Need advice selling 2004 4Runner that is financed...

[donjuanwater]

I have owned this Limited since May 2004.
Every month my 750$ payments have been on time. Because of debt, I need to sell.

How does one sell a car that is financed?

What are my options?

 

[ish]

depends on how much you owe and what the vehicle is worth

if you owe less than its worth then you can just sell it like any other car and then send the final check to the company you financed it through.

if you owe more than its worth then you sell the car and have have to come up with the extra money that you owe at the time of sale to cover the difference that the sale price didnt' cover.




at least thats how i think it works

 

[ToolmanJohn]

Very difficult situation

When I wanted to get rid of a 1994 Cutlass, I still had a year of payments to make. I couldn't sell outright to a new owner because I didn't have the title, GMAC held it. So I borrowed the money from a credit card to pay it off, waited 2 months for the friggin title, then sold it, and paid of the credit card. I used the remaining cash to make a downpayment on a new car.

I also have traded in a car that I had for 6 months, and had to eat the part of the loan I was upside down on, because I didn't put any money down ($6800 Subaru Justy waaaaay back in 1993). I used it for the winter, and ditched it. But it cost me and I had to finance the part of the loan I was upside down on (about $350) and roll it into the new car loan. Stealership would let you mortgage your first born.

In order to sell it to another person, I believe you need the title. If you trade it in for a less expensive vehicle at a stealership, they will handle the payoff of the current loan. New car price minus trade value of 4runner plus loan payoff amount. Your new number, minus any downpayment you might make.

I must say $750 a month is huge. I have never financed a vehicle that would make a monthly payment larger than 1/2 a weekly paycheck. With the insurance, fuel costs, and maintenance, it really can AT LEAST another couple hundred dollars a month to ownership. My monthly hit for the miscellaneous is $160 for gas, average of $108 a month for insurance, and I am guessing only $25 in maintenance, it's still under warranty.

Play the numbers and stick to a workable number. I hope it works out for you.

 

[slowginjoe]

you can sell the car to the buyer and the dmv has a form you can use which basically says you promise to deliver the title to the buyer after you receive it from your finance company. depending on who the buyer is financing through, you guys may never even see the title as it will be transferred electronically from one lender to the other. when you trade in a vehicle to a dealer that is still being financed, they have you sign a power of attorney and they do all that for you. good luck on the sale!

 

[HuntRunner]

Not sure what your finance terms are but I am guessing by the amount of that payment you went 60 months with not much of a down payment or trade. If this is the case, you are probably going to have a hard time selling the vehicle for what you owe. I could be wrong, but you simply have not made enough payments to gain any equity compared to the amount of depreciation your vehicle has taken since you bought it.
Check the value of your vehicle at edmonds.com or kelly blue book and compare that to your pay-off amount to verify. You may consider another option such as refinancing. This would at least allow you to keep the vehicle and have a little more money each month, though you will pay more for the vehicle in the long run.

 

[jazzy jae]

i'm in the same boat. i bought my SR5 in may04 and i want to get rid of it. the easiest way i see it is to rollover the negative equity into the next car i get. i've learned my lesson on how to not rush and let your parents and salesman convince you to get a car/truck you don't want. now i'm stuck with a 2wd suv.

 

[HuntRunner]

...... the easiest way i see it is to rollover the negative equity into the next car i get.......

This is actually a very bad idea and should only be done as a last resort to getting a lesser payment.

 

[Bluto]

Look it up on your state's dept. of motor vehicles website.

Just about every state may have a different process. Contact your lender as well.

 

[bryancos]

If you were leasing you could try www.swapalease.com or www.leaseswap.com to get out of it early. Many times you can make arrangments to have a car loan assumed, but likely not many folks will want to take on those high payments. Fortunately the 4Runner is holding value pretty well. Find out your payoff amount and put it on EBAY or AUTOTRADER.COM and see how much interest there is... you didn't say how much you still owed, but chances are someone will gladly buy it, if it is as immaculate as it sounds being so new. It really depends on how much upsidedown you are... (what it's worth vs. what you owe) You could also check w/ the local dealer to see how much they'd give you for it outright... but you'll make more if you sell it yourself.

 

[donjuanwater]

I put nothing down 0$

When I first brought the car, I put nothing down...

 

[ToolmanJohn]

Re: I put nothing down 0$

When I first brought the car, I put nothing down...

OUCH!!

The moment you drove away from the stealership, your vehicle took a ~20% depreciation hit. ALWAYS in the future put enough money down that the actual value of the vehicle will be covered by your insurance. Insurance will ONLY pay book value (minus your deductible). If you put nothing down, and it gets totaled days later, and the other guy is not insured (many out there), you insurance company pays BOOK VALUE, and you HAVE to pay the remainder of the loan!!!

As it stands, your truck has depreciated, even though it's a 4runner, and you will only be able to get what it's worth, never what you owe on it for having it for such a short period of time. You haven't any equity in the truck.

A couple of rules for the future, if you cannot pay for it in 42 months, don't buy it. REGARDLESS of how much you put down, if you couldn't make the resulting monthly payments and have it paid in full if you financed the remainder for 42 months, you bought 2 much vehicle.

