Car Trading in/ Buying advice

[syndicate559]

when you're upside down on a vehicle, it's definitely easiest to trade in and have the negative equity put into the new vehicle's loan. The downside is that you're going to give a little bit away that you could have made selling the truck privately. Obviously, if you sold private, you'd have to pay the difference on what you owed to get the title and transfer it to the new owner, which is why going the dealer route is less complicated. Unfortunately, this is the case with gas trucks. They're expensive new and they depreciate very quickly (I'm an insurance adjuster and this is what I deal with daily). There aren't many vehicle types that this isn't the case with. My advice would be to find something where the dealer is very motivated to sell and there may be some rebates available on the vehicle you want to purchase. Those rebates can help eat some of that negative equity and help out, because you'll be even more upside down on the next vehicle if you carry all that negative equity into a new loan. It's tricky, but I've actually pulled it off before. You just have to find the right vehicle and timing is everything.

Ultimately, your best bet is to keep the truck for a few more years until you're not upside down anymore, or at least not so bad.

 

[PiratePenguin]

Aside from all of the correct advice to not to...

If the new vehicle were to be totaled you would only receive the value of that vehicle from your primary insurance company, leaving you on the book for all of that negative equity still and no vehicle. There is GAP insurance, but even that has % over MSRP limits in mos cases and rolling that much negative equity would almost certainly still result in you owing money on a lost item (not an asset).

Paying more for gas may suck, but it will be much, much, much safer and probably much cheaper in the long run.