Some credit pros needed

[metalhedskater]

Okay so i recently have been looking into buying a gsx. The problem is I am still paying payments to a mitsu dealer when i bought the car in 2001. I have one more year, actually 17 months. I cant wait any longer. I am seriously fed up with the wrong wheel drive . I mean is it possible to sell my car, can i still sell it eventhough i have payments on it? What would be the samrt way going about this? Should i sell the car, pay the payments off and then get a new loan to buy a gsx? OR Sell my car, buy the gsx with the money i have from the 99 gst and still pay payments on the gst to the dealer? Thanks guys!

-Ray

[cursed1g]

yes you can still sell it but.. since u bought it from the dealer you probally paid to much so you might wind up losing money

[RSLaser]

Usually depending on how much you owe, youd try to have someone take over payments + a couple grand, that all depends on how much is owed though.

[bighauns]

Yeah that is the way that a lot of people go. It depends on how much you have put into the car and what it is really worth equalling what they would have to pay.

But you can do any of the options which you said. Just because you owe someone money on it doesnt mean you can't sell it and do whatever.

good luck!!

[spyderturbo007]

The easiest thing to do is to purchase a GSX from a dealer (this isn't going to be the cheapest).

Here is how it normally works:

1. You owe more on the car than it is worth.
2. The dealer takes the difference between what you owe on the car, and what they will give you in trade and adds that to the price of the car you are buying. They call this "rollover".

The amount you can rollover is dependant on the age of the car you are buying, price and how much the dealer is making on the car (the one you are buying).

Normally this is EASY when you are buying a new car, but much more difficult when buying a used car.

I would find out what the car is worth (www.kbb.com) for a private sale and find out how much you owe to the bank. Then take out an ad somewhere (paper, online, etc) asking for the difference (between what you owe and blue book) and to take over your payments.

[kjewer1]

When you sell the car you have to pay off the loan to satisfy the banks (when you do what spyder is talking about, the dealer pays off your loan for you). You cant sell your car and use the proceeds to buy a new car, and keep the old loan. The bank will have the old VIN number for thier collateral. The trick is to get enough from the old car to pay off the loan. If you cant get enough, you pretty much have to go to a dealer and hope they can help you. But then you end up further in the hole. Now it will take even longer before you're in the money on your new car, since you rolled over the balance of the old loan. If your loan is 15 thousand on a 12000 dollar car, and you are paying high interest like most young poeple are, it will take forever to get the balance of the loan lower than the value of the car (in the money). In my case, because I'm old, fat, and have a proven credit history, I get much lower rates than I used to. The truck I bought one year ago for 19000 is still worth 17,200, and the loan is down to 16000 despite having taken it out for 5 years.

The key to keeping the loan balance below the value of the car is:

1- dont pay any more than book value on the car (hard to to if you buy a modded car, but in this case it can easily be worth it)
2- get the lowest interest possible. That means having the best possible credit. The worst thing you can do for your credit is to have late payments on your credit report. The second worst thing is hgih "charge ratio." Thats the percentage of your revolving credit you have used up. For example, you are better off having 3000 dollars in credit card balances with a 10000 dollar limit (30%) than you would be with only 500 dollars balance with a 600 dollar limit (83%). Its not the amount, its the ratio.
3- Take the shortest possible term you can afford without risking late payments. Its tempting to take the longest term the bank will approve (depends on the age of the vehicle) to get the lowest payments, but in the end it will cost a lot more in interest, and make it harder to pay down the balance as fast as the cars value drops over time. I could get away with a 5 year loan on the truck because the rate is quite low.

The sooner you start paying attention to these things the better the quality of your life will be. Dont wait until your old like me to straighten your credit out. I'm still paying off some debt I've had since I was a teenager (27 now) It costs a lot of money. I just got a consolidation loan to get rid of those impossible to pay down credit cards, and lower my charge ratio, and my credit score went through the roof. Went from a high 500 fico score to mid 700s in a few months (800 is max). When I sell my 2g, I'll have no debt beside of the truck payment (backed by the value of the truck).

I could go on for hours about this. Its a very important topic, and its quite relevant in an automotive forum, since so much of how fast our cars can be is limited by finacial reasons.