Need some advice...

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amm24dmb

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Thanks in advance for any advice! I have a 2013 Honda Accord with 94,000 miles on it. Had it for 6 years now (bought new in Feb of 2013) and don’t ask me how, but we still owe $7,500 on it. Not a great financial move to buy out the lease after the 3 years was up and finance for another 6 years. Ugh. We were just trying to keep our payments low. Now we have 2 young kids, a house, etc. By the time I pay this car off (Feb of 2022) it’s going to be 9 years old and have roughly 125K on it.

So do I try and get rid of it now considering the circumstances and that it’ll be 9 years old when I pay it off? I only pay $245 a month and it’s been a great car, but it’s going to be worth nothing when it’s paid off. I’d love to have a bigger, safer car even though my wife has a 2018 Durango GT. Not sure what the best financial move is here! I’ve been looking at a 2019 Ram 1500 V6 lease. What to do, what to do...

Thanks!
 

McBroom

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Thanks in advance for any advice! I have a 2013 Honda Accord with 94,000 miles on it. Had it for 6 years now (bought new in Feb of 2013) and don’t ask me how, but we still owe $7,500 on it. Not a great financial move to buy out the lease after the 3 years was up and finance for another 6 years. Ugh. We were just trying to keep our payments low. Now we have 2 young kids, a house, etc. By the time I pay this car off (Feb of 2022) it’s going to be 9 years old and have roughly 125K on it.

So do I try and get rid of it now considering the circumstances and that it’ll be 9 years old when I pay it off? I only pay $245 a month and it’s been a great car, but it’s going to be worth nothing when it’s paid off. I’d love to have a bigger, safer car even though my wife has a 2018 Durango GT. Not sure what the best financial move is here! I’ve been looking at a 2019 Ram 1500 V6 lease. What to do, what to do...

Thanks!

Have you driven the 19?
How much do you like it?
Is it in your budget to buy the 19?
Can I honestly afford to buy this truck??

These are the most important questions that you need to ask yourself...

Now this is JMHO!

I’d use the Honda car as a trade in on the 19 Ram that your already wanting. That’s the best option. Even if you just break even on it.



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buddy guy

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first, its a honda so assuming it's been well taken care of maintenance wise it will probably last you a long time. my son has a 2006 accord he bought in fall 2017 and he beats the hell out of it..but, always takes it in for service. its all scratched up, has garbage bags of junk food containers in it. But damn, when i drive it it drives nice.

If you are going to have to go upside down (basically adding what you owe on the honda to financing for the truck) don't do it. In my personal experience especially because of how most vehicles depreciate, it will catch up with you eventually. Murphy's law says when you least expect it!

When I bought my truck, I got 2K more than what my tacoma was worth and it was paid off so that was cash in pocket. otherwise, I would have driven it until it died (which is a funny thing. i've only had one car of probably 16 "die" and I walked away from it. the rest caused me a lot of bleeding with slow, painful, expensive deaths...or they were a good trade in on something else, or a clean easy lease return.
 
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amm24dmb

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Thanks! I’ve only driven the 18’s and previous. So basically the 19 classic would fall into that too. Only thing I don’t like about the “older” model is no push start. That’s leaning me toward the new model. I’d probably lease again so I don’t run into this cycle again and keep my payments lower. Not sure if that’s the right move either...

I have to think I can get at least $7,500 (what I owe) or more for my Accord
 

buddy guy

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sounds like your starting from an ok place on the Accord then. My ex recently changed her Murano in for a vehicle. a damn dodge dealer gave her a better trade on a cherokee than a nissan dealer! I use a site called vmr (in canada it's vmr canada in searches) i've always found it very close. it's great cause it's free, you can put in your options, trim and mileage and it gives you a wholesale (like private sale) price and a retail (what a dealer would pay) price.

http://www.vmrintl.com/makes.html for us and other countries.

In the case of ex's murano, retail was 7500, wholesale was 9000. dealer gave her 8500 on trade. the nissan dealer offered 5500 and would not budge.

I used to love leases, when the difference between payments to finance was a huge gap compared to lease payments. what happened was most car companies figured out from experience that a lot of the cars they were trying to sell coming off lease weren't worth what the residual. in 1998 when i bought a new f150, i could lease for 300 per month. financing was 480. now, there's at best 50 dollars difference per month to "borrow it", versus "owning" it. In more recent years, only reason i leased was because my contract paid me up to 800 dollars a month for a vehicle so i was able to 4 year leasee every time, get the vehicle and trim i wanted and it wasn't my risk or my tab:)
 

JoeCo

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Thanks! I’ve only driven the 18’s and previous. So basically the 19 classic would fall into that too. Only thing I don’t like about the “older” model is no push start. That’s leaning me toward the new model. I’d probably lease again so I don’t run into this cycle again and keep my payments lower. Not sure if that’s the right move either...

