re: Is having a credit score really necessary?

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how can I buy that $35,000 car

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If you have good credit, no problem.

The problem is in justifying the expense. Buy used.

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I like the way you think. But how can I buy that $35,000 car when I only make $50K a year (you see where I am going with this?).

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It can be done, but you will need good debt to income ratios and about 20% down and will need to go to a credit union.

I had shitty credit several years ago, but made good money with zero debt and enough in my 401k, IRA to pay cash for a nice car if I wanted.

Bought a Benz with 25% down, about a 12-15% debt to income ratio and showed enough in retirement assets to buy the car with cash. Got a loan at a credit union pretty easily with about a 575 FICO, but it was a manual underwrite and basically a no brainer considering I had no debt, good assets and good income.

So, yeah, you can make large purchases on credit with a shitty score but it has to make a lot of sense to the credit union (I had no prior relationship with them, just walked in) and have shown you can build some assets and have a low DTI ratio.

Oh yeah, this was in 2008 when credit had already gotten super tight due to the housing crash.