Tips on Buying Cars: Trading in two cars for one, goldsboro north carolina, bryan nelson

Question
Hi Jeff,my name is Bryan Nelson and I'm currently stationed in Goldsboro North Carolina in the Air Force.  My wife recently got out of the Military so obviously were not making what we were when she was still in.  So we realized we don't have the need for two cars anymore.  There is no point in making two car payments if we only need one you know.  So my question is is this even plausible to trade in two cars.  I asked around and I couldn't find anyone who has attempted this before, and I also don't want to just go in to a dealership and ask them just because I don't enjoy being hounded by dealers as soon as I pull in.  We do have negative equity on both cars.  So i understand we'll be financing about $8,000 to $10,000 extra on a new car,  depending on what they give us for our trade ins.  So with this much negative would a bank even finance the car?  Because i know most banks won't go higher than 130% of the car value, maybe that is just with used cars though and we'll be purchasing a new one.  Probably a Honda Civic, not for sure though.  So if you have any information about the "double trade in" I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you for your time.

Answer
There's no problem in trading in 2 cars for one- it's done all the time.  Your problem is that you owe a lot more than they're worth, and that makes it a bit more complicated.  You could trade them in for a new car and get the balance from both rolled into the new payment, IF you have outstanding credit (a credit score of 750 or higher).  HOWEVER- that's the very last thing you should consider.  We all know that a new car depreciates dramatically the moment you drive it off the dealer's lot.  So, if you owe $8-10,000 more than what your current 2 cars are worth, what will your negative equity then be on the new car- $15,000?  $16,000?  Even with great credit, you'd be hard-pressed to get ANY bank to go along with that.  The bank will want a substantial down payment before they'll consider such a deal, probably $4-5,000.  I know you don't want to hear this, but this is what you should do: assuming you don't need one vehicle over the other (pickup vs. car, for example), take the car which has less negative equity and sell it yourself, then use that $4-5,000 the bank would want for a down payment on the new car and pay off the balance.  An expensive lesson, to be sure, but you'll come back here and thank me later.  I'd like to discuss this with you further, Bryan, as there just isn't space here to get into everything you need to know.  Please e-mail me at: markii56 at yahoo dot com when you can.