<prompt> Human: I graduated last May with my doctorate and I am half way through my residency right now. In the last six months I have saved 10K in a checking account and I have not started investing. My residency stipend is 41K for the year and once I get my first clinical job this summer, my salary will jump up to 100-120k. I want to get a car since I will not have one in about 2 months and I have had my eye on a new 2013 Mazda3 that is listed for 16,997. I plan on talking them down maybe 1-2k I know they are trying to turn over inventory this time of year. I applied to get a 5-year loan pre-approved through my bank for 17k with an interest rate of 7.49. Are there better options Im in the North East, USA? Is this car out of my range? Will this pre-approval process significantly affect my credit? My credit is pretty good, my very first card I applied to and got approved for had a 3k limit. Im currently at home and I dont pay rent however I will be moving out in the summer and will be paying more for rent, utilities, etc. I also have about 38k in student loans.edit: I plan on putting 3000 down on the car :  <response>: That interest rate is horrible for a new car. My car loan is at .9. You should shop around a bit. 