Is it worth it to trade?

Question

I have a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix GT. I think it is ugly. It is a fast car, but it really just doesn't look modern, and it also has a cheap looking interior. Leather, but everything else it cheap. I owe 22,000. I want to trade it in for a 2007 Honda Accord EX Accord Coupe V6. The accord has a sunroof, and leather seats, and XM radio. Is it worth it? What am I looking at if I do?

Answer 1

You are going to be COMPLETELY upside down, you will probably need quite a bit of cash when all is said and done!

Answer 2

I hate to use Kelley Blue Book, but I did in this case just to get an idea of the value of your car. It showed a 2007 GT with 15,000 miles to be worth around $12K.

So, you're absolutely buried in that thing. Unfortunately, Grand Prixs have always had horrible resale value.

Assuming the dealer would give you $12K for it, you then need to come up with another $10K to overcome your negative equity. Don't try to roll over that much negative equity into a new loan, as no bank will overallow that much (you're lucky if you get them to overallow 120%). If, by some miracle, the bank would allow that much over, then you're even more buried in a new car.

Plus, it gets asked all of the time, and the answer is: "No, there is no way for a dealer to hide that much negative equity." So many people come on here and ask about some "magic" way for it to dissappear, but it doesn't exist.

So, you have to decide if coughing up the cash to overcome the negative equity is worth having the Accord. I would try to double-up on payments for about 2 years, then try again. Common sense tells you to just pay off the GP and be happy, but if you're already wanting a new car, I'll bet you tire of it in less than 6 months. It's hard to trade that far upside-down, so I'd just "grin and bear it" for awhile.