Got approved for an auto lease 13 months out of Chapter 7!

[PHXDWTN]

I will see what their final answer is. I have a feeling it will go through. This Audi dealership is brand new, opened just in the last month or so and I know they don't want a bad name out there. There is no other Audi dealership on this side of town and the next nearest is about 45 minutes away so they want to have a good name in the community. Not only is this taking unimaginably long, but they initially tried to fraud us with the sales tax, so it just doesn't look good on their end. If things end well, of course I will end up having positive reviews about them from then on as they did approve and help out someone with less than perfect credit, but if they ultimately deny it, you can bet everyone will hear about it.

Additionally, the car now has 800+ miles on it. Now it hasn't been titled so I guess it's still technically a new car, but who is going to want to buy a new car with 800+ miles when you can get one that has 50 miles? I know they want to sell this car and I truly believe they are trying to do what they can but in the end, they just have to make it happen, not just try.

[PHXDWTN]

I received a call from the GM of the dealership today saying that he is working directly with Audi Financial and that they have a few questions...

They wanted to know why, after 1.5 years out of bankruptcy, I feel I can now afford such an expensive car. They wanted to know if I had previous auto loans as none show on my credit report (which is odd, I don't know what they are looking at but the report I pulled 3 months ago shows two previous auto loans that were paid off).
I also told them that my husband (who isn't on the car loan) also had a previous auto loan with Audi/VW Financial that was paid off years ago.

His question about the BK 1.5 years ago and now wanting such an expensive car is legitimate, but our circumstances have really changed. We both own a business from home which we started 6 years ago and the first couple years it was decent, then the economy tanked and we made it through but obviously with a big drop in income. Beginning last year, we actually expanded, added some sales people and along with the economy, have been doing much better. Feb '11 was actually our best month to date...and then March '11 actually beat Feb! The ~$500/month car payment really isn't a problem.

He ended the car by saying "Hold tight, we'll get this resolved" and sounded pretty positive so I'm hoping I hear some good news either later today or tomorrow at the latest.

[PHXDWTN]

Update:

Everything finally approved! The credit was really the issue in the end, even though I thought they just wanted the car back because their deal wasn't quite as good for them as they had hoped. Big thanks to the dealership and Audi Financial for making it happen as the credit score I went in with really isn't the kind of score that gets you a lease approved.

The car ended up being $37,475 (including $750 loyalty discount), Residual Value of $20,561.50.
The payment is $468.88 + tax of $42.67 = $511.55 total payment. It was completely zero down, they covered the first month's payment plus $772.90 for all licence/tag/title fees and Doc Fee for a total of $1707.33 in "cash rebate" effectively bringing the price of the car to $35,767.67. MSRP is $41,475.

This should really help my credit post BK now I'm thinking. I also have 2 unsecured credit cards that I use and pay off monthly, plus this, I should be in great shape in a year or so.

[IBroke]

Congrats! As I said before, anything else than an approval at this point in time would have been ridiculous.

[PHXDWTN]

Absolutely it would have been. I'm so relieved and happy it ended well and and am really happy about having a car loan on my credit now, I think it will help greatly. Still amazed they gave it to me with such a low score, especially since the interest rate is 2.2%.

[Klesko]

Whenever a finance manager lets you walk off the lot with a car they are going to do everything possible to make the deal go through. It happens but extremely rare that it falls though and almost all times it was because the customer lied about something which was latter caught then the deal was being finalized.

I have owned Audis for a long time. After my recent BK I had to let mine go but I hope to get another one down the road again.

[Amy26]

Yay! I just started reading this thread from the beginning and I kept thinking "I hope this has a happy ending". That's super cool. My husband and I almost bought an A4 a few months ago but I just thought the car was too cramped on the inside. If we got an Audi again it would be an A6 I think. Course, I have my eye on a Mercedes. ^^

[lilacs80]

I haven't been on for a little while and I thought of you today. So I got onto your thread to see how everything went.....I was so nervous as I was reading, fingers crossed and everything. I'm so happy everything worked out for you!

YAY!!!

[Road2Freedom]

Wow, that is great news. I had been planning to try to lease next year (should be 3 years post BK then) and had lost all hope until I read this. Thanks for sharing.