Kinda long, but I really would like your opinions:

Back in the day, I bought my Acura stupid me financed the entire car, so I ended up paying $730 a month for 5 years.

Bills have been mounting up, so I have been looking at other cars on the side to possibly save some $$. I love the Acura, but I checked out the 350z today. I was very impressed. It was fast, had great handling, and overall I felt a good value for the $$. I was looking into the Enthusiast version to save some $$.

I have ~$22,500 left on my loan, and my car is a 2001 with 27,500 miles on it.

They offered me a 39 month lease (15,000 miles) for $565 and offered to take my car (the said it was worth $19,000 for trade in). What do you think my car is worth? They also threw in the deal of no-front costs (savings of ~$1000) which means they would pay all taxes, fees, etc at the onset - All I would do is drop off my Acura keys and drive away in the Z at no cost.

Finally to sweeten the deal, they offered a cash payment of $730 to cover my January payment. This supposedly is only good until friday.

I did some calculations, and it seems the regular lease price of this car (without trade in) should be about $460, but they are eating the difference between what I owe and what the retail value of my car is. The difference to me is about $2400, which adds about $60 a month to the lease price - Brings it to $520/month.

What should I do?
1- Demand they lower the lease price to $520 a month
2- Get the lease price without the trade-in and look to sell my car on the private market
3- Keep the Acura and walk away

BTW.. My insurance would actually go DOWN with the 350z. Only about $200 a year, but still not bad at all.

I love the Acura, but I am struggling to keep up with the payments. If I could get it down to $520 a month, I would save over $200 a month

 

Why don't you refinance the loan??????? With that much money left you could get the payments down to 460 month on your CLS.


Shit where you live, keep the CLS and walk away. Take the difference, about $80 and save it.

 

You have to do what makes you happy.

but its not worth trading in a car on a lease, specially when youre buried in negative equity.

If you so desperately want the Z the take their lease option and sell your car outright,. youll get more money that way, or at least enough to cover the remainder of your loan.

Otherwise, id say just keep the Acura and possibly what Zapata is suggesting and look into refianacing.

 

What model Z are we talking about? How much is the MSRP? They range from $26k and change to over $34k.

Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me, they are most likely charging MSRP for the Z...building in your negative equity and would assume they have some back end rate in the deal as well (I would ask them about that nicely).

If you want to double check the deal, go to another dealer and see what they can offer you.....it pays to be safe. Doesn't cost you anything but a little extra time and grief.

I would try to get more for your trade if possible, if not maybe sell it privately....negative equity sucks sinking it into a lease.

 

But wouldn't refinancing that amount of $$ just mean that I am spreading it out over a even greater period of time? I won't be done paying off my car for a long time after that!

I actually test drove the Z in the snow today, and it wasn't that bad (although it was just a dusting)

 

Zapata you beat me to it I was just about to say that. Financing $20k for 5 years with an APR of about 6% looking at low $400 and you will own the CL-S after that.

 

how many months do you have left on your loan? How much is the interest??

 

I have 3 years 2 months left on the loan. Interest is 7.9%

It just sucks that I'll own my car after 7 years if I refinance for another 5 years.

Beltfed: The MSRP is $29,800

 

Wow i think you should be able to get a lower rate and keep the 38 month term. Try, www.lendingtree.com to see what kind of rates you get on refinancing. You should be able to get atleast 6.5 and at that your monthly will be $630. You'll save atleast $100.

I guess you need to figure out if jumping into a payment of 560 without ownership of the car.


At the end of three years you will own your CLS. You will NOT own the 350z. I wouldn't do it.

 

Zapata.. Very good point... I can manage $630 a month. If I can get the payments down to a level like that, I'll definitely keep the CL.

 

Whether you refinance or lease the Z youre going to be paying money for next x amount of years period. And if you lease youll either have to buy out or find something at the end of the term so you'll be paying for an even longer perios of time. So pick which one you want.

Otherwise keep driving your car making 730/mos payments if you can afford it (you made the deal for that in the first place.)

And no one said you couldnt pay your car off early if you refinance.

Sadly, there is just no comfortable way to get out of a car in which youre buried.

 

Thanks for all the great advise! I really appreciate your words of wisdom

I will start looking to refinance. If that does not pan out well, I'll still look at the Z, but I think I'll go down the Private Sale route first

 

I just checked on PeopleFirst.com
I have my loan through them on my CLS.
You can get 5.29% for 36 - 60 months on a refinance if you have good credit.
$22,500 @ 36 months comes out to approximately $677/month.

When I got my loan, it took me about 15 minutes to fill out the info online and I received a call from one of their people about 20 minutes later with an approval.

I've had no problems with them. Check out all your options before you get rid of your car.

 

Actually, a totally loaded touring model will set you back $37,200 before tax/tags (msrp). I think alot of people believe that they max at 35, and the track is always the more expensive model. Price one out at nissandriven.com before you go to the dealer to talk $.

 

There are a some budget calculators on the internet you should take a look at.

You plug in your Net pay, and it will generate some rough numbers on the MOST you should spend a month in Rent/House payments, car payments and other misc reaccuring bills.

There are basic rules they have that you shouldn't spend more than X% of your net income on car payments and you shouldn't spend more than X% of your net income on rent/house payments.

In the long run you come out ahead by buying a 2nd hand Civic and then stashing the difference every month into a savings account and after a year you have a nice pile of cash you can apply towards a down payment on a NICE car without having to have insane monthly payments. Also talk to relatives about possibly borrowing money from them for a lower intrest rate.

It all comes down to your priorities.

Growing up my family was always house poor. We lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood and had 3 hoopties parked in the driveway. 1976 Buick Electra, 1985 Olds Cutlas Supreme and a 1984 Chevy Celebrity. Parents bought the Olds from a friend, the Celebrity was a work vehicle my Dad bought for cheap from the company, and the Buick I have no idea.

Seems like on message boards people tend to go more for the car poor route. Drive a really nice car totally fixed up, and live in a 1 bedroom apt.

 

Shit in L.A. its EVERYTHING POOR!

 

The problem of course is your upside down on the financing. I don't know if leasing is the answer, but make sure you read the contract with a magnifying glass. You could try and sell it privately with the possibility of coming out even on the sale. I've done this before. Then your lease payments would be less. The other option all ready mentioned is to re-fy.

 

Unfortunately, $19K for your CLS trade is very generous. I too was looking into leasing a 350Z, but the Touring model with every option. For 36 months, 15K miles, zero down, they wanted $696 per month...they're on crack. For $17 more per month, I can lease a 2003 540i Sport with the M Package and fully loaded for 39 months, 15K miles, zero down. But don't want another 540 a GS430 may be a good option, but if you're worried about payments, what about the new RX8, aren't those cheaper than 350Z?