We bought a brand new 2017 Nissan Altima
This was our very first new car. I think it had 8 miles on it. We had it financed for 6 years. Well a new car was nice mostly because it was the most reliable car we have ever owned. Still next time I think Pre-Owned would be wiser.
Biggest problem to me with new is "depreciation".
This sounds crazy but true, when you buy a "New" Vehicle its value is near the price that you are paying. But when you leave the lot it drops a lot. For us it was a $23,000 that dropped to I think $17,000. After that the value continues to go down slowly. The main problem I see with this, If you get into an accident. Lets say its the other cars fault and no one is injured but they total your vehicle. Their insurance will pay you close to or equal to100% of your vehicles "value" Sounds good, Until you realize that the loan is still valid. They don't care about current value, just price agreed on.
Another thing to consider , what if for some reason you get to where you can no longer afford it?
It happens.
The process goes like this: You fail to make 2 to 3 payments a Repo Service get the ok to retrieve this vehicle. He takes your vehicle to his storage for a period of time, giving you a chance to work something out with your bank. If you haven't by the deadline, it will be sold in an auction. The amount it sales for will go toward your loan. Say you still owe $10,000 the auction sales it for $3,500. Now "You" are responsible for the other $6,500 even though you no longer get to keep the car.
We realize this when we were in financial crisis and come to the realization that our car was going to have to be repossessed after paying on it for 4 out of 6 years. The amount of money that went in was more than what was borrowed if you include interest and principal but that doesn't grant you any wiggle room when it comes down to getting their payments. It just sucks when you realize all the money you put in and left with nothing to show for it.
The Plan
We then came up with an idea look online and see what carvana.com would offer to buy the vehicle. The deal was perfect unexpectedly. We owed $13,375.32, carvana is willing to give us $14130.00 So this seemed awesome, we're still going to lose the car but at least now it'll get paid off it won't damage our credit and we still get $754.68 in our pocket.
If you ever get into the situation at least check it out, it's better than having a surprise Repo and coming out with no car, no credit, no cash.
Even though this is a good plan I let Nissan Motor Acceptance know the idea so they would be reassured that their money would be coming soon. They didn't seem to be worried. I was told that the repossession order already been issued. She would pause the reposition if I would pay two payments that day.
(If I could pay two payments that day we would have been in this situation.)
We decided we would have to hide from the repo people until we could get the car to the Carvana appointment in 3 days. I stayed outside with the car for most of the wait. Extreme cleaning, change break pads, buff scratches. Just didn't wanna give them a reason to adjust the price, plus it was protecting the car from the repo people. At night we would choose different places to leave it, and walk home. This was one plan I wasn't letting anybody F#@& up!
3 Hours till appointment
Carvana here we come!!!
So we're getting ready to take the car in just a few hours to meet with carvana and wouldn't you know it truck stops just as it passed my vehicle parked in the street. I ran out the door to jump in the car because I knew it was the repo guy. I was correct. He was backing his lift kit underneath the front of the vehicle as I ran out I jumped in and felt him begin to lift it and I threw the car in reverse and backed off of it. I still had the trunk open so I stopped at the bottom of the street. He thought I was backing out the other end of the street and moved his vehicle to that end. When he did that it just opened it up for me to go straight up and out so I did. When I got to the car wash I looked at my front bumper and was extremely upset because I ripped the bumper. This would definitely change this plan that we had of selling, it at least change the price drastically.
Within met with the lady that represent carvana and I go ahead and showed her the bumper. She looked at it and said oh that's fine our people can fix that. And I said is it not going to adjust the price any? Do it she replied no it's not a problem. So after all the drama with the repo and everything else because of our persistence to make it happen and because of the existence of a place like Carvana everything worked out in the end... and as far as me backing the car off of the Repose lift kit... Turns out when I got in the car what I felt was him backing his lift kit into the bumper. That wasn't my fault after all he literally drove right into the car. How do I know this? Because after we got back I checked the security camera just to show my wife me running out there to save the vehicle and it shows clearly him driving into it....Click Here to See The Video.
