Overhaulin'

Getting out of an Upside down car loan?

I have a Nissan Murano, and wanted to trade it in recently and found out I owe about 10 grand more than it's worth.... is there anything I can do about this? I don't really want to roll that much over on a new loan...

Public Comments

1. Nothing you can do, instead of trading it in try a private sale, this way you will get a better price. But as you found out SUV values have dropped quite a bit recently.
2. The only thing is to HOLD on to the car until it is paid off. Stop trading in cars. Try to keep a good maintenance schedule. ==== There are 4 most important maintenance items in your engine and tranny (the most expensive parts of the car). (1) engine oil (3k - 5K miles) (2) tranny oil (30K miles) (3) coolant (3 years) (4) timing belt (60K miles) Just keep those maintenance and your engine and tranny will be problem free. I have a 94 Civic with 187K miles and the engine + tranny + suspension runs like new. I get 41 MPG (doing 72 MPH). I can get even better MPG doing 55. Good maintenance pays off. Good Luck...
3. If you really want to get rid of it, keep making payments until you are no longer upside down, sell it then to get out from under the loan and buy what you want (it won't help as a trade anyway). You'd be better off though to pay it off and continue to drive it a few more years while you make the normal car payment to yourself to have as a down payment on something else.
4. You probably wouldn't be able to roll over $10K onto a new loan, anyway. Most banks will not overallow that much onto a new loan. If you can afford it, try to double-up on payments for the next two years, then re-evaluate. Selling an SUV privately right now isn't too easy, as you probably know. This question, in some form or fashion, gets asked probably 10 times a day on here. Folks are looking for some sort of magic way out of the negative equity, and unfortunately it doesn't exist.
5. Easy, keep the car and pay an extra $300 a month to principle. Some day you will get it caught up.