Can you sell your car, if you still haven't paid it off?

Question

I have a 2003 Chevy, Monte Carlo LS. It has about 73K miles on it and about $7,500 left to pay it off in full. If I wanted to sell it, would I just sell it for the difference in what I've already paid on it? Details: I have it tint out, CD/radio combo set, and new wheels and rims on it....it's a gold color.

Also, would it be a better deal, selling it to a person or dealership? And could I trade it?

I know---LOADED question..lol.

Thank you for answering me though...

(I'm a chick)

Answer 1

You have two options:

You can trade it in on a new car, and they will add the amount left owed on it to you new car loan. It will make your new car loan considerably higher.

Your other option is to sell it as "take up notes". The buyer won't give you any money, but you will not have to pay the rest of the loan OR put it on your new loan.

Personally, I'd sell it as "you take up notes", and just buy a new car. If you add it to your loan, a car that costs $14,000 will end up costing you $21,500.

Answer 2

You already have 12 bits and pieces of correct answers to your question. First part of selling yourself. Check www.kbb.com to determine a fair value for your car. This will provide you with a private party value. It will also provide you with trade in. Make sure you are using "Fair Condition" because that is going to be very close to the true value you may receive at a car dealership. At this point, you can decide which method you may want to tackle. At least you will be more educated. Either way, you may have to pay a difference to the current finance company to completely pay the car off whether out of pocket or included in a new loan. If you sell the car yourself, let the person know that there is a lien on the car that you will have to pay off, and when you receive the title you will sign it over to them. If you decide to go through the dealership, they will take care of the payoff and title details.
Good luck!

Answer 3

Of course you can sell the car but you have to also pay off the loan when you transfer the title.

The problem is if you owe more money to the bank than the car is worth. You still have to pay the difference. So you owe $7,500 and you can only sell it for $7,000, that means you'll have to take $500 out of your pocket to get rid of the car.

In the industry it's known as "being up-side down".

Car dealers love this because they can sell you a new car and add the old debt into the price. You get a new car without taking extra money out of your pocket but you usually get stuck paying full price for the new car plus old debt added on top of it (and often at a higher interest rate too). In short most car dealers will take advantage of you in this situation.

You'd probably be better off selling the car on your own if you're not in a hurry and don't mind dealing with people.

Answer 4

You can sell it, but not for the DIFFERENCE in what is already paid on it. Your name is on the loan, so that needs to be taken care of first. Since the bank has the title to the car and you do not, then you need to buy the title from them for $7,500.00 before they will release it.

If you want to spend the time and the cost of advertising selling it, then go that route. You will usually get a more out of it when you do it that way. If the amount owed is more than the KBB.com prive for private party sale, or what some of the same type of car is going for in your area, then you may want to trade it in. They will give you KBB's Trade in value (or close) and then roll the remainder into the price of your new vehicle. At least the original loan will be taken care of.

Also, in about 6 months, verify that your credit report no longer shows this as an open loan. My hubby paid off one of his loans, but 2 years later when we went to buy a house, it still showed open.

Good Luck!

Answer 5

Yes you can sell it. If you sell to a private person you must take the money they pay you for it and pay the loan off then the compnay will sign over the title to you or the other person depending on how you work it out. Any other money that the person paid you is yours to keep.But the 7500 must be paid off to get the title and sell it. If you sell it to the dealer ship you wil get way less and they will just add the balance if there is any when they buy it from you to your new loan on another car. For example say they will give you 5000 instead of 7500 the balance is 2500 if you dont pay the 2500 then they will add that to your new loan

Answer 6

No. You don't own it until after you've paid it off. You can't sell something you don't own. You can trade it in and the dealer will make the payoff for you, but the amount will be rolled into your new loan and you will be seriously upside down, owing thousands more than the actual value of the new car.

Answer 7

List it in one of the big internet car sites, like cars.com. Ebay is good too. Make sure you post good pictures. The first $7500 of what it sells for goes to pay off the balance, anything over it goes in your pocket. Go to kbb.com and enter your cars particulars to get an accurate price range to sell it for. Halfway between trade-in value and retail is usually good.

Answer 8

You can sell your car for market value to anyone you wanted as long as you used the money to pay off the current loan.

You can also trade it in to a dealership who will take over the payments. They will deduct what you owe on the loan from your trade in value

Answer 9

Trading it will kill you, yes you can sell it and pay off the note, the question is how to get the sale price above what you owe.

The other thing you could do is find someone who would assume the balance of payments left on the vehicle and walk away and buy something else.

Answer 10

before you can sell your car, you must have the title. To get the title, you must pay it off. You can trade it to a dealer, because a dealer is set up to pay it off and add that amount to the balance of your new car. If you buy a car for $20,000 and trade yours in, They will add $7500 to your note then take off the amount they give you for trade-in.