Horrible car buying decision - any advice appreciated

Dear Hackrs, I am posting this question on behalf of one of my tenants, a lovely young woman who is just starting her life and fell into several dealer traps. 10 weeks after purchase, she realized she made a mistake. To add insult to injury, the vehicle’s air conditioning system is now acting up.
My tenant is devastated and doesn’t know what to do. The only advice I had to offer is to sell as soon as possible. If you have any words of wisdom to impart, please share them. Thank you.
purchase agreement from tenant 2.pdf (1001.8 KB)

First step is to call and cancel the warranty.

Second step is to immediately refi if she wants/needs to keep the vehicle.

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Have her sell the car as soon as she can even though she will most likely be taking a loss.

2019 Civic with 110K Miles at a 25% APR. If she rides it out till maturity she’s spending over 40K for a Honda Civic.

She’s paying more in finance charges then the price of the car itself.

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There’s no point selling the car just to repeat the same mistake again

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If it’s her first time financing a vehicle with no co-signer that interest rate is what she’s going to see no matter what. Also what is an ELO GPS on there for? She needs to have that removed plus the maintenance package. Have her refinance with a co-signer to get a much lower rate and payment!

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If she has no cosigner to refinance it I don’t see much of a better option. If she’s 10 weeks in I don’t think they are going to unwind anything. She’d be losing probably a couple thousand in comparison to much more if she keeps it.

I see there is “maintenance” added to it as well but unsure if there is a warranty also.

God forbid something major mechanically happens to the car then she is really screwed

not only is rusell westbrook horrible on the basketball court, he is also bad at car dealership world (for the consumer) holy f they gave it to her

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Third step is not to let the AC override all common sense in this situation and jump into a hasty decision like selling this car for a loss and … then what? Buy another overpriced used car plus TTL plus anything else the finance manager can scam her for?

A good independent mechanic can fix an AC.

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Sell it or tradein… go with some new car lease or finance. Get some economy car which cost around 400 per month. 25% interest rate shows me she has a bad credit score she may need a co signer to improves her Odd of getting a better rate.

1k Debt cancelation, 1.2k Maintenance, Nitro $245?

And before she makes another deal she better check with other who knows how buying and leasing works. Looks like she has no idea when it comes to Buyin…

Edit: Ask her is that her first finance and what was her Fico score. 25% intrest rate is the problem if she decides to refinance with bad credit or no credit history. If I can get a better rate I can go with a new car or car with low mileage under factory warranty.
See if she can call and canceled the warranty to get some money back if she has to sell the car…

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A lot of this boils down to if her credit was actually super bad or she just got very blatantly taken advantage of by the dealership and her situation.

My guess is that they used the whole first time buyer thing to sucker her into paying a higher APR and and then not realizing what the hell she was getting into.

I see more problems keeping it then getting rid of it (personal opinion).

Agree some time these used car off the ramp dealerships take advantage of innocent buyers like her and jack up the rate and Add BS services.

Edit: Its a Hyundai dealership if you Google the address of the seller.

I used to live and work very close to this place from 1988 to 1992. Old memories…

Probably a no name brand LoJack. But given it’s subprime, might be more for dealer/lender benefit. Technically it’s a hard add so probably can’t get that removed.

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This.

I don’t think people suggesting she sell / trade it immediately fully understand the situation at this point. No cooling off period, can’t undo the deal and instantly about $10k underwater. I don’t even think selling or trading is realistically even possible at this point.

If she can refi, she should. Not sure that’s possible right now, especially with a near 200% LTV and many bank/CU who have a cutoff at 100k miles for conventional financing.

Other than canceling the soft adds, I think the goose is cooked here.

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Given the name and that they’re listed as creditor, seems like this particular Hyundai dealer is running a BHPH on the side. Definitely creepy, if not outright shady.

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She paid 1k down, plus $660 per month starting 9/28/22. Not sure what 1k debt cancelation is?
Some times Maintenance warranties are pro rated if you canceled it and get some money back.

If its me I will not keep a Civic with 110k miles and paying 660 per month for 60 months. Upcoming issues will cost more .

And with Fall and Winter (6 weeks long in Cali) there is really no rush to repair AC presently.

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Thanks for touching on this. My tenant signed her apartment lease agreement on the same day that she purchased the car. I performed a tenant screening two days prior and don’t understand how she qualified for the car loan. My credit screening process relies on Vantage 3.0 - her score was 671. Her rent is $1700/month and her income is a little over $4600. Furthermore, she submitted an online pre-qualification application to CarMax on that same day and was denied by the exact same lienholder of her current vehicle. Pure speculation here…the dealer pushed through a loan that should have never been approved on a Sunday afternoon??? Could this help her at all? I am probably grasping at straws but my heart breaks for her.

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It’s GAP I believe

That Finance guy getting a good bonus at Christmas. He stick in everything except some leather treatment, paint protection, Tire wheel pkg and roadside assistance. If I am the owner I will hold some bonus back thats the money he left on the Table.

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Dealer may have used a different score method than Vantage 3.0…and the denial was likely for standard lease rates, approval was for ‘sub-prime’ rates. Lots of good advice in this thread so far!

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