Quote:
Originally Posted by investingdad
The first thing you need to do is not take advice from people on internet forums who may not have done it before. It's a good way to get yourself in a potential legal or financial mess.
Liz on MSN Money offers some good advice on how to deal with this at a high level:
How to sell a car you don't own - MSN Money
Read the whole article, Page 2 has specifics on the procedure if you decide to go forward on the sell. You'll need to have some bridge financing set up unless your lien holder happens to have a local branch you can do the transaction at. In other words, you need to make some calls and do some due dilligence BEFORE you start listing your car for sale.
Bottom line, you're going to get burned on this. Based on what you said your car payment is for, I'm 100% certain you're going to be upside down, which if you don't know by now means you'll owe more than you can sell for. Also, the chances are good that you'll incur additional cost because you won't have the title (see the article I linked to above).
Unfortunately, parents don't realize they often do more harm than good by helping their kids with something they should let the kids undertake on their own. The silver lining is that you're learning from your mistakes early. A lot of adults got themselves into very similar messes over the last few years on home mortgages because they chose to follow home lenders as if they were the Pied Piper and ignore finanical reality, which is why the whole country is in the mess we're in right now. Too much debt, too much borrowing, too little forward thinking.
Good luck. And carry this lesson with you. |
This is by far the most intelligent comment ever made on 8th generation. Granted, I have only been here since mid November yet I totally agree with his statement above.
To the Original Poster. You need to find out how much your car is worth. A better place to appraise your car on the internet is
New Cars, Used Cars, Car Reviews and Pricing - Edmunds.com where they tell you the exact value of your vehicle by condition, mileage and condition. Seems like at $479/mo, you are paying a 5 year / 60 months payment. I don't know if your parents really negociated the vehicle for you or you did not have any credit when you purchased the Si (I would hope it is a Civic Si, any other Civic, even EX-L should not cost you more than 24k in 2007 (08 cars are bought in 07.)
Assuming you put no money down, which in this case I certainly hope! 479*60 months comes out to be $28,740. That is incredibly high on a Civic. I purchased my 2005 Acura TL with Navigation; fully loaded for $32,500 out the door in 2004. Granted, inflation should not have cased the vehicle to be that high today. Now, if you have bought the car in 2008, after a year, 478*12months = $5748. But the entire monthly payment amount never goes directly into principal on the first few years... so I am assuming out of 5748, only 4000 went into the principal, give a take a few hundred.
Now you have 28,740 - 4000, you would still owe $24,740 on it. Basically, if you didn't put any money down initially, all this time, you have just been paying interest. The 2008 Civic Si now worth about 19,000. So technically, if you sell the car today, it would be at around 19,000. And you would owe about 5700 or so.
You always lose money when you get rid of your car, whether it is trade in or private sales. Now, I have not read the entire thread, so I don't know if you specify how much you owed, this is just my speculation.
I recently purchased a 2009 Civic Si Sedan, because of the bad economy, I was able to get the Si Sedan with Navigation and had them threw in additional stuff for $22,500 out the door with tax. I hope you can solve your problem soon.
Good luck!