I suspect that the teenagers you’re seeing have had someone co-sign on the loan.

I presume you’re at the “getting pre-approval” stage and haven’t actually picked out a car yet? I’m not sure if I have any advice there, but banks often have limits on how little you can borrow and how old the car can be once you do select something.

You need to use a credit card for a year before companies will give you a loan.

There's no deep reason, it's just the arbitrary line they're looking for on your credit report.

Use your credit card normally (don't carry a balance, pay the whole amount every month). Open an account at a credit union and use them for your daily banking.

After a few months of paying the credit card bill they should approve you for a 5k loan. For a used car it may actually be easier to get it as a personal loan than an auto loan, although you'll pay a little more in interest. They don't like to finance cheap used cars all that much IME.

The issue for you here is time, unfortunately. A word of caution to others: get a credit card at 18, never ever carry a balance. Your credit will be excellent and ready to go when you need it later.

Where do you live? In Chicago you can buy a mid-2000s car for $2-3k via Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Maybe you could scrape up the cash, esp if you're able to get anything for the Avalon. Dealer premium vs private party is significant at this price range.

It's hard to finance a car that old, although you'll probably have trouble financing anything right now with limited credit. A buy here pay here lot will get you into a car, but you really don't want that.

Only thing you can do is try to build credit. Make a credit karma account, it gives you instant credit reports updated every day, and they have a tool to suggest credit cards you qualify for. Then use them each month and pay them off when the statement comes, it doesn't have to be a lot, just enough that it shows up on your credit report. You can get a pretty good score jump in a few months.

Also, you can absolutely lie about your income to credit card companies, they don't check anything. Just don't lie to any other lenders, because they will check.

i've applied for two auto loans but was turned down due to 'limited credit' but i see teenagers who work at wendy's driving nicer/newer cars they were able to finance

This is how the 2007-2009 housing crises began - greedy bankers lending out to people they know will not be able to pay back. These are predatory loans (I mean, all are, but some are more than others).

Some car makers will offer 0% APR loans, though these typically only apply to newer models. It might be worth it if you can deal with a multi year loan.

Another option is taking a look at 0% APR BNPL introduction offers from credit cards. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/buy-now-pay-later-is-already-standard-on-some-credit-cards. Chase and Amex have good options - 12-24 months of free loans (the cards aren’t too bad either, both having sign up bonuses, and you can get $900 with chase if you have enough money to park in their bank accounts). I have used both and put several purchases on these 0% APR BNPL plans so I can leave more money in my HYSA. Depending on your credit worthiness, you may get over $10k in credit for each card which you can probably split your car purchase. I was kind of dumb and decided to sign up for these to fund my hobbies and tuition. If I was a little smarter, I would wait until I had more responsibilities and take advantage of the free loans for things like rent and bills.

Sometimes if your credit sucks ass you can have someone cosign, put something up as collateral, or put a bigger down payment since these things represent a reduction in the risk the lender takes on. It really do be a shitass system though where you need credit to get credit.

Worst case scenario, get a cheapo Nissan, they will finance anyone.

unless you absolutely need it the loan may not be worth the effort. like others have said, you need more of a history of on time payments to get into bigger loans vs starter credit cards, like a year. plus with a loan you'll be required to get full coverage insurance and such which will cost more

With credit scores that low... so long as you have steady income you could try leasing a car. Might do some research to see if paying the "rent" on a car lease counts towards your credit score.

Got anybody who you trust and trusts you that can co-sign a loan with you? Or... if everybody is really REALLY cool with each other, somebody who can take out a loan from a bank and you just pay them back in reasonable installments?