I'm probably taking my Fit to Carmax Monday. Has anyone ever gone there and sold a car before? I'm curious what they will give me since it's like a 4 hour drive there. Wanna know if it's worth it. I really can't afford the Fit. It takes all my extra money on the payments and I can't afford to keep up with maintenance anymore.

Here's what's wrong with it:
Driver door lock will not turn from the outside
Windshield is cracked.
TPMS light is on from a broken sensor.
Has been in one collision, but has been repair.

2008 base model with auto. 66,000 miles. Has a carbon fiber spoiler, which they won't care about. Interior is mint, radio and AC work like new. All four tires match and has OEM rear cargo mat.

The KBB trade in value is like $8125, from anyone's experience, think I'll get anything close to this? Anythiing over $7500 I'll be happy with as I'll be financing the negative equity (I owe the bank $11,404). I could afford to pay off a loan for $4000 over 4 years but not $11000 over four years (selling it for at least $7500 should put an extra $300 in my pocket a month).

So again, anyone ever sold a car there? Thanks for the help guys. Help a Fitfreaker who's broke out!!!!

 

Their prices seemed low, but I was usually taking them older cars that they might not want. Since the Fit is fairly popular and the car isn't that old they should give you close to the $7500-$8000 for it. But why wouldn't you just sell it yourself?

You could probably advertise it for $9500 and get $8500-$9000 for it. (The private party value is $10,000 for Fair Condition) I don't see a car near St. Louis less than $11K...

 

Carmax gave me the highest quote on my previous trade (not a Fit) out of 4 places. Took that the dealer I bought the Fit from and they matched it.

 

I have it posted for $11,404 which is what I owe, but no one wants to deal with the bank. I don't have the title, so whoever buys it has to go to the bank and wait for them to go through the paper work. =/ No hits in the past 30 days, not even a single call or email.

Hayden - I'm not trading it in, I'm trying to sell outright. Think it'll still be the same?

 

You might be able to get what you are looking for from them (the $7500.) The price they give you is the same regardless of if you are trading, or just selling outright, but to be careful, I'd say that you were interested in a specific car that they have before you get the quote. Couldn't hurt. If they think you will buy from them after the trade, they will try and make that as appealing an option as they can, especially considering that they don't haggle.

 

I think the reason you're getting no hits is that $11,404 is too high for a private sale price for a high mileage car that has collision repair and needs things fixed. If you'll take $7,500 from Carmax, why are you pricing your private sale price so high? What you owe on the car is irrelevant - a buyer isn't buying it to bail you out, he's buying it to get a good price on a car.

 

^^ Yes i agree with the above you will make more money on a private sell always before a trade in. Put it like this my 08 S2k CR with 23k miles they were trying to give me $20k for it and KBB said it was worth $26.5. Why not drop the price on here to say $8.6k that way you get more than what u want for it and it sells?? But i have to say if you can't afford the maintance on the Fit and a $11k loan it might be time to look at ur budget and really sell this car. I'm glad to see that you are doing the smart thing instead of staying broke over a car. This is why every one is in such bad debt in america due to buying things like cars that they can't afford. I don't think the econmy is bad at all i think alot of americans made horrible mistakes with spending money on things they could not afford trying to keep this im rich image up. They say if you make $60k a year you can comfortably afford a $20k car. So we can see why every one is so broke. This is why i got rid of my S2k i could afford it. But now with the fit i can fit my GF Dog and other stuff and i save right around $300 a month. And plan to have the Fit payed off by the end of 2011. I want half payed off by Feb. Well enough of me ranting on here. I just hate to see people spend all there money on things that they can't afford when they are going to need that money later down the road for say retirement. Well GL with the sale man for sure

 

It's a weird situation. Since I owe that much on the car, I have to finance the negative equity. If someone offers me say $9000, and I go finance the $2000, and then the buyer backs out, I'm stuck with the car payment I can't afford AND the loan for $2000. Am I making sense? In the ads I say that "this is what I owe, make an offer MUCH lower . . ." but alas, nothing. Even though I will be financing the negative equity, it will result in a payment less than a third of what I pay now, will be paid off in a MUCH shorter time frame, and save me thousands over the next 4 years, which is how much longer I'm paying the Fit off. Since I commute so far to work, the Fit will have nearly 200,000 miles by time it's paid off.

 

Where do you have the ad posted? If it's on craigslist or something, your advertising might be holding back the sale.

Are there any visual mods or stickers? Take the CF wing off if you can. Stock is always worth more money. Sounds like it would really be worth it for you to try and get as much as you can out of a private sale, especially since you aren't trading it, so I'd stick with it and focus on marketing.

 

If you are going to sell to a dealer, why not drop it by several dealers to get a few different prices? A trade in is really just selling the car to the dealer.

Also, how are you going to have transportation after selling?

Yeah, but then you'll still have the $2000 which you can then pay off the second loan. It'll be a bunch of paperwork, and you'll probably lose a bit from loan origination fees, but it won't be that bad.

 

Here's the KBB if you sell it privately(Base Model with 66,000 miles) using one of the zipcodes from St. Louis.

 

I'm thinking of just letting it get repo'd. No loan payment at all, no car insurance. Bad credit for 7 years . . .

 

Try on selling it first to carmax, if you go negative by lets say $2000. At least its only $2000 that you'll have to pay off than the value of the whole car OR put a for sale sign on the car. Lower your price, I would say put it up for $9500-$10000 and wait for calls. Put OBO next to your advertised price. I know its frustrating but do not rush on making your decision.

 

The repo "sale price" will probably be worse than the carmax price, which means the bank would come after you for the extra anyway.

