r/caradvice

Hello I owe $31K on my GMC. I am trying to get rid of it by selling it to carmax as it’s the only company offering the highest amount of $23,400. That would put me at about $8K in negative equity. GMC has given me so many problems that I am looking into getting into a Toyota. Is there any advice yall can give me. The $8k will obviously go into the new car loan correct?

Im 17 and I just learned my dad is finally going to be letting me get a car. I didn’t get the best luck though as he’s only going to be chipping in $9000 and I also have to pay the insurance and gas, anyways, i currently have $4300 saved up and still want to save up to atleast $7000 so I could get a car for about 15k , such as a 2014 Acura tl I’ve been looking at, and still have a cushion for insurance and gas. This would take me probably like a month and a half since I make enough to put around 400 into savings per week, however I’ve been thinking about saving for an extra month or two so I could get a car for a bit more maybe 16-18k. Is it worth waiting? I am so tired of not having a car at my age.

My car insurance has been going up in the last few months, and when I called to question why, they claimed it was because I am turning 21. Is there any reason this would actually cause an uptick in my payment? Shouldn’t getting older make your payments go down?

i’m in college (senior) and currently have no rent, i make ~2k a month, potentially more later on. i have no bills, my car (2014 infiniti 3.7l sedan with 172k miles) is paid off, my dad covers insurance until i graduate or get a new car. its been a dream of mine to have a c5 corvette, base or z06. i have about 4k in savings for a car or car mods, no debt or anything. but also have been tossing the idea around of just modifying my car’s exhaust, i’m 20 and want to have a loud (respectfully however) car. seeing as the corvettes are around 20-25k and an exhaust would be around 2-3k, which is more than what my infiniti is worth, i’m trying to figure out which is a better option and anything i should consider. thanks

I am not sure if this is appropriate to post here but here goes.

My mum drives a Haval h6 (I think). She was rushing to leave and accidentally locked her keys in the boot of the car. The spare keys are kept at her workplace in her friend's office. She tried to look for them in her and her friend's office, but it's nowhere to be seen. The friend is in another city right now. My mum had called her on my phone (her phone and wallet are also in the boot) and tried messaging her on WhatsApp on her laptop, but no reply.

The only time we can get a mechanic to come over, is on Monday. My mum seems to have accepted this, but I just wanted to know if there is another way of opening the boot or unlocking the car in general. Not to mention, on Monday, my mum will have to use public transport, and she doesn't have her wallet, i.e. no money.

Any Advice?

Edit: It's unlocked! I messaged a friend whose dad knew a mobile locksmith. They got it open. Thanks!

So I have a car that my husband and I leased at the end of 2019. It was new. We paid the lease term off and decided to buy the car. The monthly payments stayed the same. Well 4 months after doing that, it was stolen in the middle of the night at our house from our driveway. Police chased them and spiked the tires and they crashed into a pole. They escaped on foot though. They called us and told us we can come get our car and when we saw it, the front was all messed up. We called our insurance and got our car to a repair shop and they worked on it and didn’t declare it totaled. We had to pay $1000 for deductible to have it fixed. We assumed they did all the repairs that they were suppose to do to fix all the problems but a year or two later our car started making weird noises and we brought it in a shop and they told us that our problems are from the wreck and the last repair shop did not fix everything they should of. So we spent over $2k to fix it and it wasn’t even fully fixed cuz we couldn’t afford anymore repairs. Well it helped for a little bit but now the noises/knocking sound when turning left is back and our car smells like gas. We pay $562 a month for this car and we can’t even afford it anymore and we still owe $17k on it. I’m worried that this car will blow up or something and I have children. We need a reliable car for work and go places. We want to just be done with this car but we don’t know what to do. Does anyone have any advice at all? Our credit score isn’t good either. We are currently living with family cuz we just moved out of state and have other bills that make this hard on us as well.

Hi all,

Just a bit of advice if possible please. My 2022 Hyundai Tucson is due to be collected at the end of July. It was a 4 year lease and It has 20000 miles on the clock (was allowed 10000 a year so I’m massively under the allowance). It has a few scratches which I’m going to get taken out as they are fairly bigger than the allowed 50p size - have been quoted £280 to get these taken out which seems reasonable.

My problem is that yesterday the engine warning light came on. Now the car is still under manufacturer warranty (has a 5 year warranty) however Hyundai can’t fit me in to get the diagnostic done until a date after it’s due to go back. Obviously this would be my ideal as I think it would be covered under the warranty but I’m assuming the lease company won’t take the car back with the light on? Does this mean I’ll have to fork out at a non - Hyundai garage that can do the diagnostic and repair it? I’m also due an MOT before it’s collected to was going to get that done as a matter of urgency but I’m just wondering if there’s any way around me having to fork out as the car is under warranty but all official Hyundai garages near by can’t fit me in until after the end of july.

Thanks in advance

I have a 2021 Nissan Versa. I have 111,496 miles on the car. I don’t see or hear any sign of my car needing repairs. I always keep up with my oil changes. Add on to that I like to travel a lot with the car. What I mean is that driving to another state or 1-3 hours to another city in the state I reside in.

My concern is that I don’t know when will transmission will be worn out. So I was wondering do I need to take my car for a check up or do I need to trade it in immediately?

I could really use some outside perspective because I honestly don't know what the smartest financial move is.

I have a 2021 Kia Sportage with around 115,000 miles. Despite keeping up with regular maintenance, the engine has completely failed and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, I still owe about $21,000 on the loan, so l'm significantly upside down.
My extended service contract has expired, so I'm on the hook for the repair. My credit isn't the best.. Even though I work full time in a busy 911 EMS system on an ambulance, l'm also a single mom and simply haven't been able to build up savings for something like this..... I have roughly $3,500 which isn't nothing but in the situation it's also not much..

I'm trying to figure out what the least damaging option is financially. Some of the possibilities I've thought about are

Paying to install a used engine. (it's so hard to find one and still leave room for labor cost)

Trading it in despite the negative equity.

Paying to install a new engine($9k)

There is ONE more positive... i have GAP and full coverage insurance i kinda figured if i do fix it... i could 'take advantage' of that GAP in not so many words

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you end up doing, and if you could go back, would you make the same decision?
I know there probably isn't a perfect answer, but right now it feels like every option is a bad one. I'm just trying to make the best decision I can before I dig myself into an even deeper hole. Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated.