My boyfriend and I want to exchange my toyota Rav4, for another car, but is it worth it?

Question

Okay, so heres the story, I have a Toyota Rav4, that I bought in 2005, up until now the balance is $13,900 around there, and both me and my boyfriend want another car for me, since I've always wanted a small girly car, but how is the whole process of exchanging? Is it worth it? What happens to all the payments I made in the last two years?

Answer 1

It depends on what the car is worth to whoever is willing to buy it. If you sell the car yourself and can get the $13.9K then you can pay off your loan and start fresh with a new car.

However if you can only find someone who is willing to pay $10K for the car, you'll need to find some way to pay off the balance ($13.9K-10K = $3.9K). Means you need to find $3900 to pay off your debt for the car.

If you can sell if for more than it's worth, say you find a buyer willing to pay $15K, then you get to keep the difference ($15K-13.9K = $1.1K). Means the 2 years you've been paying the car off amounted to $1100.

If you go to a dealership to trade in the car, everything works pretty much the same, however they typically will only offer you what they feel the car is worth to them. Any difference in amount will be applied to your new car's loan balance. So if a dealership is only willing to pay $10K for your old car, they will typically add the $3.9K loan difference to your new loan. If they are willing to pay $15K, then they will reduce your new loan balance by the $1.1K

Is it worth it is really up to you to decide how long you want to continue to carry a loan balance, how much it will cost you or benefit you.

Answer 2

the payments youve made in the last two years are gone... the have been taken off what you owe on the car. if you trade the car in you still owe the loan you took out for it whether it be with a bank or the dealership. when you trade in the car the give you a value of what it is worth now and they subtract that from what you owe. if your lucky the car will be worth more than you owe and you have a little extra money for a down payment. but say you owe 10,000 and they tell you they will give you 8,000 for the car then you still owe that 2,000 and that will be added to the payment for the new car you buy.

i hope this answered you question and best of luck

Answer 3

you can go to edmunds.com and find out what your car is worth either trading it in or selling it yourself. as far as the payments you have made it allowed you to build up some equity in the car.