keep my car or sell it and get a.....

[zaratekid86]

i have a 2011 ford focus 5 speed mt with 95k on it. i could probably get about 5k if i sell it to a dealership maybe 6k if i sell it privately

if i sold it for 5k i would be upside down and end up paying 2600 to get it off my hands... should I just keep it or lose the $2600 and get a $1500  car

i think if i sell it i would save about $2000 but take the chance of getting a lemon that needs repairs.

thanks in advance

[JLee]

Assuming you know the history of this car and it has no catastrophic problems, keep it.

[Reynolds531]

Agree if you know the car keep it. Rolling the dice on at least one older car for the time the focus will be serviceable is a risky prospect.

Take care of the focus, use sparingly, pay it off asap.

[aFrugalFather]

Better the car you know than one you don't is what I think... 

[Jeremy E.]

I feel like a 2011 ford focus mt with 95k on it should be worth more than 5-6k, however I could be wrong. When I was thinking about getting a new car, I was looking at 2012 mazda 3 hatchbacks and they were going for about 12k. For $1,500 you would probably get a car with 160,000+ miles that could have the tranny or engine go bad at any minute, which could cost more to fix than it's worth. Lastly never sell cars to a dealership, craigslist sucks but $1,000+ for dealing with some idiots is almost always worth it in my opinion

[Thinkum]

Having been in a very similar situation, I would keep it if there is nothing wrong with it. Sounds like you are trying to get out of a car payment on a car with high miles. Why not keep it? If you buy a really cheap car, you will end up paying a lot of money keeping it on the road, even if you DIY a lot of stuff.

[zaratekid86]

thanks for all the responses.. yea I was leaning towards keeping it, I just wanted the final push.