car finance/trade-in

doodah

hi all, i have a car on finance which is due to be paid off in february 2011. we have recently been thinking about trading the car in for something more economical but i'm not sure if this is possible with a car that is on finance?

doodah

can anyone help? :S

doodledo_2

Not sure about this one to be honest as never had a car on finance.

I think if you traded the car in the likelihood is the trade in price will no where near cover the finance outstanding on the car.

Probably best if you ring your finance company or the dealer you bought the car from and ask how it works if you downsize.

Good luck.

itsarichmansworld

I'm doing it just now you will have a negative equity I have £200 but my car has literally packed in now so I'm getting rid whatever happens I only have 1800 on finance left so its worth it for me

Larumbelle

I think it depends upon what car you have in the first place. While all cars leak value like a seive for the first years, some leak it faster than others.

A friend of mine part-exed her coupe cabriolet after two years for a bottomeend fiesta and her finance 'only' went up by a grand. I say 'only' becuase she saved this in fuel and insurance in the first year.

When
you work out how much a car will cost you, you have to look at the savings you will make from increased fuel efficience, lower insurance costs (and maybe lower road tax too), the fact that you might not need to do an MOT where you would before, factor in any likely savings if your new car has a warrantee... it isn't as clear cut as 'how much will the finance cost'. You need a good calculator, a bit of googling and your thinking cap, I think.

What car are you driving now and what were you thinking of trading it in for?

Scarlett.1974

I think it all depends on the terms of your finance agreement. We're in a similar situation to you and would like to trade our car 'down' (bought in April for £8k, we put £3k deposit of old car down), but from reading the agreement today (which was bloody Hard Work) I don't think we can do this I think our only option is to hand the car back but then we'll a. have no car (not an option) and b. have no way of buying a cheaper one and c. lose our £3k deposit.

I recommend you have a good read of your finance agreement and see what it says, because from the reseach I've done today they all vary wildly re selling / giving back etc....

Good luck

Battle_weary

Hi there

It depends on the type of finance - we had a fixed sum loan agreement with Black Horse. They registered the car as HPI and also an interest on DVLA.

They have had to now remove this as our loan is a personal loan and not HPI. Trading Standards are involved with the case.

But we are happy to say that some 10 months after starting this particular crusade we can now sell the car.

A HUGE SUCCESS FOR US AND 2 FINGERS UP TO BLACK HORSE!!

doodah

thanks everyone for your replies! we want to swap the car for something cheaper, according to the aa website the trade-in value is around £4000 for our car (peugeot 206) so we would be looking to just swap it for something of that value. it does seem too simple so i will definitely look at the agreement, hopefully i'll be able to make sense of it! i'm not sure what type of loan it is, it was done at the dealership. the only thing i really remember is they said we could hand the car back once we had paid the value of the car off the loan and we wouldn't have to pay off the rest of the loan

TheAble

The best thing to do is to check all your paperwork for the finance agreement. This will tell you what the rules are governing trading your car in.