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Originally Posted by you&me
It's worth keeping in mind that the manufacturers and finance companies don't have some magic pool of capital that allows them to actually loan money out several points under prime... Those rates are bought down by the profit margin in the car... So for instance, if you're getting 1.9% financing, that's ~3% under prime, so on a $40k car on a 5 year term, there's ~$6k that's either built into the price of the car, or not otherwise being discounted.
If possible, it's always better to negotiate the price of the new car first, before broaching the topics of financing or trades... Leaves less room for dealer games.
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Multiple car companies own their own financing companies. They an afford to lease/finance at below prime, as they aren't necessarily borrowing the money from someone else. The car company doesn't necessarily care about what prim is, just what their overall cash flow is. When prime is higher, they don't need to compete with outside finance companies and will raise their own rates to increase profits.