A cursory reading would provide the answer:
1) Get car with dealer financing.
2) Use car to commute to new job.
3) Receive wages for work from employer.
4) Use wages to make loan payments.
I don’t have a car and I am totally dependent on transit to find and maintain employment, and it totally sucks. I’m tired of finding listings for great jobs and not being able to get to them.
Lots of things ‘totally suck’. So why the hell should anyone just give you a loan without a down payment? Why the hell should you even have a car if you can’t afford to pay for it?
Perhaps you would be more at home at another, less conservative, website? There, people might not be as keen on relying on themselves to fix their own problems.
That may be your plan, but there are a lot of people in this country who are prone to skipping steps 2-4. The lender needs to take reasonable measures to ensure that the buyer will make good on his obligation.
As we have seen, writing a big fat loan check with no money down and minimal documentation didn’t work out so good. I do hope those days are gone since this practice drove prices sky-high for cash customers.
Here's the deal. You've got 3 numbers to play with when buying a car--the price of the car, the interest rate on the loan, and the down payment. That's it. You and the dealer have to make those 3 numbers come out to something you can handle. And I'm saying there ain't a number you can handle if you can't even manage to scare up $1000 bucks.
For someone in your situation, being young and all, I recommend hitting up your parents. If they can't help you get started with a loan, maybe they can let you live rent free for a while. Work out a deal to "rent" their car if possible. If not, walk to work if you have to. Been there, done that. Take any job at all. Even at minimum wage you could clear a couple hundred a week. If you can eat your parents food and sleep in your old bedroom, you can have $1000 in about a month.
It's not that tough. Most people just have no sense or aren't willing to swallow their pride, do what they need to do. Once you get the car, and the phat job, do the right thing and pay your parents back in installments for letting you stay there. Even if they refuse, do it. It'll completely buy back your sense of pride and self-sufficiency.
If your parents aren't an option, there are plenty other ways. Find a cheap ass room to live in. Even a grungy boarding house. Better would be just a very small room in an apt house somewhere. Get one in a town with lots of jobs. Get one, or better still, two of those jobs. Save up 1000 dollars buy living cheap, having no fun for a while. Instead of going out and chasing girls, stay at home and read classic books that inspire and educate, so you will become a stronger, more capable person.
Anyway, I won't be surprised if you come back with all sorts of reason why nothing will work. If that's the case, just accept that you're a big LOSER, and go get a tattoo of a big red L on your forehead. Pay for it with a credit card.
>>>I don’t have a car and I am totally dependent on transit to find and maintain employment, and it totally sucks. I’m tired of finding listings for great jobs and not being able to get to them.<<<
The obvious solution would seem to be:
1) Find a job that you CAN get to on mass tranist (or alternatively move to a place where you can get to “great jobs” on the bus or train.)
2) Work hard at that job, and SAVE money to buy an inexpensive, older car that will get you to and from one of those “great jobs”. Not glamorous, but useful and an investment in your future.
3) Save up money from that great job, that the old car enabled you to get, to buy a better car, either with cash or with the loans that will become available to you when you have saved a down payment and can demonstrate that you have sufficient, steady income.
This is the way America used to work. Same goes for houses. Once upon a time, the American Dream was something you worked hard for and really appreciated when you achieved it, not something you felt entitled to, and took for granted when you got it.
Quit whining, take a low end job if you must, SAVE $$$, buy a clunker and get to better work.