Getting preapproved requires a “hard inquiry” into your credit history by the lender. That knocks a few points off your credit score. The good news is multiple hard inquiries for car loan preapprovals are typically treated as a single inquiry by scoring models when they occur in a 14-day window. So once you start shopping for a car and a preapproved loan, try not to take more than two weeks to close a deal. If you’re diligent in your financing journey, you’ll look back and say the trip was worth the hassle.