 

Dude, bad idea. I am going to guess and say you are not that old and you will want that credit more than the lost money in the not too distant future.

 

i didn't read anywhere that talked about buying or trading the fit for a different car so, if you don't mind me asking, exactly how were you planning to finance the negative equity?

your bank will not release title to any buyer until the loan is paid in full, which means you will have to make up any difference up-front. no bank will underwrite a car loan without a car, so if you were thinking of continuing to make payments on the existing loan for just the negative equity remaining, i'm sorry to say that's not going to happen.

unless you have a line of credit (such as home equity) to draw on, this leaves you with the need to take out a personal loan that, even if you were able to qualify, will likely be many points higher compared to your existing loan.

my advice is to call your lender and see what, if any, options are available to you. haven't heard of a short sale for cars before but, who knows, it seems preferable to a default where after adding recovery cost, legal fees, and reconditioning expense they'd receive nothing more than highest bid at auction...see if you can sell them on that.

 

Wow... the more I read this thread... the worst it gets.

Looking at past posting history...

Buys a Fit... then proceeds to buy THREE more cars. While two of those three were bought for less than a month's rent, more money was sunk into them as "restoration" projects.

Now, a little over two years after buying the Fit, you still owe a fairly large amount on it and say it's too expensive?

I'm no financial expert... not even close. I'm barely keeping myself from going under as it is. And while I have spent some money on "mods" to my Fit (total costs on mods should be just under $1k)... I'm sinking EVERY available dollar into my loan to pay it off as quick as possible, overpaying monthly loan amount.

But the OP started off in worse position than I, and then continued to make it worse than that.

To the OP,

I assume you still have the Mustang? And that you plan on using that once you "get rid" of the Fit?

Of those thousands you say you'll save by no longer paying for the Fit, how much of it will then be sunk into the Mustang? Didn't you learn much from the Accord you junked? An older car is more likely to have repairs, and they won't be minor either.

Or maybe it's the CRX you just bought... and had plan on modding with an trans swap. While the CRX is a Honda, and people have used them to quite high mileage, I'm sure a 1991 CRX has enough mileage to incur enough repair costs also.

While the Fit isn't immune to "troubles" that might need repair, chances are better that you pay less overall with the Fit.

My suggestion... go find yourself a REALLY good financial advisor (if you have a friend that's willing to help, all the better), layout everything you have on the table. From what you own to what you owe. And ask the advisor to get you out of this hole you're in.

If nothing else, stop modding ALL the cars you have. Store or get rid of the "unnecessary" cars, even if one was the Fit. IF you get rid of the Fit, I suggest keeping the CRX and DO NOT continue to put money into mods for it. Pay for repairs as needed and pay off the loan, and then SAVE the money. JUST SAVE IT.

It's a hard task, I know, I promised myself not to mod my car so soon after buying it... yet, I spent almost $1000 in the first few weeks. Luckily, aside from 3 or 4 dollars here and there on maintenance/prevention stuff, I haven't spent since.

BTW, you could've brought your loan down by at least $3500 or more, by not putting money into the other cars and instead dumping them into the loan as early payments. Every dollar over the monthly payment also saves on interest. Think about it... you spent $2000 on just buying the CRX. Well, if you had put it into the loan, your principle would've gone down by $2000 and then the interest on that $2000 would go away. If your interest now was something like 5%, that's more than $100 (since its compounded). Even if you had dumped that $2k in at June (around the time you bought the CRX), you could've paid off your loan some 9 months early (changes depending on your re-fi). Now add to that $2k all you spent on mods that ultimately weren't necessary...

 

Dam i did not no the OP had other cars. U must be young to even consider going with a repo. Don't let that happen it ruins ur line of credit. If any thing sell it for around $7.5-8k and get a personal loan to pay the rest off. I dont even see ur car for sale on here. OR keep the Fit and sell the other cars u have. And put that money toward paying off the Fit and get the loan refinaced. I mean a $11k loan for 72 months can not be that much. But i would say if you do that pay it off before the 72 months. Thats what im doing i payed $13.6 for my used Fit with 20.5k miles and plan to pay most of it off this year if not all of it. Trust me i have made bad mistakes in my past. Lets just say with how much money i have spent on car and mods in the past 5 years i could own a viper out right in cash. I had close to $30k in the bank well no more most of that went toward me old S2k. But i have learned from my mistakes now and plan on driving the Fit for at least 5 years. But i am doing slight mods to it nothing over $1k though for now untill its payed off.

 

Goobers - That's a really well stated dose of "tough love". Your message to pay down loans as quick as you can, and save as much as you can so you can avoid the need for loans down the road is something everyone should strive for.

 

Here are some more tricks...usually whoever is selling you the loan will want you to buy "gap" insurance. This is necessary if you total the car and owe more on the car than it is worth, and also to help pay for your insurance deductible.

I usually decline this coverage, because I start paying more on my loan from the start. Currently my loan on the Fit is for the full amount of the car at about $350 per month, but instead I delayed payment as long as possible, and started paying $100 per week as soon as my loan was posted. This gains me at least $50 in equity per month above my payment. Since I am paying weekly instead of monthly it pays the loan sooner as well, and by paying weekly I am making an extra monthly payment every year (52/4=13).

This also gives me flexibility in case something bad financially happens as my due dates for my next car payment are pushed months into the future. The next due date for my wife's car is now October and we purchased it April 2009.

This also gives you flexibilty if you want to refinance your car after a couple of years, because the car will be worth at least what you owe on it. So if you refinance the loan making the payments lower, but keep making the same payments, more will be paid towards the equity paying off your loan faster.