Fix Car before Selling?

[Claricestreets]

I have decided to sell my car (my only debt other than mortgage) and replace it with something more "reasonable".  It is a 2010 Honda Civic, I bought it a little over six months ago, and I owe $11K on it (Ouch).  I want to replace it with something in the 5K price range that I can pay for with no loan.  BUT... A couple of months ago I had a little fender bender and did about $800 - $1000 worth of cosmetic damage to the front bumper area.  I HATE the whole automotive buying/selling/trading process.  My questions are:

1.  Should I put the money into the car to fix the damage before trying to sell/trade it, or just take the hit on what I'll get for it because it's damaged?

2.  Should I go back to the Honda dealer in Boulder where I bought the car, or a smaller used car dealer, or something else, to see about getting rid of it?

3.  Should I try to do one deal where I get rid of this car and get into a different one, or do this as two totally separate things?

Any advice is appreciated. 

[Dynasty]

The first thing that popped into my mind reading this was a Honda Civic is a pretty "reasonable" car.

Second, I'm not sure it would be that great of an idea to trade a known car, that you owe 11k on, for a 5K unknown car.

The question is, do you just not like the Honda Civic?

What would you be able to get for 5K? Used cars are ridiculously priced right now.

If you want out of the Civic, you're best bet financially is doing it as two separate deals with private parties. Is the bank that holds the title local to you?

What is the car worth? After selling it, how much from the sale would you have in your pocket?

I understand the appeal of what you want to do. But a 5K car is probably going to need new tires, brakes, tuneup, and unknown deferred maintenance/repairs.

That 5K car may end up actually costing closer to $7500.

[Paul der Krake]

Dude (or dudette)! My SO was in the exact same situation not long ago, except with a 2010 corolla. Very minor cosmetic damage on the front bumper. The cheapest quote she could get was also around $800. I had to convince her that it wasn't a big deal since she should be planning on driving the car into the ground.

If you try to sell now, the buyer will use this as a major bargaining point. Did you buy the civic from a used dealer with a somewhat high interest rate? The civic is a great car. Unless one of the following applies:

a) you are in a debt emergency, or
b) you owe clearly more than the car is worth (like, if you owe 11k but it has 70k+ miles on the odometer),

keep it. If you are so enclined and it's only a paint job, then you can try repaiting the bumper yourself. Even with the cost of special equipment it should be way under what you were quoted.

[A440]

I would agree that a Civic seems like a reasonable car, but you may want to shop around before you decide what to do.  You can always go to a dealer and ask what they would give you for the car now and what they would give you if it is fixed.  But, you will generally get the most by selling the car yourself.

I had a dent from and accident which didn't seem that bad to me, but the dealer wanted $2000+ to fix it.  Found a shop on craigslist and got it fixed for $625, and he also fixed another dent, too.  Only time will tell how this holds up, but it looks great now.  We planned to keep the car forever, but I felt this was an insurance policy in case our circumstances changed.

Another thought is finding a community college with an auto body program and see if that would be more affordable. 

[Claricestreets]

Thanks for the replies... It is not that I don't like the car - it just seems like a lot of car, a lot of money for someone like me.  I don't give a rat's ass about cars, I am actively working to simplify my life and I cringe at debt.  It is a low rate loan (under 2%), so that's not a huge deal.   I think that I'll keep it, pay it off as soon as possible, and drive it for the next decade +.   I have recently committed to biking to work at least 50% of the time.  My bike commute is only 8 miles, mostly on bike paths, so it really should be 90% of the time (allowing for crazy Colorado snow storms) and that's what I'm shooting for.  And I probably won't fix it, since I really don't care what it looks like.  Thanks again, All!

[Done by Forty]

Here's how I would run my analysis:

-Try to get an estimate of what you can sell the car for as is (Figure A)
-Get an estimate of what the repairs would cost (Figure B)
-Get an estimate of what you could sell the car for when repaired (Figure C)
-Shop for cars you would rather be driving and get cost range (Figure D)

If (C minus B minus D) is greater than (A minus D), then make the repairs and then sell.  If (A minus D) is greater than (C minus B minus D), then just sell the Civic as is.  Also, I guess we'd be hoping for both the results of those calculations to be a positive number, meaning that you wouldn't have to dip into any cash reserves to buy a different car when it's all said and done.

For what it's worth, I agree with your original thought and that an $11k debt on a depreciating asset is something I'd be uncomfortable with.  That's too much car for me and I'd rather be in something less expensive, with the extra cash from the car-swap increasing my net worth every month instead of eating away at it.  YMMV.

[Joel]

I recommend keeping it, it's a good reliable car that is cheap to maintain and cheap to drive. It costs money to change vehicles, and you don't know what you are getting downgrading.