[J_malibu_T]

So I currently am the proud owner of a 2006 maliBU. I love my car and never had problems. i flew to oregon and rented an '08, ( shows my love for the malibu. lol) Anyway, I fell for the 08 and have been trying to get upgrade ever since. So i got the loan back in march and made every payment on time, yet still have terrible credit. i got offered 6500 trade in and was lookin at a fully loaded 07 for 14.9, I still owe 10 on mine ( to much negative equity). is there any options that i may not have thought about or something im missing? I hate giving up so I dont want to... I just want the newer BU. but any input helps... PS can I remove the black piece that sticks to my back window for my antenna, and tie my xm into it so that I have no FM and only recieving xm signal??? Thank you in advance

 

[holepuncher]

Did you say $14.9 fo an 07. Hate to tell you I just paid $14.5 for a new 09 LS. Got $4900 for my 04 malibu (with only 23k mi on it - worthless POS that it was) so ended up writing a check for $9600. Lotta car for that price.

 

[Malibu Glow]

With the negative equity on the malibu you have now it's gonna be very hard for you to even get anyone to give you a loan for the newer Malibu and include the negative equity. With the economy the way it is now and lending companies being reluctant with loans you'd be lucky even if a dealer would be willing to trade and pay it off for you, but it would hurt your loan on the new car.

 

[slhaas]

Actually you can do something with negative equity, but not with a used car. You will need to get a new 08, or better yet a new 09 from a GM dealership. The new cars come with rebates. Instead of you getting that rebate money and lowering the cost of your new car, they'll use it to cover the negative equity. Basically they'll jack up the trade in value of your other car and then discount the new car enough with the rebates so that when your negative equity is added you're still looking to borrow the same or less as the value of your new car before any rebates, so the banks will lend it. In this economy banks dont want to lend over the value (lend you the $ for the new car and $ to pay off your old loan's neg. equity). It's really the only shot you have... but, keep in mind, then you will not be getting a deal on your new car and will end up paying sticker price for it, or a littler under, depending how upside down you are in your current car. Approach a dealer about buying a new Malibu. Know what the rebates are before setting foot in their door, and how much you will qualify to get off. Then negotiate... get the price of the new car down as much as you can and on paper, then do the same for your trade in... get them to offer as much as possible... then throw in the rebates and tell them how much you're upside down in your current car. This way you might be able to get a deal on the new car anyway. If you tell them what your angle is from the get go they'll use the rebates to knock of just enough to cover the neg. equity and pocket the rest.

 

[Malibu Glow]

I don't think so, my friend who now owns an 08 Malibu did a trade two years ago with another car he had. He had a 2005 Ford Focus and went to trade it for a 2007 Scion Tc, well because he owed more than the car was worth as a trade he ended up with that negative equity on the new car loan, sure the dealer paid off the car si they'd have the title, BUT my friend STILL paid for the negative equity he had when he traded for the newer car.

 

[ModemJunki]

I don't think so, my friend who now owns an 08 Malibu did a trade two years ago with another car he had. He had a 2005 Ford Focus and went to trade it for a 2007 Scion Tc, well because he owed more than the car was worth as a trade he ended up with that negative equity on the new car loan, sure the dealer paid off the car si they'd have the title, BUT my friend STILL paid for the negative equity he had when he traded for the newer car.

Yes, but two years ago the care salesmen weren't comparing which kind of shoe leather tastes better than the next, and didn't have these huge chunks of bait (incentives) to play around with. Dealerships are starving for business. But that brings it's own perils - would you rather swim with a fat happy shark - or a lean hungry one?

That doesn't mean it would be an easy thing to do, though. Credit is extremely tight.

My advice? Suck it up, pay extra into your current loan until you are even or better yet have a grand or two in positive equity. This way you're at less of a disadvantage, and you've repaired your credit over time (it takes time, I had credit problems when I was young, you really have to focus on fixing your credit).

But it's your money, man. Internet advice is worth what you paid for it, right?

Be well!

 

[headcase650]

I say buy the book Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Drive your current car and get it payed off as fast as you can. Get your credit in order and save money. In a year or two you could be sitting pretty with some cash in hand, no debt and people throwing low interest loans at you. Two year ago I had two cars I was upside down in and 25 thousand in debt. I started the Ramsey's plan and have sense payed off both cars and all the debt, have a few grand in the bank and just bought an 09 Malibu and chose to finance 12 grand that I actually didn't have to. I just didn't want to empty my savings. I think a lot of the reasons our economy is in the crapper right now is because people are so use to living beyond their means.