Hey guys,

I haven't posted till now because most of the information I need was just a search away, but this time I need some advice that is very specific to me. If anyone has any input or advice I greatly appreciate it!

So my story is that I have a 2005 Cobalt LS sedan on a smartbuy. I got in in July '05 and "knock on wood," had no problems mechanically with it, just small things like a blown speaker and a leaky sunroof. In July, my smartbuy is up and I have my options of keeping it or getting rid of it. Unfortunately I'm still in school so I'm only working part-time so I do not have the cash to make my final balloon payment of $9500.

So my options are to either refinance the car or give it back to GM. With that said I really don't have any funds to put down on a new car maybe 1-2k at most. So I was wondering if anyone can give me advice on what they would do in my situation and if anyone went through returning a car after a smartbuy, how much do they charge you for dents, stains, worn tires, etc. Again any advice or info would be so appreciated!

 

With todays interest you could easily finance the rest for less than what you were already paying .
Youve paid the depreciation on the vehical and know how it was driven .If you need a car there isnt much choice when you dont have money.
On another note a 4 year old car need some maintaince,brakes,tires probably and those are not warranty item and you will need that grand you have saved to do the maintainance.

 

sell drugs/your body

 

I bought my son's for $10,600 new.... I'd walk away from it if you owe that much!

Seriously!

 

you have had it since 05' and you still owe 9500 WTF!!!! i have had mine since 05' and i owe $1,900. I'll be paying it off on october 1st. please say you didnt pay 22,000 for that car, if you did you got POWND!!!!

or did you put it on a 6 year or 7 year loan?

 

he probably paid full price, and it was a smartbuy, so he pays tax twice

 

note to self, never do a smart buy... check... got it...

i have no idea what smartbuy is, but anything that you have to pay tax on twice, not smart at all IMO

 

its similar to a lease, but you pay the tax every time you do a smart buy.

before it went like this:

lease a malibu (pay tax) -> trade to a lease for a new cobalt (dont pay tax)


with smart buy you pay tax every time. people use to hop from one lease to another b/c it made sense and you saved ~2k in taxes every buy

 

my bought my 2007 ls for 11,000 brand new...how do you owe that much still? give it back to GM

 

i will never lease a car... i like owning something once its paid for

sounds like this so called "smartbuy" screwed him.... could have just put an SS/SC on loan and it would be paid off soon rather then having to fork out another 9500

 

the benefit of a lease/smartbuy is that you only pay for like 1/3 the price of the car, but you can only keep it for 3yrs typically

he didnt get "screwed" on the price, his payments have probably been under $100/month b/c hes only paying for a percentage of the sticker price of that car

edit: but no, its generally not smart to smartbuy/lease if you plan on keeping the car at least imo. been there done that...

 

You pay taxes on a new car in the same fashion....
Seems like he made his lease terms for a high balloon payment to lower his initial monthly payments. If this is so, then you're made your grave. Either buy a junker, or refinance