Other Questions on My Car Situation?

Question

I bought a used AS IS 2000 Ford Focus it turns out to be a lemon and a bad car deal. The transmission is now about to go out and im in college and I can't afford to keep repairing this car and i bought it from an auto sales place so he didnt do no credit check and he refuses to help out in any way. So i just want info on how I can do a trade in? I still owe 6,000 on it and I know that the trade in value is only 1700 and it will be considered upside down. But, at this point this is my only option. I pay monthly payments of 400 dollars. 200 every two weeks now with this car. I wanted to go to another dealer do the trade in for another reliable used car it doesnt have to be new. Can anyone offer my any real advice please? This is really serious for me. Please don't put smart remarks or comments this time.

Answer 1

If you do trade it in, keep in mind that rolling the negative equity into the loan will get you a car you pretty much won't be able to get rid of before it's paid off. You'd better make sure it's a car you like and will last for the duration.

Answer 2

Not sure what you're wanting to find out, honestly.

You're in a precarious position and you've talked yourself into trading in a car that you're buried in. If this is truly your only option (and it sounds like you've talked yourself into that corner), then you have to either do one of two things:

1) Find a way to cover that negative equity. Do you have $4500 in cash? This will make it much easier to trade. However, I think you would have already decided to do this and wouldn't have asked the question if you had that cash laying around.

2) Go ahead and trade 'er in upside-down, and prepare to be buried in another car for 5-6 years. If you decide to do this, find something like a Civic, Corolla, etc. that will give you years of relatively trouble-free driving. Also, when you're done paying that dude off, it'll still have some value to it. If you've found that your Focus is going to cost you thousands to repair, you might indeed be stuck into trading.

You've got one major problem staring you right in the face: the negative equity. If you do try to roll over that whole $4500 or so to the new loan, don't be surprised if the dealer/lender can't pull it off. If you're looking at cars costing $5-10,000 at best, it'll be even harder to pull off.

If you do indeed trade, make sure you negotiate the cost of the car FIRST. Then, negotiate the trade. Do your homework and find a vehicle that will have better resale value this time around. When you said "I pay $400 a month, $200 every other week", this tells me you went to a "buy here, pay here" lot. Avoid this if you can. Try online lending sources or your bank/credit union and get prequalified, then go shopping. Paying $400 a month on a 8-yr old car is just criminal. If you have bad credit, this adds to the problem tremendously... you might not have a choice on where you get your trade.

I wish I could say "stick it out and try to repair that Focus", but it sounds like you can't do so.

Good luck. Don't go in with a "woe is me", go in informed and stick to your guns. Trading in upside-down isn't easy.

***EDIT*** -- Ok, so you didn't like my answer and gave it a thumbs-down? What answer are you looking for? Apparently, you're like most of the folks who ask this similar question every day: you want a magic way out of this that doesn't exist. You can't invoke the lemon law, the dealer is holding you to the contract, and you need repairs.

Answer 3

It may be a bad deal, but it's not a lemon (only new cars can be lemons, yours is used, and as is) and you wanted the deal.  There isn't much you can do, it's not worth what you owe on it, and no one is going to take it off your hands.

Seriously, your only option is to fix it, and drive it, and keep paying until you finally have it paid for.