Bottom line: you don't want to have co-signers for several reasons.

First, it's not a wise thing to do. It even says not to co-sign in the Bible. You put the co-signer's credit on the line if something goes wrong. If you don't make the payment, guess who they come after? Yupa??the co-signer. Can you say, "Friendship over," or, "Relationship strained?"

In addition, having co-signers appear on your credit reports weakens your position with future lenders. When a new lender sees you've had a co-signer, they'll consider you a greater risk and they may ask for a co-signer for their loan as well. In other words, once you get a co-signer for one loan, you start a vicious cycle that is hard to break.

The word "no" meant nothing

You must understand...most of the lenders you come into contact with after bankruptcy have no interest in helping you recover. You're going to hear the word "no" a lot.

You've got to get in your head that the word "no" means absolutely nothing. So if a car dealer tells you, "There's no way you'll be able to get financed, you shouldn't believe him. If a mortgage broker laughs at your goal of owning your first home instead of renting...laugh right back at her.

Discovered the power of asking open-ended questions

When a lender tells you, "No,"...don't stop there! You'd be missing out on the best part of the experience. You need to ask some very important questions, like...

"What would you do if you were me?"

"Since you can't help me, where would you go if you needed to get financed?"

Asking open-ended questions like these helps you find the people you should've been talking to in the first place. That's how we found the car dealer that financed our first car after bankruptcy with very little money down (and that was a post-dated check) at 2.9% interest.

Of course, now I think that's a so-so deal.

All you need to do is know where to go...be prepared...know which cars have the best incentives...and know what questions to ask. Most importantly, always be ready to walk away from the deal, no matter how much you want that new car.