How much are buy here pay here cars, and how much do they want down?

Nobody can give you a straight number, and any site that prints one is guessing. The price and the down payment both move with the specific car, your income, and how long you've been at your job — which is exactly why the signs advertise a figure and the desk quotes you something else.

Here's what actually sets it. The number on the banner is a floor, not a price: it's the least that lot will take on its cheapest vehicle. Move up to a car with fewer miles and it rises. The lot is also pricing risk, so someone with two years at the same employer and steady deposits gets asked for less than someone who started last month — same car, different number.

What you can rely on is the shape of it. Expect to pay more than a bank-financed buyer would for a comparable car, because the financing is bundled into the price. Expect a shorter term, often two to three and a half years. And expect payments weekly or every two weeks rather than monthly, so work out the monthly equivalent before you agree — a weekly figure sounds smaller than it is.

The one question that gets you a real answer is blunt and works on the phone: what's the least you'll take down on your cheapest car, and what would the payment be? Any lot worth visiting answers both without making you come in. Ask three or four and you'll have a range for your situation, which is worth more than any published average.

That's what we do here — you tell us what you've got, and we ask the lots near you rather than sending you to drive the strip.