My girlfriend is in a car situation and I am hoping to find the cheapest way out. She has a 2013 Volvo XC60 and just found out she has ~$8k in repairs coming up that obviously don’t make sense to invest in. She owes $9.5k on it but KBB says it’s worth $6.2k. I am assuming it’s worth less than KBB even though the check engine light is not on. Is there a way to roll this into a cheap lease like the cx-30 without having an astronomical payment? Unfortunately has to be a gas car.
Time to look at an EV lease. Soak the negative equity up.
Do a 2 year or 3 year deal and you are done.
I know that would be our best option but needs to be gas because of our lack of charging at home and work.
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In that case. Not a popular choice. But dodge has really struggled with the hornet.
Could be a good cheap option. The are discounting the heck out of them.
Thanks I’ll look into the Hornet as well.
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Nothing gets soaked up. Or absorbed. Or washed. Or buried. Idk why this myth keeps being perpetuated.
Only thing that happens with negative equity is that it gets re-borrowed. So look for the lowest borrowing cost.
OP what’s your budget?
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Yeah I know the debt won’t go away just looking for the cheapest way for her to get a car without issues. Ideally like to keep it under $350 with minimal down.
If your girlfriend can’t write a check for 3k are you sure she can afford a new car? She is just getting herself in a bigger hole.
Hopefully all the recent negative equity posts is not a sign of where the economy is headed.
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You are obviously not an ideal EVs user but this is a situation where id ask myself whether you can suck it up for 24 months using public charging. You can get all the normal rebates plus it looks to me like $3,500 state rebate plus 1k Trade in rebate for going from ICE to EV..
With the rebates GF should easily be able to get out from under negative equity for a payment of under $350 a month.
It’s probably more like a $5k check. But IMO that really supports doing whatever possible to get out of this financial hole as quickly and painlessly as possible. Which probably means spending a few hours a week at a public charger.
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Usually I wouldn’t suggest she gets a new car but when looking at used she’d end up with a $10k Corolla which could have problems for the same monthly as a lease like a cx-30.
The Dave Ramsey types who suggest getting a used Corolla did that 30 years ago. Carvana doesn’t have a single one for 10k or less. $13k gets you a 15 year old one with 100k miles. Way better off getting a base model new one and driving it into the ground.
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A good ~$100/mo is going to come from the negative equity alone. It could very well be higher depending on exactly what repairs are needed and what the particular dealer will do for a trade value.
And if you do decide to dance in the ev party, be sure to look insurance premiums BEFORE purchasing.
It does get soaked up. Into a new loan…
Quite frankly every single person in here knows what I am saying. Including you.
No different than if I say bro that car is fire. I don’t mean the car is literally on fire.
So calm down on the grammar police.
No one is saying the bad debt is forgiven.
Even if a dealer paid the payoff and overpaid on a trade. They will get ya somewhere else.
We get it. But thanks 
You can’t look at monthly payments like that because it’s apples to oranges.
Buy a $7,500 used car, spend over the next 4 years $4,000 on financing, tax, maintenance, etc: sell it for $5k = that’s a net spend of $6,500/48 =135.417
See if @aronchi can stuff her into an S90 lease now that MA was absorbed into the NY tri-state compact
Yup, there’s a huge black hole in the middle of the used car market where they’re still overpriced.
With a few exceptions, almost everything above $7,500 for a reliable used car is overpriced. Either stay below that or buy a new Corolla/Elantra/Sentra.
For used cars, the trick is to avoid dealers and the hack is to avoid what everyone else is chasing. Think Lexus ES and Avalon instead of Corolla and Camry. Think older instead of newer. Late model used Japanese brands are often the worst kind of purchase.
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This, 2002-2006 Lexus ES, albeit not having all the tech of new cars, it’s reliable. A good condition 100-150k miles+ can be had for $5-7.5k. Replace the struts and timing belt, that car can easily last to 300k miles.
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You’d be surprised how many people I have seen say something about the incentives eating the negative equity and then not understanding why the monthly payment went up by hundreds of dollars.
A lot of people also don’t factor it that by rolling that negative equity in, they now get to pay sales tax on that whole amount as well as the additional rent charge.
What you’re saying should be obvious sadly isn’t to a lot of people.
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Wasnt there a dedicated (-)equity sticky or thread that explains to folks how that works?
Excuse my Friday brain fog.