you are smart enough to know that "zero percent financing" is merely a marketing ploy, it translates to at most about an 8% discount on the purchase price. gm could just as easily advertise a lower price, but this has a stronger allure to buyers these days. go figure.
of course, the real bottom line cost to the program could only be determined once the true cost of manufacturing the vehicle is arrived at. with the high fixed costs that the car cos. have sunk into producing a car, the more they are able to sell, the more they are able to make, the lower each unit cost is, the lower the bottom line cost to the "zero percent financing" of a sale of the car.
as for the credit score change, I'm not too knowledgable on these relative numbers. 700 seems to be a high figure as the mean rating is mid 600s, so there is reason to believe that gmac put the minimum score very high as they were very cash short.
the question that needs to be answered to find if this is just a repeat of lending to unqualified borrowers is what other lenders are requiring. if b of a, chase and the local bank/credit union are at the same or lower ratings for a typical loan, it would stand to reason that gmac is not relaxing their standards too much. if these other lenders are not at the same rating numbers then you have a point.
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