While I didn’t necessarily love what I drove yesterday at the Volkswagen dealership, the last thing that they tried to pitch to me before leaving the lot was pretty interesting. They sales manager there told me about the Volkswagen College Graduate Program (here is an official scan of the program brochure from VW itself).
In one last attempt to get me to buy a car that day, the sales manager approached me to ensure that things had not gone awry with my salesman, Scarly (seriously, that’s the name on his business card). I told him that Scarly had treated me well, but that it just wasn’t right for me that day. He asked me about my buying timeframe. “Well, I graduate in December, so I’m looking around at a lot of things,” I said. That’s when he told me about the special financing options for college grads.
Many young adults that are about to graduate or just finished their degrees have never had a true, professional job before. They do not have a lot of credit to their name, so their ability to buy a car and finance it at a reasonable interest rate is limited. Volkswagen’s program aims to help people who will graduate within six months or have graduated within the last 12 months resolve that.
As the sales manager tells it, as long as the purchaser has an official offer letter from an employer before or after graduation (or proof of employment if he or she has already started working with the company), Volkswagen will treat the buyer as if they have “A+ credit,” which will lower monthly interest rates and possibly grant approval for more money, and thus a bigger/newer/fancier car, than elsewhere.
Even though I didn’t really like the Jetta, that doesn’t mean someone else can’t love it and really want it. There are a lot of other cars on that lot besides Jettas too, so for the Millennials that might not have a favorable financial history (or any financial history, for that matter), it might be worth a look at Volkswagen to see if their money team can help them on the road in a new car.
Zac Baker 