Of the two of us, my wife has the better credit scores. Hers range from 683-733 and mine are 625-665. Would it be better for her to apply as a single applicant or should I co-sign with her? Would we get a better rate without me signing since my scores are lower?

If your wife can qualify using only her income/debt then I would go that route.

Are you talking about co-signing or jointly applying for the loan? A co-signer is generally someone else who agrees to be responsible for payments if the applicant fails to make them. Someone whose credit is better than the applicant. Your wife shouldn't need a co-signer, but if she did, you wouldn't count as one.

I assume that you mean should you apply for the loan jointly, and I say no--like Ross said, if she has a high enough income to afford the car on her own, she'll get a lower interest rate without you. Your lower scores will bring about a higher interest rate. But, if she doesn't have enough income to qualify for the loan, you will have to apply jointly for the loan to be approved at all, and suffer with the higher interest rate. That is what happened when we bought our van. Dh's credit stinks--he has virtually none. I had a decent score. But I'm a stay-at-home-mom with no income to my name, at least not on paper. So I had to put him down on the loan, but I put myself down on there too since my score was higher, and that gave us a half decent interest rate. Better than we'd have had if the car loan ONLY went to him.

So, do what you can, but don't apply for the loan in only your name.

thats kinda what I thought and just wanted to confirm it. She is also the bread winner of the family and makes about 10k more than i do