Topic: Need some advice: upside down loan

[Torrent2006]

I currently have a loan of about 15,000$ on a 2006 Pontiac Torrent with a little less than 3 years left on the loan. I've had a few mechanical problems since I bought it (85,000KM), bad ABS wheel sensors (x3), bad wheel bearings, water leaking, electrical problems, problems starting the car, some weird knocking noise that I haven't had checked out yet. The good news is that I'd bought an extended warranty which covered most of the repairs, but now that warranty expires at the end of the year.

With all of the problems, I'm very worried about how much I'll have to fork over for repairs over the next 2 years especially as the car gets older and I put more mileage on it.

According to the Canadian Black Book my car's trade-in value is anywhere between $4.7k and $7.5k, but if I play around with the mileage and put it to what I expect it to be in 2 years it'll be worth about $1.5k

Considering all the above factors (and considering the gas consumption and higher insurance costs) would it make more sense to trade it in a for a new vehicle, take advantage of a 0% offer, and absorb the negative value (say -$8-$9k) into the new loan?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I appreciate any advice, I'm at a bit of a loss here.

[airbalancer]

your screw no matter what you do

I say drive it until it dies

[sailor723]

If you keep rolling negative equity into the next loan you're just going further and further into the hole. Unless you can afford to pay off the loan shortfall now I'd say keep the car until you can.

[tortoise]

For starters, don't bother looking at the trade in value.  It will always be significantly less than what you could get by selling privately.

The current average asking price on autotrader.ca for 2006 Torrents is $11,500 with the maximum asking price of $16,000.  So you aren't as upside down as your post reveals.  Granted actual selling prices may be lower but you can still get much more than the 7.5K trade-in.

Also, it will be worth more than 1.5k in two years.

I say drive it until you're no longer upside down then figure out what you want to do.

[articsteve]

take advantage of a 0% offer, and absorb the negative value (say -$8-$9k) into the new loan?

 

Those days are LONG GONE.

The best we could do on a say a 30K purchase is inflate your trade by 1K and hide another 1K under "accessories".

  

[articsteve]

some weird knocking noise that I haven't had checked out yet. The good news is that I'd bought an extended warranty which covered most of the repairs, but now that warranty expires at the end of the year.

Ya, you might want to blow it out providing the extended warranty is transferable.

Try Kijiji @ $9995. and take the first reasonable offer.