lvcurvs

just playing around with appraisall (sp?) stuff and it's crazy the diff. in pricing. KBB says excellent condition 2004, 6spd, non nav, 77,620 miles is $11,500 (Same thing carmax offered me). Edmunds says $15,600-$16,900. Others i've personally seen at dealers were in the 17's when traded in for another car from them. Again, i was offered $17,500 if i bought an sti the dealer had.

Just surprised to see these prices all over the place. any reason as to why or maybe i'm missing something on this particular make and model car.

lvcurvs

5 min edit thing

lvcurvs

5 min edit thing.........oh, and whats the best way to get out from owing to much on your car? My wife wrecked my s2k and i didn't have gap (my own stupidity) so the finance company basically said, here's x amt go find something that's worth x amt. Well, the TSX was the only thing i liked in that range but it put me 4 grand upside down. I'm trying to find cheap trades that have high resale value to slowly bring myself up from being upside down. i can't afford to just drop the $$ to make up the diff so whats a good way to do it?

EJH

Try NADA.com I bet they'll be different too. Each one takes different aspects into account. Some rate higher for popularity and brand and some are based on the actual equipment the car has. Basically pricing is subjective and always negotiable so theose quotes give you a starting point but are not to be used as actual value of your specific vehicle.

EJH

What about keeping the car until it's paid off and you are no longer upside down? And then when you trade it in or sell it the profit is 100% down on your next car. How many more payments do you have?

SoCaliTrojan

he said his wife wrecked the car. I don't think the insurance company would like it if he were to hide the wreck for 2 years....

That's what gap insurance is for...in case the car gets wrecked while you're upside down. He didn't get the $600 gap insurance, so now he's screwed. I have no idea how to overcome something like that since I always pay for the relatively cheap gap insurance

EJH

The way I read it he got the TSX because the s2k was wrecked and now wants to get rid of the TSX.

lvcurvs

EJH, your correct. She ran my S2k into the trees and now I have the TSX.
As far as buying the cheap gap insurance, when i financed, I was told to wait a little bit so i could refinance and then get it, (Again, my own stupidity for trusting him) otherwise I was up in the $500/month range and I was def. not going to pay that.
Anyways, 6 months later, I set up an appt. on a monday to refinance and get the gap from my bank. The saturday before my appt., she wrecked my car. The tree impacted the car about a foot behind me and spun us around. Snapped suspension and brake parts and crushed the rr 1/4 panel. Both air bags went off. We were fine, just a little sore.
I got screwed on the estimate of the car and then a week after I accepted thier offer, I found out the guy who did the estimate bought the car and fixed it for a third of what he said it was going to cost to fix. I know this because my friend worked with the guy.
As far as how many payments are left, when the finance company made me that deal, it basically re started the exact same loan I had with the S2k. I paid 23 for the s2k, got it down to 21k, it was wrecked then paid $17,200 for the tsx. Basically I'm paying 21k for something that cost me 17k. I guess that's not too bad because I know they are selling these cars for 21k in some places. I don't know, just seems like a bad situation for me.
Now before anybody else chimes in, I know it's my fault for not having gap. That's my own stupidity so don't think I don't know this I was just looking for suggestions as to better my situation weather it be be trading for something with a higher resale value or just keeping it.

EJH

Since newer cars depreciate I don't think you'll close the gap very fast by continuously trading in cars. And it seems risky since you're always depending on someone to buy at a higher price to close the gap. Realistically I think your best bet is to either keep the TSX and make more than the minimum payments each month or sell the car and get a really cheap car. If you get a cheap car then the savings on your monthly payment can be used to pay down the gap and your monthly budget wouldn't change. For example if your payment now is $450 and you get a car for $200 then you save $250 and in this case you'll pay off the gap in 16 months. And you can probably always find ways to pay a little more each month too and reduce the time to 1 year or less. But if your TSX has been reliable then I would probably still keep the car and up the monthly payment because these cars hold value so you won't be upsidedown for too long. Good luck.

supraken

iTrader: (1)

That's weird, from my experience, usually kbb has prices that are higher than normal. Edmunds TMV prices are usually pretty much spot on when you customize the appraisal.

Sorry to hear about the s2k. I just sold mine and I know how much probably you'll miss it.

davidspalding

Okay, in KBB and Edmunds, WHICH PRICE are you looking at, private sale, dealer sale, or trade-in value? These are the 3 discrete prices you need to consider.

