Tips on Buying Cars: need to sell car, nissan quest, several thousand dollars

Question
Hi,

My parents financed a car about a year ago, and
they are having trouble paying the monthly bills
(due to slow business). If there was somebody who
wanted to take over the car and financing, what
are the steps we'd need to take to ensure that
the any responsibility, everything related to the
car is completely transfered over to the person
who wants to buy it?

Since we are having financial trouble at this
time, they definitely need to get rid of this
approximately $500 a month nissan Quest van..

Thanks,
k.s.

Answer
The only way to "completely transfer liability" is to sell the vehicle. If you allow someone to just "take over payments," then your parents will still be responsible for the loan.

If they have to sell the vehicle because they're having trouble making the payments, then I'd be willing to bet that they almost certainly owe more money on the Quest than it's worth.  If they have to sell it for less than they owe, then they would have to come up with the difference to pay off the loan in order to clear the debt. This can often be several thousand dollars, and if $500 per month is difficult to come by, then I can imagine how hard it would be for them to come up with several thousand $ right now, out-of-pocket no less.  

I understand this is a difficult time for them (I watched my parents go through bankruptcy- TWICE), but when it comes to auto financing this is a cold, hard world.  The bank wants its payments, or they want the vehicle back or the loan paid off.  I honestly don't know of any alternative financing that would allow them to walk away from the van without a significant investment of cash.  If someone DOES offer such an alternative, please run it by me before anyone signs on the dotted line; 999 times out of 1000, these are scams that will get your parents into deeper trouble.