Should I dump my new car (2013 Kia Forte) for a free car?

[TechBoyJK]

I currently have a 2013 Kia Forte Koup. I like it. It has 15,000 miles on it.

Thing is, I had bought a Ford Fiesta the year before, and it was a POS. So I traded it in, and took a loss on it just to get rid of it. I had to roll about $5,000 into my new loan.

So after the 'new car off the lot' hit, along with owing some additional, I'm still about $4,500 upside down on the loan. This wasn't a big deal because I had intended on keeping the car for a long time and driving it into the ground.

Well, my step-dad said I can have his 2006 Chevy Trailblazer 4x4. He only drove it back and forth to work (about 5 miles away) plus errands now and then. Its only got 52,000 miles on it and it was bought brand new.

It's nice. Fully loaded, best trim package. It lists for about $9500 on KBB.

If I take it, I'd like to get rid of my Kia. I like the car, but my car payment is almost $500 a month and I could use the extra cash. Issue is I don't have the cash on hand to cover the difference/gap of the sale value versus the loan. So I'd need to come up with about $5,000 to sell it and get out from the loan/title.

So I'm thinking I 'buy' the Trailblazer off my stepdad for $5,000, and he in turn gives me the money I need to close out the Kia loan. Reason? I can't go get a $5,000 personal loan right now to cover the loan payoff, but I could borrow it to buy the car.

1) I buy Blazer for $5,000 so my step-dad has extra $5,000 laying around
2) I then sell my Kia, and when time comes to close out the loan, use the $5,000 from my step-dad to cover it.

Seems kind of a round about way to get it done, but neither I nor my step-dad have the cash laying around to get out from the KIA loan. The way I'm thinking, I could buy the TrailBlazer today and put my Kia up for sale tomorrow.

Thoughts? It'd save me a ton of money in the long run, and I'd rather have an SUV at this point. So for my situation is seems like a good move.

 

[michal1980]

find a credit union that allows loans to private parties for buying used cards.

Penfed maybe?

 

[TechBoyJK]

find a credit union that allows loans to private parties for buying used cards.

Penfed maybe?

I'm still talking to my bank about it.

Either way, what I'm on the fence about is taking a loss on the Kia to get out of the loan to get a free car.

In essence, it's not a free car. I need to come up with $5000 to get it. Advantage is I'll get rid of a $500 monthly car payment that I still have 5 years to pay on.

While it's an older SUV (2006), it's been garaged, babied, kept detailed, and lightly driven. Plus I have several friends that are good with Chevy's (repairs) so if I do need to fix it, I can most likely get it done on the cheap.

 

[Kaido]

I'm still talking to my bank about it.

Either way, what I'm on the fence about is taking a loss on the Kia to get out of the loan to get a free car.

In essence, it's not a free car. I need to come up with $5000 to get it. Advantage is I'll get rid of a $500 monthly car payment that I still have 5 years to pay on.

While it's an older SUV (2006), it's been garaged, babied, kept detailed, and lightly driven. Plus I have several friends that are good with Chevy's (repairs) so if I do need to fix it, I can most likely get it done on the cheap.

Kia's are great cars (leased one previously & just bought one new), but it sounds like switching to the nicer SUV (with a good history) will save you $6,000 a year for the next 5 years (if you have a typical car loan). So if you can pony up $5,000 right now, you can save $30k-ish long-term and be driving the car you really want.

I'd say no-brainer.

 

[jaedaliu]

Do it. Kaido's math is a great argument against keeping the Kia.

Maybe you can get someone to buy high on your car.

 

[LTC8K6]

Have you factored in the massive fuel economy hit? You are going from ~30 combined to ~16 combined and ~34 highway to ~20 highway.

 

[Viper GTS]

Have you factored in the massive fuel economy hit? You are going from ~30 combined to ~16 combined and ~34 highway to ~20 highway.

While it's a factor it's tiny compared to the depreciation he'll be dodging.

I vote do it, and hopefully learn the lesson about being upside down in cars. You got lucky this time to have a path out of it.

