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Getting Out of Upside Down

Upside-down means you owe more on the car than it is worth. You may ask, "How can that be—" Easy. Let's say you buy a new car with for a price of $35,000. The various taxes, license and fees will add, as a rough rule of thumb, about 10 percent. The total is now $38,500. You write a check for a down payment of $3,000, which leaves $35,500 to finance. Over 60 months, depending on your credit rating and what sort of interest rate that allows, you will have monthly payments of, roughly, about $750, for a total of around $45,000. Add in the down payment and, by the time you're all done, assuming you keep the vehicle until it's paid off, you will have spent about $48,000...

How Much is Your Used Car Worth?

Typically, a person shopping for a new, or newer, car is currently driving something he or she is planning to use as a trade-in. This brings up the big question: What's it worth?..

Preparing Your Car for Sale

As Neil Sedaka once crooned (remember him—), breaking up is hard to do, but when it comes car ownership, nothing lasts forever. Sentimentality aside, you may be dying to get rid of that old beast anyway, and want to get as much money as possible for it. What sort of things should you do before slapping on a "For Sale" sign and running an ad in the "Auto Trader"?..

Should You Trade or Sell Your Used Car?

At new-car time there's nearly always an accompanying question: What to do with the old car? If you've already promised it to your daughter so she can take it to college, your decision is made. But for most of the rest of us, we have to decide whether to trade in on the new one, or sell it ourselves...