I talked to a young paralegal at work. She was very stupid with cars. Got rid of a paid off old car by selling it. Then she bought a 2013 Mazda iirc, kept it for a couple of months, and then traded it in for a new 2013 Altima. Both cars were loaded. Then she wanted to trade it in for her "dream car" a loaded 2013 Honda Accord. No money down of course in any of the deals. At any rate she has managed to now owe $28,000 on her Altima that has a trade in value of $18,000. She realizes her mistakes. The Honda deal would have at least lowered her interest rate to .9% from the current 3.4%. She is still considering this. Is there any way to get out of this ridiculous situation other than sucking it up and paying for 5 years on the Altima that she owes $10,000 more than its trade in value? She just tried to "downsize" to a new Elantra, but she needs to come up with $2,000 !!! Unbelievable escalation of depreciation and costs when you drive new cars out of the lots several times in one year!
I will never understand why people buy new. By 1 year used, low miles and let the original owner pay the depreciation. This girl sounds pretty much screwed for the next 5-6 years.
lol...what an idiot. Anyone who gets fully loaded any car..let alone average cars like altima and accords..is a fool. Add to that..you did it so many times in a year without keeping any of those cars.
Depends on the situation. Between rebates and 0% financing you can close some of the depreciation gap. Plus used car prices are still higher than they normally are thanks to above average demand. Every now and then you find 0% financing on used cars but its pretty rare. Interest rates are crazy low right now but a lot of people have credit that would qualify them for 0% financing on a new car but if they shopped banks they may not get something that close to 0. Not saying you're wrong but the price gap between 1 year used and new isn't as wide as it used to be pre-recession.
whiteknight.jpg not sure if there's an actual out to this situation. hopefully, it's a well learned lesson.
"People tell you life is short.....no its not. Life is long. Especially if you make the wrong decisions." -Chris Rock
While this is generally true, there are exceptions if the promotions are good. For example: If you were to look for a pre-owned Hyundai Sonata (2011-2013 models) with low mileage (lets say the Limited trim), you would be looking to pay around $21-22k. Hyundai, right now, is running promotions on brand new Sonatas and low interest financing. A new Sonata (Limited trim) can be had for $22k, almost same price as buying pre-owned, and with lower APR (new APR rates are generally lower than used car APR rates). You are basically getting a new car $5000 below MSRP. So in this case, it does not make sense to buy pre-owned. Of course, the girl the OP mentioned was not very smart. She made two-three bad decisions in one year and is trying to fix them by making yet another bad decision.