Help! Need advice on my vehicle situation

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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Hi everyone! I know I am going to open up Pandora’s box of mixed advice.
I fully expect a plethora of Dave Ramsey loving super conservative replies. (I’m not interested in that, I’ve been down that road before and life is too short).

We have a 6 person family, I’m in WV and currently have a 2023 jeep grand Cherokee L. Long story short the suv ended up being just too small ultimately.

Looking to create a strategy to get into a larger full sized suv. I did NOT roll any negative equity into this when I bought it new. To my great surprise I had a dealer appraisal today and I’m -$20,000 under water.

We have two vehicles, my thoughts are trade my jeep in for a small leased EV to capture more competitive incentives. I would then trade my Acura mdx in on a used Yukon XL or similar. Definitely not new, I don’t have that kinda cheddar. Apparently I am around 4K negative so on that one which is much easier to deal with. I work from home mainly and the kids hardly ride in my work car so I can manage with a 5 seater EV for work. My intent is to trade the mdx for a used suv that is 4-5 years old and less than $35,000 which should put me around the same payment that I have on the mdx…ish

I went and tried working a deal with Subaru today on a solterra but i ultimately walked away because im not sold that im thinking through every possible scenario objectively. Subaru dealer could make the deal work with $2,900 cash down but with a payment of $1200 with the $7,500 tax credit discount. 36 month 45,000 mile lease

My current financed payment on the jeep is $1,025 with 55 months remaining and a balance of 56k

I saw an incentive from Lexus for $17,000 lease cash which sounds interesting to me. Im confused by Lexus’ website because it says cash due at signing $17,000 but at the same time is calling it a discount??

In summary, my objective is this.

  1. Get into a full sized sub for a suitable family hauler.
  2. At minimum not increase payment commitment
  3. Wipe away $20k in negative equity via a lease and be back square in 36 months.

Any advice or input that I may not be thinking about would be appreciated.

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A used Yukon has a big potential to be a real money pit.

$35k at used car loan APRS — that kind of payment could probably get you into a Traverse or Pilot. Both are significantly more spacious than the GCL.

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Why SUV? This is the case for minivan. Get a sienna or odyssey.

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Thanks for the reply, we’ve tried an Acadia, aviator, the Jeep and all have issues with storage. Can’t haul groceries, no more than two pieces of luggage. I have a hitch platform as well but I don’t like dealing with that on the daily, not sustainable.

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I’ve had two odyssey vans. Great vans, I drove the wheels off of the first one we had. But we live in WV my driveway has a 9% slope and snow. Vans sit too low and push snow regardless of they are awd or not. Plus I pull an occasional trailer and mini vans doesn’t tow very well.

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I agree and that’s a concern. They don’t seem to last very long I just can’t reconcile spending 90k on a vehicle. I feel like we can never win with vehicles. We’ve bought cheaper used vehicles that cost us so much money and time sitting in garages that it didn’t make sense. The repercussions of having so many kids, can’t just fit in anything comfortably.

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Those are all smaller than a Traverse though.

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Why not hang onto the Jeep Grand Cherokee L for now and focus on a 1-car transaction around replacing the MDX? If you keep driving the GC L the negative equity won’t be an issue as long as you hold the car to the end of the loan term / until you are no longer underwater.

Agreed here that large crossover (Traverse, Grand Highlander) is probably where I would start. Hefty premium to pay for the full body-on-frame treatment. Traverse, VW Atlas, and Grand Highlander are all larger than Acadia, Aviator, and GC L and is probably where I would start, with some preference for Traverse and Grand Highlander.

Other option is to keep riding out both cars and just drive 2 cars when everything has to be transported at the same time… Not ideal, but to me sounds more appealing than transacting for relatively marginal increases in space.

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The only EV that’s going to cut it is a Jeep 4xe, the others will get stuck.

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4xe is a phev, not an EV.

I’m sure a Rivian R1T or a Ford Lightning would do just fine in those circumstances.

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He did mention a smaller EV, and those definitely are on the big side. And he was looking for EV incentives so a PHEV fits that as well.

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I wouldn’t consider a wrangler or a grand cherokee a smaller EV/PHEV either.

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Agreed, but as I said with new qualifiers

The Smallest EV Type that is going to cut it is a 4xe as the other smaller ones will get stuck

I don’t think any sedan EV has the clearance, nor a lot of the smaller SUVs

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Subaru solterra is awd with a fair amount of ground clearance.

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15

Good point! Might work

Van 6"
Solterra 8"
4xe 10"

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This.

Seems like trying to roll the $20k of negative equity into an EV or otherwise is just unnecessarily over complicating the problem. Either way you’re still eating the $20k.

Replace the MDX with the best vehicle that works for you within your budget, that’s probably the only good option at this point.

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It would have made much more sense IF the payment on the lease would have been less than the loan payment that I currently have.

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You’re probably looking at around $700/mo added to a 36 month lease to cover the negative equity, so you’ll need something sub-$300/mo without the negative equity rolled in to “break even”

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Thank you. When I saw Lexus RV $17,000 lease cash I thought that it may make a considerable difference in my situation.

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Won’t make a bit of difference to what you pay. You have to pay the negative equity one way or the other.

The only thing it will potentially do is enable the lease to actually absorb that much negative equity and still fund since you may still be within the LTV limits.

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