Tips on Buying Cars: Advice, ford dealership, several different ways

Question
I purchased a 2003 Ford Ranger via a Ford Dealership about a year and a half ago. The mileage is around 49000. The loan is through a credit union in Chicago. My payments are $356 a month including the extended warranty they talked me into when buying. I am now having trouble making that large payment and want a smaller more fuel efficient car with a lower monthly payment. Can I go back to the dealership and make some kind of trade in switch to another vehicle, or is it all in the hands of the bank? I am new to the car buying world so I have no idea how this works. Thank you!

Answer
Ben,

Thanks for your question, and I am happy to help you with that situation.  

First of all there are several different ways you can go about this process.  You can always try to re-finance the vehicle for a longer term.  You can do that several different ways.  You can go to your Credit Union and ask them to re-finance the vehicle.  They may or may not, but more than likely they will.  You can also shot your rate and term buy looking into capitalone.com, wellsfargo.com, roadloans.com and various other online options.  The best are usually captialone.com and wellsfargo.com.  They are larger companies and banks.  You will simply fill out an online application and they can work with you from there.  

Your second option is to go to ANY dealer, not necessairly the dealer that you bought it from, and use the vehicle as a trade in.  The bank usually has nothing to do with this process at all.  The bank is just who you make your payments to.  They don't have any say in trading the vehicle in.  Just simply go into a dealership, and explain to the salesperson what you are trying to accomplish.  Tell them that you don't want to play any games and that you are not going to budge on the pre-determined payment that you have decided, and that you have a trade in as well.

I hope that this information helps.  If not, feel free to ask me another question.  If you get to any point in this process, I will be more than happy to answer any question you might have.

Thanks -

Jeremy