What is the best time to sell your car?

[thecritic]

The 2002 S-Series cars should be far more reliable than the earlier model years. They are far less prone to excess oil consumption and seem to have far fewer problems. It should last you well over 200k easily. Keep the oil changed regularly and the level checked. Be sure to replace the transmission fluid and filter every 30k to prevent the infamous reverse slam problem, though the 02s have the updated valve body that seems to be less prone to that as well.

I wouldn't trade in the vehicle. Keep it and drive it for at least a few more years.

 

[BigToque]

Well I've decided to keep my car.

I also looked at the warranty, it cost $2000.

I took my car in to get the repairs I needed (both front wheel bearings) and the quill bearing was leaking. $2200 in repairs, which brings the total to $2700 in repairs in 19 months. It's already paid for itself and I've still got 17 months and 35,000km of free repairs now 😛

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: BigToque
Well I've decided to keep my car.

I also looked at the warranty, it cost $2000.

I took my car in to get the repairs I needed (both front wheel bearings) and the quill bearing was leaking. $2200 in repairs, which brings the total to $2700 in repairs in 19 months. It's already paid for itself and I've still got 17 months and 35,000km of free repairs now 😛

$1000 to change a front wheel bearing? That's an insane markup. I just did the rear wheel bearings in my car. $50 per side for the new bearing and oil seals, $35 per side to get the shop to press them in.

Even if they gave you a brand-new steering knuckle, $1000 each is WAY too high.

 

[agibby5]

Sounds like you should have made a thread "Should I buy this car?" detailing the price of each item (warranty, tax, etc...) before your purchase, let alone getting upside down on your loan. Auto loans shouldn't be taken for longer than 3 years else you probably can't afford the car you're buying (why pay 3300 in interest??!). You should have thought it through before you made the decision to buy.

Anyway, you should keep the car, make repairs yourself (as another poster mentioned), make higher payments, and sell it when it's worth more than you owe.

 

[piasabird]

Pay it off faster and maybe trade it in. Sometimes as a trade-in you get more than it is worth.

Maybe put it on E-Bay and maybe some naive dummy will pay too much for it. Make sure you put the minimum (Reserve) high enough to pay it off.

 

[wasssup]

I agree with the other guys, keep the car for a while to "minimize" your loss...

 

[MixMasterTang]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
The WORST time to sell your car is now.

You need to keep driving that car and focus on getting that loan PAID OFF. A 2002 Saturn is not going to fall apart on you just yet.

See, your main problem was you financed more car than you could afford to pay off before the car started getting "old" (in your opinion). It sounds like you did a nearly 100% finance on top of paying an outrageous amount of money for an extended warranty (which is also a rip-off). Now after five years of payments, you still owe nearly the entire original asking price of the car, and meanwhile the car has depreciated like crazy. So now you see that over-financing gets you into trouble. So the solution is to minimize your financing, not extend it. The last thing you want to do is roll an upside-down car loan into ANOTHER car loan. You'll just make your problem much worse.

Make paying off that loan your #1 financial priority! Worry about selling the car when you actually own the car.

Did you skip past the 1st sentence of the OP: "I bought my first car in August last year, and it was a horrible decision on my part"?