Viper GTS

 

[Dr. Detroit]

$500 a month for a 5+yr loan on a Kia Forte?

Holy hell your interest rate must be sky high.

1) Get personal loan
2) Sell Kia
3)Pay off Personal Loan within 12-months
4) Savings

 

[Insomniator]

wtf 5 years/500 a month for a kia?

 

[TechBoyJK]

wtf 5 years/500 a month for a kia?

Like I said, I rolled about $5k into the loan because I was upside down on my last car (bought new, sold early cause it was shit).

Interest rate is 1.9% and payment is about $475.

 

[Throckmorton]

What was wrong with the Fiesta? I thought those were supposed to be good

 

[TechBoyJK]

What was wrong with the Fiesta? I thought those were supposed to be good

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-consumer-reports/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

I thought so too, but the transmissions behavior was downright hilarious. It'd randomly miss gears and rev like it was in neutral. Wasn't a good experience.

 

[lakedude]

1) Get personal loan

I can't go get a $5,000 personal loan right now...

Um...

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Um...

If he has a 1.7% interest rate I am assume his credit is not fucked - he borrows $5K on the Trailblazer title from his bank.

It's semantics bro -

He needs to get a $5K loan.

 

[iamwiz82]

Don't wait too long as the Kia will continue to depreciate. The sooner you move it the higher the value will be and the lower interest you will pay out.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Why not just accept the truck from your step-dad and then sell it, using the money to pay down the loan on the Kia?

ZV

 

[BurnItDwn]

Yes, sell the kia, get the truck ... use the truck.

Now, on the other hand, It sucks you had problems with your ford. If it was a 2013 and you got rid of it in under a year due to problems, then there should have been some sort of lemon law protections. It sounds like you let the dealer or ford screw you over pretty bad. I don't know if there's anything you can do about it now, but, I would consider talking to a lawyer to see if you have any legal recourse.

 

[halik]

Stopped reading after Kia Forte, the answer is yes

 

[Noo]

So on top of giving you a car, he's also giving you $5k? Lol

 

[TechBoyJK]

So on top of giving you a car, he's also giving you $5k? Lol

Nooooooo

He's giving me the car.

But I also need $5k to pay off my existing loan.

So rather than take the car as a gift, I buy it for $5k.

This way, when I need the $5K to close out my loan, he has an extra $5K to give me.

 

[Midwayman]

I don't even think you need to fake the sale double deal. As long as the blazer is worth over $5k you shouldn't have much trouble getting a loan on the title once its in your name.

 

[lakedude]

All this drive the truck noise is dependent on being able to sell the KIA for a specific amount which is not guaranteed.

The crux of the issue started when the Ford was unceremoniously dumped at a huge loss.

You loose thousands of dollars just by driving a vehicle off the lot because from that point forward the vehicle is used, not new. Now it sounds like you are about to take the new car depreciation hit twice in a short amount of time. Terrible idea.

The only good reason to take the new car depreciation hit is to have the luxury of driving a new car that us under warranty so you don't need to worry about it.

Choosing a new car under warranty that gets good gas mileage that the owner "likes" is an easy choice. Sell the truck, pay down the loan.

 

[T2urtle]

So ur dad is giving u a good working truck and u somehow got him to throw in $5k. Best deal ever.

After all said and done. Get rid of the KIA. U seem to be all over here. Two cars in the last 2-3 years. Many people wouldn't of taken the $5k hit. I wouldnt, I would of just tempted to sell it there and grab a beater for time being.

Either way. $500 for a KIA is out of the question in my book. Please hurry and get out of that deal. Try carmax, even if they low ball u. Its a real cash offer.

 

[lakedude]

The $500 a month isn't for the KIA, it is for the KIA and the Ford.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Have you factored in the massive fuel economy hit? You are going from ~30 combined to ~16 combined and ~34 highway to ~20 highway.

I drove almost 30k miles last year in my Trailblazer and I still didn't hit $500 a month in fuel costs.

I have an 02 with 194k miles BTW.