Wow there is a lot of really incorrect information in this thread.
Paying an acquisition fee because you take a loan through a dealer? That's on you, not the dealer. Fees are fees, regardless of what they're called. You are 100% entitled to say no to them. There are certain fees that you simply aren't going to eliminate completely, but you have every right to shop different dealerships before you agree to a particular amount, and that amount can be negotiated just like the price of the car.
"I have great credit and almost qualified for 0%"? You don't have great credit. If you did, you would have qualified. Great credit and a great credit score are related, but aren't the same... It's also about marks on the report and your debt to income ratio.
When shopping for a car, you should start by knowing your own credit score and what that ultimately means for you in terms of where you are LIKELY to land when they pull your credit. You also need to understand how much cash you have available towards a downpayment (in addition to any trade-in amount) to ensure that you are financing a reasonable amount LESS than the value of the car. The closer to 100% you finance, the less wiggle room you have to be selective in dealers, loans, etc.
The next step is deciding on where to BUY the car because that includes things like how far you're traveling as well as what kind of price for the car you can negotiate. Focus on solidifying the ability to get the specific car you want at a price you like. If you have to make concessions (not your first color choice or has an extra option you don't necessarily want), then so does the dealer (better trade value, larger discount, etc.).
You can't get to this point, however, unless you have already done your research and understand your credit-worthiness. When you have a solid credit score and cash to put towards the deal, you can negotiate the terms of the loan as well as everything else. In 30 years of buying cars, I have used a Credit Union to finance a purchase exactly one time (and that was actually recently - Fall 2019). Credit Unions never offer better rates for me than what I can get elsewhere and rates through the dealerships for me are always the most aggressive because they want my loan business.
If you have really strong credit, find out what the prevailing rates are from the manufacturer and ask the Finance Manager the banks that tend to offer them the best rates and what those rates currently are (for your credit score). Also check with AAA to see what THEY can do to get you a decent rate (you don't have to be a member). Last fall, AAA linked me to a local credit union with a decent rate. I negotiated the rate with them BEFORE letting them pull my credit because it was essentially the same as the rate through the manufacturer (CPO) but would mean a fair amount more legwork for me. They agreed to beat the manufacturer rate provided they saw my credit report as being top tier.
The only time you will get a single hard inquiry against your credit report is when you file a loan application with exactly one lender directly. When I bought my car last fall, this is what happened because I was steered to a specific lender by AAA. This year, however, the rates through the dealership were better than what I could get on my own so I ended up with five hits so they could shop my loan app to get me the best rate.
Something else to understand is that your credit score can be represented in a variety of different ways using many different criteria. Mortgages use different criteria than auto loans, and credit cards use other details from both. There are a number of different scoring systems in use and you seldom know which one a particular bank will use (or how to research that version of your score ahead of time).
https://www.myfico.com/credit-educat...score-versions