QuestionQUESTION: Hi.I Still Owe 13000 On An 2003 Acura Tl I Financed.My Issue
Is I Want To Finish Making Car Payments Soon As Possible.So Is It Possible To Trade In My Acura That Has A Blue Book Trade In Value Of 7,000 For A Car That Is Less Than That And Then Just Owe The Money Of The Remaining Loan.
ANSWER: It is very possible to do that... but In your case - with the type of car you own... you are probably better off keeping it and just making larger payments. Acura TL's are nice, reliable, good resale vehicles - You would be very hard pressed to find a vehicle cheap enough to help your cause that would be decent enough to not be a large risk... You would have to trade in or sell the acura to purchase a vehicle worth less than 8000 to not be accumulating more debt by doing this..
Sell/trade the acura (which by the way.. selling will generally give you substantially more for your car) - lets estimate you get 7k for it... pay down 7k of your loan... you are left with 5k on your loan balance.. and now car... add in a 5,000 dollar car - (which would be like a 98 Civic) and you will then owe 10,000 for a 98 civic... or you can owe 13k on an 03 Acura.... You MIGHT find something nicer for 8k.. but then you are once again going to owe 13k for an older car....
To answer your question.. yes you can trade down - but in your situation it may not be the best option.. unless you just want to live with a really old 3000-4000 dollar car.. you really arent going to gain much from trading in...
Now if you can sell the TL for say... 10-12k.. then you might be able to buy a 5k car and you will cut your loan size more than in half... But you will be going to a much older.. not nearly as nice car...
Your resale value will depend alot on your options the car has - and the current condition.. blue book it (kbb.com) - and weigh out what is most important to you...
If you decide to still trade to a lower car... write me back and i can go into detail on the steps you can take to go through with it...
Thank you for writing!
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QUESTION: Thanks. Reason Im Trading It Because Its Value Has Gone Way Down Because It Has A Few Scratches And Mechanical Problems In Which I Cant Afford To Fix.I Was Thinking Do Trade It For A Kia I Found That Has 57,000 Miles On It And Costs Only 5,000. My Acura Has 87,000 And It Could Break Any Minute. I Just Dont See It Worth Paying The Mechanical Issues And Making Car Payments As Well. I Think It Could Be Better To Trade It For The Kia And Maintain It Well And Be Done With The Car Payments Sooner. The Kia Has Way Less Miles And More Economical And Less On Gas Since Its For Cylinders Instead Of 6. I Would Like To Sell It But No One Will Buy My Car Under The Conditions Its Under.Let Me Know What You Think..
AnswerTo be honest.. you are probably better off keeping that acura over the 50k mile kia... KIA's dont have a great reliability reputation - and their resale is horrible (which is why the kia is only 5,000) - generally your car has a higher chance of being the more reliable of those two - if you can't afford to fix it as-is - that is understandable, and perhaps you can take a trade for a 5,000 honda or something with a little better reputation or resale.. (and that 80k mile acura you have shouldnt be breaking any minute.. i've seen many go well over 200k without much trouble at all.. just keep up with the regular maintenance)...
