A family SUV is the kind of purchase where the monthly payment matters less than the total you walk out signing. Most of what you'll actually pay over the next few years is the depreciation, the gas, the insurance, and the maintenance — not the financing. Around $34,000 is the realistic out-the-door number for a mainstream three-row in the US, give or take trim and region. The smartest move is usually treating it like two separate purchases: the car itself, and how you fund a piece of it.
End of model year is when dealers want last year's units off the lot so the new plates can land clean. That overlap — outgoing model, incoming model — is when haggling has the most oxygen. Walk in knowing that, and you've already separated yourself from the buyer who just wants the keys today.
The 0% intro window on the Citi Simplicity is a deadline, not free money. If there's any balance left after 18 months, the standard rate kicks in on the remaining amount and gets charged back to the original purchase date, which can get expensive fast. Set the payoff auto-pay before you even leave the dealership so the window does what you wanted it to.