If someone can't successfully finance a new car at those rates and term, I think they should downgrade until they get to a point where they can.
We got a 2015 Honda CRV with 0.5% interest rate. Over the life of our 5 year loan, the total finance charges are about $200. Not bad. We'll probably drive it until we wear it out.
We thought our Expedition was pretty classy, but the bluetooth, backup camera, and other features of the CRV are pretty cool.