This is like the one King of the Hill episode where Hank always bought cars from the same guy because he thought getting the sticker price was a good deal. Then he boastfully told his wife Peggy that he never payed more than the sticker price because his salesman would always cut him a deal and let him pay “just the sticker price”. Obviously, he had no idea that people would negotiate prices lower than sticker with the dealer because no one had ever told him. Some dealerships now just offer their lowest set price right away because who wants to haggle back and fourth.
I can see both perspectives here but can agree that at least morally, taking advantage of someone like this isn’t right. Christ, the jeep dealer by me has their 2016 patriots priced at under 20% MSRP. I don’t think I could morally take advantage of someone who is vulnerable and with limited knowledge of how most car dealers work. Then again, that’s likely why car dealership salesman sometimes have the sleazy persona perception.
Based on what you’ve been saying, it seems very unlikely you’ll get anywhere near the buy out amount if you try to sell it. Can’t hurt to try though. If you can’t afford $388/month for the car, then I assume you can’t afford 10k to pay off the difference?
The 388 payment is not terribly out of line for a 650 credit score, no money down, around 20k selling price car with taxes and fees.
The best bet is to refinance the loan at a credit union.
10k resale value from KBB is too low. 2016 with 13k miles seem to be going for 14-16k resale, depending on trim. Try taking to carmax and see what they will offer.
One thing to bear in mind is that you drive a lot (13k miles in 9 months) so
a) you do not want to lease a car with this kind of driving
b) if you sell this car, you will need to buy a reliable used one. Again try to go to carmax - they may buy your car for more than 10k, closer to 15k.
c) if the dealer sold you additions like warranty etc, these can be cancelled and refunded.
d) try and see if you can save on insurance.
Lot of good advice here…I would disagree around buying from Carmax (IMO their prices are inflated and there is no negotiation). You don’t have to buy from them to trade in your car (the trade-in cash value is not negotiable either AFAIK), so if you get a good price just sell it to them.
I just did a quick search and there are 70+ MY’15-16 CPO cars across all brands around me for $12k or less (with 30k miles or less, many of them much less, e.g. less than 20 or less than 10)