I have to think I can get at least $7,500 (what I owe) or more for my Accord

I'd also advise to start shopping a little differently. Solely going in with a payment range in mind can get you in trouble, cause dealers will always find a way to get you the payment you want, but as you see, that can turn into 9 years of payments on a Honda. Just my preference, but I go to them with total amount I'm willing to finance, and that I'll do it for 5 years (again, just my preference but if I can't pay it off in 5 years at the amount I want to finance, I can't afford it). Doing it this way, it's pretty easy to figure out what your payments would be on your own, prior to ever talking to the dealer. Banks have their interest rates posted online, good for a baseline on interest rates, and plenty of online loan calculators to use that make it very easy. I know it's a little different for leases, but I think the same theory can apply to buying and leasing.

Of course plenty of variables here, such as if you can put a good down payment or have positive equity with your trade, or credit obviously. Just maybe something to think about, looking at more of the big picture. Good luck with you're decision, as someone said earlier, I definitely wouldn't get rid of the Honda if you'll get more upside down doing it, at that point might be worth holding onto it for long term since Honda's seem to hold up well.
 

McBroom

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I advise buying v/s leasing any vehicle. Leasing is just paying rent. It’ll get ya nothing in the future.
Plus by buying the truck you can make mods to it that’ll make you more comfortable with it.

I love my truck!
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McBroom

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Ohh and another question...
Where are you located?
It’s not on your profile.
This will help us better advise you on things.


I love my truck!
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buddy guy

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when i got my first lease in 1993 on a ford minivan, it was early days of leasing. it was a new concept for private individuals and was a new way for car dealers to get people into cars they weren't buying. the concept was usually sold as you only make payments on the car you use, not the whole car (example. 35000 car with a 17,500 residual). it was a brilliant idea for everyone. dealers put more new vehicles on the street, people got new cars and it worked for cars worth the residual. dealers f'd it up and kicked the can down the road by putting everyone in the same class on how they maintained their vehicles. you and i could buy the same truck and i could beat the hell out of it and you could sunday drive it and as long as we both stayed under the mileage penalty and it came back with a good windshield, they were considered to be the same truck. But very different values as a used vehicle.
 

JoeCo

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Thanks! I’m located in Massachusetts.

I like the financing strategy JoeCo. Thanks!

No problem at all, hope it helps! Also I agree with McBroom, I don't know as much about leases and never have done it before, and there are certainly situations where it makes sense. However from a personal ownership standpoint, I like buying. Dependent on a few things, good credit being one. I've been able to work my way up to my current truck (17 longhorn crew cab) by fighting hard for deals on my previous two rams (11 sport reg cab and 13 sport regular cab), and also by keeping them in top shape and paying them down for at least 2-3 years before trading in again. Each time I've traded in I've had more positive equity in my trade in (what I owed vs what I got for it), and was able to step up to a nicer, newer, lower mileage truck. By doing this, I've financed roughly the same amount overall for each of the 3 trucks, interest rates fluctuated a little bit during that time, so the payments fluctuated a little as well, but nothing too crazy. Getting the positive equity going really helped me from truck to truck, and I started with almost none on my first ram (only had 2k as a trade, over 23k financed). By the time I got my longhorn, I had 13k in positive equity to put as a down payment for what they gave me for it vs what I owed. That's pretty good progress I would have to say, got my 11 in March of 2014, got my 13 in July of 2016 and just got my 17 a couple months ago.

Of course that's just the route I ended up taking, part by design and part by luck. The other option would have been to keep getting around the same level truck rather than upgrading, and financing less each time. In the end, I love cars/trucks and was more than happy to basically keep "restarting" my loans and upgrading each time.
 

JoeCo

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when i got my first lease in 1993 on a ford minivan, it was early days of leasing. it was a new concept for private individuals and was a new way for car dealers to get people into cars they weren't buying. the concept was usually sold as you only make payments on the car you use, not the whole car (example. 35000 car with a 17,500 residual). it was a brilliant idea for everyone. dealers put more new vehicles on the street, people got new cars and it worked for cars worth the residual. dealers f'd it up and kicked the can down the road by putting everyone in the same class on how they maintained their vehicles. you and i could buy the same truck and i could beat the hell out of it and you could sunday drive it and as long as we both stayed under the mileage penalty and it came back with a good windshield, they were considered to be the same truck. But very different values as a used vehicle.

I always love hearing the older stories like this and beyond, or hearing my dad tell me about buying cars back in the 60's/70's. I was 7 in 1993 so I definitely remember what cars were around but was a pretty long ways off from understanding the financing.
 
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