Money down is not always necessary, but may be at times, depending on the stipulations on the loan approval. If you have a higher tier credit rating then money down is not usually required. It also depends on how much you have been approved for and what the price of the car is. For example, if you’re approval amount is $20,000 and the out the door price of the car is $23,000 then the you would have to put down $3000.
Even though putting money down isn’t necessary, it is helpful when you want to lower your monthly payment because, obviously, the amount financed would be less. When factoring your monthly payment always figure $20/month per $1,000.
There is a lot of debate about whether you should put any money down on car purchases, so it really is a personal matter for each individual. The main motivator should be basing the amount of money down on what you want the actual monthly payment to be and getting to an amount that you are comfortable with.