota Yaris would be the cheapest car to own over five years.