Has anyone ever refinanced a vehicle to steal its equity?

[Scarpozzi]

I ended up refinancing a car for 3 years and got 80% of its value at 1.59%.

It's costing me $650 or so in interest over the life of the loan and saving me about $1500-2300 over other loan options I have. (I'm needing the money for materials and labor on my building projects) I feel like I should have thought of this sooner. Cheap money these days.....

 

[NutBucket]

That's not bad. I figure most folks don't have enough equity in their vehicle to make it worthwhile...unless a rate drop is also included.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I ended up refinancing a car for 3 years and got 80% of its value at 1.59%.

It's costing me $650 or so in interest over the life of the loan and saving me about $1500-2300 over other loan options I have. (I'm needing the money for materials and labor on my building projects) I feel like I should have thought of this sooner. Cheap money these days.....

Yeah, refinanced my Camaro @ like 10k remaining on note (refinanced up to 20k? or so). I think my refinance was around 1.5%? Used the 10k to rip apart a bunch of CC debt that was higher (maybe 10-12%?)

EDIT: Actually just paid off the car last month too, so woo to that, $300 more a month.

 

[Scarpozzi]

That's not bad. I figure most folks don't have enough equity in their vehicle to make it worthwhile...unless a rate drop is also included.

I was looking at mortgage options and personal loans and never assumed they could refinance a $32k, 6 year old vehicle as high as they did at such a low rate. It's making me want to consider buying new vehicles from here on out for the sake of having a way to store equity in something other than real estate. Anyhow, my home construction projects should be covered with most of this so I'm stoked.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I was looking at mortgage options and personal loans and never assumed they could refinance a $32k, 6 year old vehicle as high as they did at such a low rate. It's making me want to consider buying new vehicles from here on out for the sake of having a way to store equity in something other than real estate. Anyhow, my home construction projects should be covered with most of this so I'm stoked.

The largest drop in the value of the car happens in the first year, so buying 1 year out vehicles, and refinancing them as you pay them off, may work in your favor. One might state that if you have enough debt to make this worthwhile you might not get a nice low-interest loan to begin with, but that may depend on the financier.

Also note that at least with my credit union, I could only refinance once, at that point it was a 'used car loan' instead of a 'new car loan', and they don't refinance used car loans.

 

[RichUK]

I was looking at mortgage options and personal loans and never assumed they could refinance a $32k, 6 year old vehicle as high as they did at such a low rate. It's making me want to consider buying new vehicles from here on out for the sake of having a way to store equity in something other than real estate. Anyhow, my home construction projects should be covered with most of this so I'm stoked.

Store equity in a depreciating asset. Mmmkay.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My parents did that to pay for some roof repair. Cheaper money that a HEL.

I don't have a fancy enough car for it to work. 80% would be, like, beer money.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Equity and vehicle probably don't mix. You owe more on your vehicle than what it's worth the minute you drive it off the lot. 😛

Unless it's an M3. Those have higher resale value than when it's new. Everybody knows this.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Equity and vehicle probably don't mix. You owe more on your vehicle than what it's worth the minute you drive it off the lot. 😛

Unless it's an M3. Those have higher resale value than when it's new. Everybody knows this.

I have a 6 year old Toyota 4Runner SR5 with 53k miles on it...nothing really fancy.

 

[Fritzo]

I did that with my Mini Cooper S when their resale values were sky-high.