Author Topic: Selling my expensive car for a more economical one- horrible decision?  (Read 5276 times)

TaylorB91

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First time poster!

About 6 months ago, I thought it would be a really great idea to buy a vehicle that i really didn't have any business buying. I have never been a huge impulse buyer, but for whatever reason i convinced myself that this was a great idea.

Fast-forward to 6 months later. My impulse buying snowballed from the car to various other things and now I am working on correcting my path to become debt free. It has been realized by both my husband and I that this car was a huge mistake and more expensive than what we should have spent.

Currently, i am the only one in the family with a vehicle owned by us. He has a company provided vehicle so luckily we only have one car payment.

I bought the car (2008 Tahoe) for $28,500. After tax and fees, it was about $31,500. I put 3k down and I currently owe roughly $26,000. The car is worth about $27,500. so i'm not upside down in it thank goodness.

I want to sell the Tahoe, and get a car worth about $10,000 so that my payment will be much less and i will be in significantly less debt.

Any thoughts on this? Everything i read online so far has not been very encouraging, but those were from mostly car forums.

Thank you to everyone in advance!!

Eric

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Yes, you have our permission to sell the expensive SUV with poor gas mileage and purchase a reasonable car with good gas mileage.  It sounds like you already know this, so do it already!

Eric

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And despite being a few years old, this is still a pretty good list of cars to target:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/19/top-10-cars-for-smart-people/

Home Stretch

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Yeah this is a no-brainer. Ditch the guzzler and pick up something that jives with your lifestyle. Count your blessings that this was only a $4,000 lesson.

Ricky

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+1 for no brainer.

alsoknownasDean

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Yep, no brainer.

Get rid of the grotesquely enormous expensive shitbox that's only making you poor, and get something more sensible.

Good luck :)

MsPeacock

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Do it! I don't think anyone here would advise otherwise.

r3dt4rget

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First time poster!

About 6 months ago, I thought it would be a really great idea to buy a vehicle that i really didn't have any business buying. I have never been a huge impulse buyer, but for whatever reason i convinced myself that this was a great idea.

Fast-forward to 6 months later. My impulse buying snowballed from the car to various other things and now I am working on correcting my path to become debt free. It has been realized by both my husband and I that this car was a huge mistake and more expensive than what we should have spent.

Currently, i am the only one in the family with a vehicle owned by us. He has a company provided vehicle so luckily we only have one car payment.

I bought the car (2008 Tahoe) for $28,500. After tax and fees, it was about $31,500. I put 3k down and I currently owe roughly $26,000. The car is worth about $27,500. so i'm not upside down in it thank goodness.

I want to sell the Tahoe, and get a car worth about $10,000 so that my payment will be much less and i will be in significantly less debt.

Any thoughts on this? Everything i read online so far has not been very encouraging, but those were from mostly car forums.

Thank you to everyone in advance!!
Is that $27,500 private party or dealer trade-in value? I find it hard to believe a dealer would give you anywhere near retail value on your trade in. You might be underwater in that case, but you will still save money by paying to get rid of the SUV. What is this vehicle used for? Consider something cheaper around $5k if you don't drive much. It sounds like you need to work on increasing your savings rate, so buy as cheap of a car as you can tolerate.


Bob W

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Yep, you can pick up a 06/Honda or Toyota for 6 k .   but please take your medicine and pay cash this time.

Bob W

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Yep, you can pick up a 06/Honda or Toyota for 6 k .   but please take your medicine and pay cash this time.

ZiziPB

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Sell it and don't look back.  I was in a similar situation (although I paid for my expensive gas guzzler in cash) and regret not getting rid of it earlier.  I traded it in finally this spring and got a smaller car that gets twice the gas mileage.  I am very happy with my decision.

slschierer

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Of course you can sell it and purchase (with cash) a more economical vehicle!  In fact, I did this same thing in January.  The previous April, I purchased a Yukon at a (I thought at the time) terrific price.  After finding MMM, I realized what a mistake this was, listed it for sale on Craigslist, and I found a buyer.  Of course, the buyer had to purchase the vehicle without the title in hand as the bank still had the title, but I did give her information on which bank held the title and showed her communication to confirm.  I sent her the title as soon as I had it in hand, and then I purchased a Honda Accord for cash. 

Late_Bloomer

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If you owe 28k i highly doubt you can sell it privately for that. I just got myself out of a similar situation.  Had a 2013 Jeep wrangler with 15k miles. I owed 8k on it. I traded in the value to pay off what I owed, and get a new 2015 Nissan versa with 4 miles on it. I got 15.5k trade value plus 4k refund on a face punch life time warranty for the Jeep. The nissan was 13k including tax/title. So with the trade in value plus the warranty refund, I only paid 2k out of pocket. Much better deal than just paying 8k and keeping the face punch jeep.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!