Online car loan resources

Bargains to be found -- even with a credit crunch and even with a poor credit history

Two sites dedicated to credit education: AWARE (Americans Well Informed on Automobile Retailing Economics) is a valuable resource and Betterautoloans.com, is the home of a seven-point financing checklist.

Car Financing. You can get up-to-up car loan rate information at www.bankrate.com. At www.myfico.com you can match expected interest rates to credit scores.

Once you're done shopping for rates, you can try this online auto loan site or its companion site, www.1800autoloan.com, which will let you apply over the phone. If you see an ad for www.37carloan.com, it's a tracking site for CarLoan.com, a national leader in poor credit car loans.

Car research: The Internet Auto Guide is worth a stop, Edmunds.com draws roughly 400,000 visitors a day, the About.com auto section is just plain packed and cars.com is great, especially its finance section.

New car price quotes are available at www.getauto.com, and for used car quotes, we suggest the grand daddy of them all, Kelley Blue Book.

Niche loan sites: We suggest Car Financing Central, Car Loans Made Easy, Auto Loan Central, Auto Loan Stores and NoHassle.com.

Single-best site -- and proof that it's a great time to be buying a car. Despite the credit crunch, there are unbelievable bargains out there and you can find them at the Consumer Reports Best Car Deals Right Now.