What approval actually depends on
Your score isn't the whole application. Lenders look at your income, debts, car and deal too.
People assume a lender looks at a score and says yes or no. Lenders look at a short list, and the score is only the first item on it.
Income and stability matter, because a lender is underwriting your ability to keep paying, not your past behaviour alone. Debt-to-income matters for the same reason: what you already owe each month sets how much room is left.
The car itself matters more than most buyers expect. A lender is secured by the vehicle, so its age, mileage and resale strength change what terms are available. The same applicant gets different answers on different cars.
The structure matters. Money down reduces the lender's exposure, which is often what turns a marginal application into an approved one. A co-signer does the same thing by adding another person's income and history.
And the lender matters. Captive finance arms, banks and credit unions each have their own appetite, and a file that one declines another approves at reasonable terms. A single application at a single dealership is a sample size of one.
If you have no credit history at all, that is not the same as bad credit — it is an absence of information, which is a different problem and often a more solvable one. Approval and terms always depend on the applicant, the lender and the vehicle.