quote:

Originally posted by LBAR15:
Here's a different spin, especially given the state of the auto industry right now. Lot's of manufacturers are offering big rebates on new vehicles right now and dealers want to deal since business is so slow.

Knowing your budget and the type of vehicle you want, do a little research to see who is offering the biggest incentives right now. Pick the car you want and can afford, then of course negotiate your best price on top of all the rebates and cash back. Trade in the Hyundai (you'll get nothing on the car but that's not the point) and lease the new car. You'll bury the $6,000 in negative equity in the new lease, which you'll now pay off over time while driving a brand new car with a factory warranty.

Assuming your credit is strong enough to get you the extra advance on the lease (which with all the rebates, won't be that bad) this is a great way to dig yourself out of that hole. At the end of the lease term, you drove a brand new car with no worries for 3+ years and walk away from it owing nothing to anyone.

Provided you can swing the monthly payment, and cover the tax and title fees on the front end, you can also do the same with buying a car. Currently, several car companies are currently offering 0% interest on new cars, provided your credit is good enough to qualify.

Chevy/GMC is even offering 0% for like 72 months, which could make the monthly payment really cheap, similar to a lease (or less). Normally a 72 month note is a terrible idea, but at 0% interest there's little downside. And they have a further incentive to skip the first 4 months of payments, which you could use to help offset the sales tax you'd pay on the front end.

quote:

Replace with used engine, plus labor = $4,100
New engine plus labor = $10,000+
Vehicle value (running) = MAYBE $4,000
Owed on loan = $6,000

Forget the amount owed on the loan for a moment. It doesn't figure into the equation. You owe that amount regardless of whether you pay more to fix the car or not. Yes, you could roll it into another vehicle loan, but you still owe it.

Just look at the Vehicle value (repaired) = MAYBE $4,000
vs.
the cost to repair = $4,100

Rule of thumb: If it costs more to repair than it's worth repaired, it's not worth it.

Theoretically, you could find another one just like it that didn't need a new motor and probably had less miles for that price.

crappy situation -- here's something to consider

you are going to get your Trump bucks pretty soon. At least $1,000 probably more

Use that to pay down the loan.

After getting that loan down as low as possible -- I'd take the Hyundai in and 'roll it into' an affordable new car. Shop for the lowest interest rate possible. The Fed Reserve recently lowered rates to basically 0% so there are deals out there in terms of financing.

I would usually never recommend this. But having kids -- IMO you MUST have reliable / safe transport with a primary vehicle

commit to keeping the new car for 10 years -- that will allow you max amoritization on the expense of buying new. I was looking at a Chevy dealership in Kernersville just up the road from you -- looks like you can get a new Chevrolet Malibu for around $16k. Decent car. With hard negotiating you might be able to get the whole transaction done for ~$23K OTD.

Personally -- I would not throw more money into a beatup / broken down 2013 (basically an 8 year old car at this point) with issues as a primary vehicle. Not when I need to rely on that for work / hauling kids around.

There aren't any perfect solutions any way you slice it.

Good luck --

-------------------------------------

Agree that the thing to do is trade the POS in on a new one before the inflationary spiral begins from printing a zillion dollars to hand out. Get something simple, durable, and economical to operate. A Toyota of some kind, maybe, even if they don’t have the most up to date infotainment systems.

It’s been a long time since I heard of a car that was so piss poor it needed a transmission and engine by 130k miles. Sorry you’re having to deal with this.

Definitely aggravated. My last car I kept for 13 years and put 312,000 miles on. The wife’s last car she kept for 10 and had well over 250,000.

Neither had anything near the issues.

We usually buy to keep. Her annual mileage now is probably less than 5k though. Like I said, drastic reduction.

We’ll mull the options. Not trying to turn it into anything fancy. Perfectly content with an older Accord or civic. Just have to figure how to best mitigate it being broken. I really appreciate the feedback.

Meanwhile, it’s parked at the dealership. It won’t run. It’s that broke.

How much can you afford monthly? Down payment? Fixing that car doesn't sound like a great idea, trade it and roll the negative into a new loan/lease. Let me know and I will see if I can come up with some options. Email is in profile

quote:

Originally posted by Sclass:
I'd replace the engine. Coupled with a year old tranny you should have nothing but basic wear items for a very long time. Long after the $6k + $4k is paid off. Way better option than getting buried in negative equity on a new car IMO.

Until the hybrid battery goes dead.

Hybrids are not cars I would buy for racking up highway miles. They are best suited to run around town.

I would check and see if the far will still run properly if the battery dies. I know a prius will.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
How much can you afford monthly? Down payment? Fixing that car doesn't sound like a great idea, trade it and roll the negative into a new loan/lease. Let me know and I will see if I can come up with some options. Email is in profile

It’s cost more to tow it to another dealership than they’d give me a trade value for, probably.

We can swing a new vehicle. That’s not the worry. Just trying to make the best decision and polling the smartest group of people I know.

Chongo, you might remember when my daughter took her 2002 Ford Ranger to college. We broke down near Morehead KY as the engine had seized.

The motor was shot. We were 7 hours from home in St. Louis MO and 4 hours short of Salem VA. Literally stranded on the side of the highway.

