Things You'll Need

Calculate how much of your personal savings will be used for the down payment on your car. Don't be afraid to use your disposable savings to make a larger payment. Paying more upfront can allow you to have a shorter loan and pay less in interest.

Visit as many financial institutions as possible to keep your options open. Remember that not all loans will be pre-approved and you'll have to go through an application process at most banks and credit unions.

Investigate each company that you don't have a working relationship with. You might assume that your bank won't cheat you on a loan, but some smaller lenders will try to take advantage of you. Check with the Better Business Bureau if you have any doubts about the reputation of a credit lender.

Get your interest rate quotes as annual percentage rates (APR). There are many ways to express interest rates, but APRs are the most widely used and make for easy comparisons.

Use a financial calculator to quickly account for all the different aspects of a car purchase. There are many free auto-loan calculators online, like the one at Bankrate.com (see Resources below).

Look at the loan results side-by-side after you've run them through the calculator. Make your decision based on things like which loan has the lowest interest rate and your estimated monthly payments. You may want to copy and paste the results into a spreadsheet program to easily compare them.