I'm sorry if this sounds preachy, but I just want to give you some sound fiscal advice. I understand most everyone MUST finance their vehicle, otherwise no-one could buy a new one with cash until they were in their 30's!!! But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and drive a breadbox for a few years and save for the nicer ride.

 

[NoDak]

another option is to find a dealership that may cosign the vehicle for you. i had to do this was back in the early 90's due to issues. they sold it for me and i worked out a deal with the bank to pay the remaining debt leftover after the cosign. i only owed like 700-800 on the loan but the bank let me pay it off over 6 months due to a hardship.

jsut something to think about also.

 

[DaveS]

Aside from the various comments here with which I agree, the only other (last resort) option t oconsider is making use of any equity in property or other investments you might have. You are upside down in your financing on the car right now and nothing is going to undo that other than cash from elsewhere.

 

[EDGE]

750 for 60 months is 45k, 72 months is 54k and 84 months is 63k, so which one is it cause Toyota offers all of them, I've seen loaded 4Runners get leased for 750 a month for 60 months with 5k down, and a buyout of 20k

Don't forget all your options

 

[cmachado]

There's a credit forum (creditboards.com) that has an automotive financing section. One of the moderators, Marv is excellent at answering questions like this. He's worked, or still works at a dealership. I'm pretty sure he either owned, or managed one. And he is very straight forward, objective and really has helped me out in the past with some honest advice (believe it or not).

At any right, I once asked a related question in the forum and got some very interesting advice. Mainly, it was recommended that instead of leasing, I finance and then trade every couple of years or so.

Now obviously, you have to come to terms with paying for the upside-down on your loan, and a new down-payment on a new vehicle. If the financial flexibility is there, the trade-in vehicle miles are low and the vehicle is in great shape...you can do this. It'll just cost you more than you probably want to spend out-of-pocket.

I decided to take this approach, but I added a little twist to it to help me out down the road. I bought my T4R in June '04. I will now send 2 full payments next month – one of them 2 weeks prior to my due date, and the other at it's normal due date. The next month, I will continue to pay 1 payment as normal, but I will send an addition $50-$100 every month (as long as I can do it).

Essentially, I will be paying 1 month ahead of schedule and then continue to chip away at the principal. This way, when I am ready to trade in my financed car in 2 years, my upside-down will be much more manageable. This will help keep my out-of-pocket cost to a reasonable number come 2006 when I go back for a new 4Runner. I REALLY want that V8 now )

 

[HuntRunner]

Whatever happened to truly owning a vehicle? I understand people wanting to have the latest and greatest, but how do they ever gain anything? Forever having a HIGH vehicle payment just does not sound all that appealing.
Here is an idea: Buy a vehicle and keep it until it is paid for; then when you go to trade up you will have a nice down payment on the new one. $40K for a vehicle, less the $15K - $20K down payment = a lot lower monthly payment and/or a quicker pay-off. This way you are never upside down again and you always have equity in your vehicle.
I realize this might sound old school and may take a little sacrificing, but it is much better for the average consumer in the long run.

 

[toyo]

Of course that is the right thing to do. But if Toyota wouldnt stop putting things on these trucks that we want it wouldnt be so hard to move up.

On to the topic at hand. How much discount did you get off msrp at purchase. I recieved 7500 off msrp when I bought mine. I am sitting pretty good if I wanted to sell mine. Mine is 04 sport V8 AWD with every option including leather. The only option I dont have I think is the 110V inverter. I paid $ 28,000 for it. It was a demo with 1k miles on it. Titled as new to me being the first owner.

 

[Kanab]

Of course that is the right thing to do. But if Toyota wouldnt stop putting things on these trucks that we want it wouldnt be so hard to move up.

On to the topic at hand. How much discount did you get off msrp at purchase. I recieved 7500 off msrp when I bought mine. I am sitting pretty good if I wanted to sell mine. Mine is 04 sport V8 AWD with every option including leather. The only option I dont have I think is the 110V inverter. I paid $ 28,000 for it. It was a demo with 1k miles on it. Titled as new to me being the first owner.

Toyo, you did good. I got a little over $5K off my 04 SE AWD, it only had 12 miles on it but I would of let them drive it for another 988 miles for another $2500 off . Toyo based on your deal you could get out of yours in the first year and not lose anything. Most buyers would lose at least $5K selling within the 1st year of ownership.

 

[ToolmanJohn]

Not to be off topic

I don't want to belabor a point here. If you buy a new vehicle, and sell it within the first couple years, you lose money PERIOD. Whether you have put zero $ down or $20,000 down, the vehicle absolutely depreciates IMMEDIATELY after you have taken delivery and driven it.

Even a lease is a bad purchase, you have to pay for the costliest years of depreciation, the first 2 or 3.

Eveyone has personal reasons why they buy a new vehicle, could be they hate reliability problems of their current vehicle, LUST after a new model with more power, need a different type of car with more utility, whatever.

How much depreciation depends on the vehicle and the mileage. If you then sell your vehicle you have lost money. There's simply no way around it. As someone has stated, buy it and drive the heck out of it for years and years so the the cost of ownership is spread over a large period of time.