We were towed to a repair shop called Major Brands. We did the math and figured the rest of the truck was OK so we had them replace the engine with a remanufactured engine from Autozone. The labor was $360 and matl cost was $2363 for a total of $2723.

If we had abandoned the truck the value was $500 for parts.

If the rest of your vehicle is OK, I would shop around for a better engine replacement cost and go that route. The rest of your vehicle is a "known entity" and you'd be set to run it to the ground.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
How much can you afford monthly? Down payment? Fixing that car doesn't sound like a great idea, trade it and roll the negative into a new loan/lease. Let me know and I will see if I can come up with some options. Email is in profile

It’s cost more to tow it to another dealership than they’d give me a trade value for, probably.

We can swing a new vehicle. That’s not the worry. Just trying to make the best decision and polling the smartest group of people I know.

OK, not trying to sell you anything, was going to give you some scenarios for ridding yourself of that dead car

With the total mileage on that Hyundai, I wouldn’t put another penny in it. Like what was stated earlier I’d roll the negative into a new car. People like to say Toyota’s are boring, well, they last a hell of a lot longer than 130,000 miles with regular maintenance.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

I would look into this further. The Hyundai factory power train warranty covers 10 years/100k miles. An extended warranty that ends at the same mileage as the factory warranty seems quite strange.

My thought as well.

Unless -- is the factory warranty applicable with the original owner only? Or does it stay with the vehicle, if the vehicle is transferred before the 10 / 100 is exceeded?

The extended warranty probably only covered what the powertrain warranty did not.

I would find a used engine and swap it out over the weekend. The 4000 value is a little misleading as the car will have a relatively new powertrain after the engine replacement.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

I would look into this further. The Hyundai factory power train warranty covers 10 years/100k miles. An extended warranty that ends at the same mileage as the factory warranty seems quite strange.

My thought as well.

Unless -- is the factory warranty applicable with the original owner only? Or does it stay with the vehicle, if the vehicle is transferred before the 10 / 100 is exceeded?

It was useless double coverage, sold to make a profit on the "back end" Can only be cancelled and partially refunded while it's still under the mileage/length of the contract

For the replace the engine crowd, this car is a hybrid that is near the end of it's battery pack life

I would bury that negative equity in a short term lease on any vehicle you like and can afford. Doesn't matter how reliable it is in the long term, only if you like it and it suits your needs. You will always be under warranty and after three years you will be out from under the thing.

Added info: My friend bought a slightly used Sonata for his son last hear. I think it was a 2015 with 60,000 miles on the clock. They were driving it from Reno to Connecticut when the engine shit the bed in Wyoming. Left them completely stranded out in bumfuck nowheresville. He had to fight tooth and nail with Hyundai to get the engine swapped.

My friends that have problems with high mileage cars drive Hyundais and Kias. My friends that drive high mileage cars with no problems drive Hondas and Toyotas.

Dump it now and move on. There are a lot of good solutions offered so far in this thread but what ever you do - don't allow a repo.

Mike

I would not go anywhere near a lease to "fix" this problem. Was in the car business for about 12 years and watched too many horror stories unfold just like this. Her situation just changed to low mileage, it could also go the other way too.
I would delay at this point if possible. Can your wife find a ride to/from work for a little while? Co-worker, Uber, share your car for a while?
The car market will soon have some tremendous deals, both new and used and any financing will be lower too. When you do buy, get a two to three year old vehicle like a Honda or Toyota and don't go for a long term loan. Properly maintained, they will run for a few hundred thousand miles.

The warranty is 10/100 on drivetrain only, the standard is 6/60 on everything else, the warranty purchased might have been to extend the 6/60 to 10/100 (common purchase) so everything is covered up to 100K.

Does it still run, can you drive it to trade in?

If so then go trade it in on a lease, 36 months low mileage lease since she drives 5 miles a day, and be sure not to go over, in 3 years you're out, say you lose $3000 in the trade in negative equity, that's $84 a month to pay your way out of the negative equity.

It also gets you out of a used vehicle with a used engine that both of you will come to hate in a short time even more so...

Who knows find a deal on a new vehicle where you have more than the upside down value covered by the amount you get off on the new vehicle, you might come out ok.

Dealers are in a world of hurt now, states closing them down in the sales department, people not going out, nows the time to go on the hunt...

As someone posted, you have to separate the two issues. What you still owe on the loan is irrelevant to the cost to fix the car. If you could buy the exact model or something comparable, running, for less than the cost to repair there is no point in repairing it. Don't throw good money after bad. As for the loan, you took it in good faith and you should own that. Dropping it in the banks lap as a repo would be a non starter for me, YMMV.


As to solutions, that depends. Car dealers are going to be hurting and interest rates are low. You could probably trade it in (aka have a dealer dispose of it for you) and finance the negative equity into a new car loan. Example:

You find a new car that meets your needs. The dealer is offering $5,000 off MSRP via discounts and manufacturer incentives. You trade the broken ride on the new car and pay half of the cost of a new engine down, $2,000. The net is that you finance an amount around the new car's MSRP after TTL, at an attractive rate maybe even zero percent, and you have a vehicle that is still running when the new loan is paid off. You are only out of pocket up from half the cost of a used engine.

The same math can be done on a used car but will be tougher as there will be no manufacturers incentive to bring the cost under the retail value so you may have to put more down in cash to make the loan work.