upside down auto loan question...Carmax?

[DeltaBond]

Hi, all!  I was so happily surprised to find these forums, although what I was looking at originally came up as a 2 year old thread, but I'm hoping there might be more updated information out there.

Ok, here is my predicament, and I will start off saying that I realize this was not smart:  I bought a 2013 Honda Fit, 8 months later was rear-ended badly.  The car held up great, but even though technology has allowed a lot of people to live through accidents, I'm convinced now that a lighter car will still render the driver very injured in a crash, even if the car withstands the impact.  After seriously thinking about it, I traded it in completely fixed at the ripe young age of 10 months.  Here is my cascade of mistakes - I traded it in for a new '14 Honda Accord AND even though they were generous on my trade in, very generous, I decided on a 7 year loan.  OUCH!!! 

Now that I'm all healed up, and no longer seeing that it was worth my safety to spend that kind of money, I'm pondering options.  Repo, wishing for a wreck to total the accord (not really), sell it for the payoff amount (no one is that dumb - $26K), or, and here is my final thought, use my tax return and some savings to pay the difference in what Carmax can give me for that car.

My questions are, since that 2013 thread, has carmax stiffed anyone lately with bouncing checks?  Is it really that much of a hassle to sell it private party?  And would anyone like to by my car? ha ha  2014 Honda Accord LX champaigne frost pearl... so snazzy.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)

[DeltaBond]

Also, what I'll be driving instead is my husband's 1985 Mercedez 300TDL.  We have rebuilt it ourselves and its solid.

[Cassie]

WE have sold all our cars private party but none had a loan on them so not sure how that would work.  I have never heard of CArmax cheating people but I sure would want to know first. How much $ do you need to come up with between what your car is worth & what it will sell for & do you have the $?

[DeltaBond]

Probably $6K.  The payoff amount right now is $26K, and Carmax actually has my exact car for sale for about $22K.  I would think they'd give me between $18K and $20K just because they can resell it easily.

[Cassie]

Do you have the $ to pay the 6k?

[DeltaBond]

Yes, I sure do.

[Cassie]

It would not hurt to see what carmax will give you for it.  I have heard that in some states it is easy to sell private party even with a loan if you have the $ difference but in others  harder so I would research that also.  Then look at Kelley blue book for the private sellers price & decide which way to go.  If the prices are close probably carmax if not probably worth the hassle to do it yourself. 

[DeltaBond]

I'll definitely do that, thank you!  I actually found this forum because I had searched online about how to guesstimate how much Carmax would give you for your car, and I did notice someone saying that they went through Carmax and Carmax's check bounced, but others said it worked out well.  That thread was 2 years ago, so I'm curious if there had been any more bounced checks from them.

I'll be calling Honda finance about any hang ups they might have for selling, ya never know.  And my old dealership to see if they even buy cars back. 

I hate eating this cost, but I'm already excited to drive an old clunker again, although our Benz isn't a clunker, but it always made me feel like I'm winning, moneywise, lol.  When I was a single mother, I felt secure in having car payments if that meant never being stranded with my wee one.  I'm married now to a man who is great with auto repair and even rebuilding one, no job to big or too small, AND a machine shop to boot.  He says that new cars are for people who can't build cars, ha ha, although I know that's a little extreme.

Also, does it makes sense to anyone else that even if I had the money to pay the car off at $26K I don't want to?  I'd rather pay $6-7K and not have to pay the rest, period?

For those concerned about eating cost: "No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back."

[RunHappy]

It doesn't hurt to see what Carmax (or another dealer) will give you. One thing to keep in mind is they are selling for a profit so expect less than Blue Book value.  I know several people who have been happy with what CarMax offered them, I was not one of those.

[DeltaBond]

Were you selling them a newer car?

[Jack]

He says that new cars are for people who can't build cars

Brilliant!

[Thegoblinchief]

Usually CarMax's offer will be low compared to private party, but it gives you a good baseline. What past threads have done is get the offer, list it on CL for a price above theirs, but if you've had no bites within 7 days, take the offer.

Really depends on whether you want to wait and possibly get a bit more, but risk carrying more interest, or whether you want to wash your hands of it as conveniently as possible.

CarMax is reputable, but like any dealer they have to make a profit.

[DeltaBond]

Jack, I'll be honest, getting the rust off the cam shaft of my future primary car was very satisfying.

At least I have gotten constructive feedback here.  I posted in my old accord forums and it turned into the special olympics on there.  Some DID say they had ended up in a similar payment hole, though, but the suggestion of refinancing didn't make me any happier.  Others called me a birdbrain and claimed that I couldn't "afford" my car. lol

[kendallf]

I think you can expect to get a favorable offer from Carmax as your car is their target sales candidate (I.e, not something they'll send to auction).  I sold one car to Carmax for what I felt was a good price, and passed on a lowball offer for my hotrod truck (not their sales target).

[DeltaBond]

The MSRP on the car is between $18K and $19K for private party selling.  If I put it up for sale, I'd aim for $20K.  Carmax has the exact car for sale, same mileage and everything, for close to $23K.    I don't know if that's a ballpark price or not, I'm probably not concerned enough about getting every penny I can out of it, since I consider myself saving about $18K in the end.  If I only save myself $17K, I still think that's pretty good.  Maybe I have the wrong attitude about it, but I'm very eager to get out from under this loan.

[QueenAlice]

Re: Carmax check bounce

My husband sold his sports car to Carmax in 2013, we didn't have any issues with the check they cut. We didn't have a loan on the car, though, so we didn't have to deal with them sending a payoff check to a bank.

The price they gave us was $3k higher than any trade-in offer we had received, but $5k less than what Carmax ended up re-selling it for. We used Carmax because we had listed the car to sell ourselves, but after 2 months decided to be lazy and just sell it to Carmax.

[DeltaBond]

QueenAlice, thank you for sharing that.  It makes me think I may have to prepare myself for them giving me $18K for the car.  Its not terrible, but I'll post it for a week or two on CL and at the bulletin board at work, since lots of people with good paychecks work there.  Someone WOULD be getting a great deal on a practically new car, so I will be surprised if I get NO bites at all.

I just realized there's a carmax in my city and in a neighboring city.  Has anyone got estimates from more than one Carmax?

[frugalman]

We owned a cabin for 2 years. We went up every weekend and enjoyed every minute of it. But with retirement looming, we decided to sell it this summer. We lost $25,000 for owning it two years. But it's gone, and our expenses have dropped $1,000/mo forever as a result. Sometimes you just have to cut bait and take your losses. 

[DeltaBond]

Thank you, I'm feeling really good about this decision, finally.  I know at some point, with my husband and I both driving classic vehicles, even if we DO know how to fix them, we'll want a 3rd car just for those times when we want to put one on the stand for a few days.  That's a more complicated issue there, something cheap that just runs, lol.  I could technically get a little more out of my car selling it back to the dealiership as I pay the remainder of the loan off, and getting something used from them... Can't decide if I want to wait to do that or not, though.  Hell, even financing a $6-$10K car is cheaper than what I have.  Still pondering all that.