(broken record mode) Buy a CR used car price report, that will tell you the various values, for the mileage of the car and all options (both of them on the TSX ).

"Negative equity" is a customer-inflicted syndrome. I worked with a guy who whined that he had "negative equity," and when I asked why, he wondered if maybe it was because he'd bought 5 cars in 6 years? My own tactics to prevent this include keeping the car beyond the term of the loan, financing with 48 months or sooner for payoff, making a double-payment or two every year (ask the loan agent to ensure there's no penalty for this), put a sufficient down payment. For my TSX, I put beaucoup down, financed only eleven grand, and made the loan either 48 or 36 month (don't remember). I wanted monthly payments to be under 10% of my net income.

Not scolding here, mind you, but the TSX is a highly, highly reliable car with a pleasant depreciation curve, so the idea of tossing it so soon is probably extravagent. Just my , your personal situation can and probably does differ.

lvcurvs

All of you have good points. I have been looking at the Trade in values on all the nada, kbb and edmunds. It just seems bad when I see that my car is worth 11,500(kbb) and I owe 21 on it. i know the values vary but you guys know what i mean.

Oh yeah, i miss the s2k bad..almost teared up seeing her on the tow truck. That was the only car i have ever REALLY REALLY wanted. i'd love another one but totally impractical right now. Oh but don't be mistaken, i WILL own another one. Ha, and she's never driving it!!

The reliability so far is great. Ever since i've gotten the car i've done nothing but try to fix all the known problems and changed fluids belts plugs filters brakes etc... the best thing is this car is super easy to work on.
Thanks guys!!

1Louder

lvcurvs - don't beat yourself up over the gap insurance. It's not usually a good buy and an easy thing to miss.

If you don't have cash to throw at the problem, I think you either need to own it long enough to where the gap does close (but by then you'll be close to paying it off) - or, if you're willing, you can trade the TSX in for a very cheap car and close the gap faster.

Here's how I think that would work. You have a car where you owe 21K and let's say the TSX is worth 17K on a trade. If you trade down - say to a car worth 5K - your trade equity covers the cost of the car. That leaves 12K that goes to the 21K loan and you'll still owe 9K. The only thing that buys you is that you can pay off a 9K loan faster than a 21K loan, get yourself free and clear, and start over again. Also, a 5K car won't depreciate as fast as a 17K one. The more it depreciates, the larger the gap you have to close (a 5K car may depreciate 500 in a year (if that much), where a 17K car will depreciate 1500 or more). You'll get out of it faster.

Two problems: you have to put up with a 5K ride for a while, and you have to find a bank willing to finance 9K for a 5K car.

Good luck -

lvcurvs

1 louder- exactly the problem i'm having. my finance company will finance it but it has to be an '02 or newer with less then 75k on it. If i could drop to an '01 i'd do it in a heart beat and get another integra. honda doesn't have crap in the '02-'05 range. the civics are butt ugly and slow and the rsx's, to me, are girls cars or ragged out to hell.
After doing some more research on the available cars, my finiancial options and future plans, it ends out being that the TSX fits perfect. I'm trying to "grow" up if you will and solidify my future better for my wife and I as well as start looking at houses. The TSX is super cheap to maintain, so far, VERY reliable, easy to work on, good on gas and i already have it. Plus it's a looker and the potential it has is good. Still WAY to damn slow and too soft but i can fix that later down the road.
I'm going to end up keeping it and just refinancing it through my bank to drop my payments. Also included a little extra for hondata and a couple other small things. and my payment and intrest rate went down so that's good. It also allows me to focus more on my credit to try to get it as high as possible so whe i'm ready to get a house, it'll be a little easier.
Thanx for all your help guys, guess you'll be seeing me around for a while!!

davidspalding

FWIW, when I was shopping, I was considering a 2002 or so Lexus IS300, $18K with 62,000 miles on it. And a 2002 or so Toyo Celica GT, $14K. These were cheaper cars, which I would bet on better than average reliability. A $5K car ... that sounds like a base model little commute-mobile.

1Louder

^^ Anything in that range is like a mid-late 90's Accord, Civic, Integra. Not inspiring rides when compared to a TSX, but was just an idea.

lvcurvs - I don't think you'll regret owning the TSX - great choice!