Granted, there is an additional cost in renting a truck, but would the number of times you’d rent a truck outweigh all the negative equity you’re rolling over to another vehicle? With where interest rates are at the moment, I’d just bide my time.
Also, how short notice are you deciding to go camping? Hours? You can’t plan ahead a day or two before getting out of town?
It’s also not like you’re stuck with the Jeep forever; I’m just going to say that right now is not a good time or a good choice to try to bury that negative equity.
Have you considered selling the Jeep privately, if the potential gain would be worth it?
And immediate $10k loss covers many pathfinder lease payments.
Otherwise, I don’t see this as an impossible feat. You said you’d be willing to front up to $6k in cash, and you claimed that you know your target deals on the vehicles. That leaves roughly $4-$5k of negative equity to be rolled over, assuming the $21k ACV and obviously depending on how the lease is structured. If you have decent credit, and the replacement vehicle has a fair amount of discount/incentives, I don’t see an issue. Find the right dealer and run the numbers.
Start making double payments or more to pay the jeep down to a point where you aren’t negative and start with a clean slate or go buy an old 1/2 chevy pickup or suburban and use it to tow the camper. I love campers/rv’s but unless you’re using them every weekend, the math sucks, hence I rent one when I get the itch, it’s convenient to have your own, but again, the math is terrible. Are you really going to use the trailer much in the winter? If not, what’s the hurry.
Oh and for anyone shopping travel trailers, don’t even think of getting close to the max tow weight of a vehicle, it’s not safe and will lead to issues down the road, always have a good buffer.
I usually tow it at about 3800lbs, and it is just me and my spouse in the vehicle, but once and a while we take my in-laws, which is why we bought the larger trailer, because, despite their age, they love to go camping!
Anyone who picked up a car in the last 18 months is underwater currently. Assuming they are all “living above their means” because they got a car in the most ridiculous overpriced market in history is a pretty ridiculous assumption to make.
OP am I reading this right as in its a Cherokee, not a Grand Cherokee? If so you are over DOUBLE your towing capacity. You should never be trailering that thing.
I was assuming the OP is living above his means because he bought a trailer, bought a tow vehicle, then bought a bigger trailer without having a plan for a suitable tow vehicle, and then posted this thread about where he needed payments to be, implying they couldn’t be higher than that. The initial post gave an impression of financially irresponsible behavior. If that’s not the case, then great.
You could take a personal loan for the amount of the negative and pay down your current car loan balance, and also open up a new balance transfer credit card (multiple options out there) with 12-21 months of 0% APR, and then transfer the personal loan balance to the credit card.
Even with a 3-4% transaction fee, it’s pretty cheap money.
You may also have an existing card with an appealing transfer offer. I get them in the mail, in various credit card apps, and on the issuers’ web sites almost constantly.
Thanks for all the constructive comments, and your time. I did check out a 2024 Silverado that was discounted about 9k from the dealer, with 1k from Costco and 500 with a GM educator discount. With 7k down payment (some of which would come from a 0 apr card) we got the payments to about 560.
Ultimately, we decided not to do it, to take that much out of savings and for a truck that a bit bigger than I wanted. Maybe we’ll think again in at the end of the month or so.
These are just more tools to perpetuate a cycle of debt that the borrower may not be able to pay off on time. Not just perpetuate it, but add to it through more fees.
It doesn’t really matter how the sentence “I don’t have the cash to pay off the negative equity because…” ends. It doesn’t matter whether you were paying down a mortgage or what the reason was, if you didnt have the ability to comfortably get a new tow vehicle, don’t buy a bigger trailer until you do.
The cycle of bad decisions likely goes back further: buying one of the least reliable vehicles, likely overpaying for it, overpaying for a warranty to cover yourself against its notorious unreliability, probably at a horrible APR, which combined with the falling value is the reason OP sees no time soon when he’ll be above water on this thing, and to compound all that just goes and buys a bigger trailer anyway.
I don’t say this to kick people when they’re down. I say it because the denial from the OP in this thread is insufferable. As if each of these bad decisions was a good one. Nothings gonna change unless you smack the backside of your own head, admit how many mistakes were made, stop justifying them and finally realize the cycle must end.
Max is single-handedly trying to reform contemporary American Consumerism (aka have debt up to your eyeballs) and throw us all into the next recession.
