Trade in and move overseas
 

Hello all,

So I am in a bit of a pickle. Looking for a bit of advice on how to proceed. I am in the military and have orders to go over to the Netherlands. They ship a vehicle there or you for free. However, my current car (2006 mini coopser S convertible) has a bunch of little things that would all need to be fixed before they could ship it which would end up costing more than the vehicle is worth. (Repairs to the body, new key, new horn, some minor electrical work...totalling about 4k in repairs)

I owe 15k on the Mini. Trade in is 5k. Resell is 8k. I need a vehicle to get around in. Cue my decision to decide to get rid of the Mini and get into a BRZ.

I just sold my house, so I have about 15k extra. I was going to use that 15k to pay off a couple signature loans I had taken out to pay for home improvements, but now I don't know.

If I try and privately sell the Mini, I could get about 7k for it, leaving me to have to eat the remaining 8k on the car. I could do this, then go buy the BRZ. The downside to this is I have a month to get the vehicle sold and the new one purchased because I need to ship the vehicle to the Netherlands 3 months prior to my arrival.

If I try and trade it in...KBB says trade in is only worth 5k, so that leaves me with 10k I'd have to put on top the BRZ loan..most banks only go a certain percentage over purchase price, which would then in turn make one, upside down on the new BRZ finance and two, have to pay more for a downpayment.

The third option is to sell the car and eat the loan out of pocket, and try and purchase a new vehicle when I get to the Netherlands. However, the netherlands vehicle prices are almost double what I would pay in the states.

I know I will want a BRZ in the future. I had one for about 6 months before lovely Tucson drivers made that not be a thing anymore. Just looking for some opinions and thoughts on how to go about this.

Thank!

Oh, if I do buy a BRZ stateside, does anyone know if you can update the Nav system to European maps once I get over there? Or maybe even before they ship it?

I would say you need to get your financial house in order prior to doing that. Since you still owe a fortune on the Mini, why not use some of the $15k from your house to make the minimal repairs? Then you can continue to pay down the Mini instead of taking on more debt with the BRZ (car + negative equity).

Then use the remaining $11k to pay off (or down) the signature loans. That would only leave you on the hook for the $15k you owe on the Mini.

If you buy a BRZ Premium and find a leftover '14 model, you could get 0% financing if they're still running that special and if you qualify. Assuming trade, you'd roll $10k negative equity into the BRZ. Assuming discounted purchase price of $24k, you'd be in it at $34k+tax, tag and fees, so maybe $35-36k depending on how brutal your taxes are.

You'd still have the $15k from the sale of your house, and maybe Subaru Financial (through Chase) would go $27k on the BRZ. That's roughly 10% higher than MSRP for a base Premium, so you'd have to pay $8-9k from your $15k, which would give you only $6-7k to pay down signature loans... and you'd still owe $27k on the BRZ.

Having been over in Europe while in the military I say just save your money and go get something decent off the lemon lot when you arrive...

Or just not even have a car if you don't need it. Save that $$$ and just use the public transport. :)

How Long will you be deployed?

You have the money to pay off the Mini and live debt free while deployed? Do it.

Like was said above, pick up some quirky euro car that you can't get here, if I was going to the Netherlands and could ship a car back I would absolutely no doubt in my mind pick up an old Alfa or Lancia that's hard to get here, you'll be practically tripping over them and when it's all said and done be out less than the price of a Toyobaru even if you like it and want to take it home.

Edit: Plenty of Toyobaru's when you get home and they'll be even cheaper on the used market.

Edit 2: Some cars in the Netherlands are half the price of their American counterparts ;)

I'll be over in the Netherlands for a minimum of 3 years. If I stay single, possible to extend to 6, if married, extend to 8.

Did some digging, and the base and surrounding area itself has absolute terrible public transportation. 30 minutes travel away (by car) and the transportation is wonderful.

Picking up a car of the lemon lot might not be a bad idea...the only issue is the base I am going to has 100 US personnel. It's all NATO instead. Closest base with a large US presence is over 1 and a half hours (by car) away.

Financial wise, once I get overseas, I have 0 housing payment anymore since the military pays 100% for my home.

Currently, I have the following for debts:
-Mortgage (117k): 775 a month
-Home window loan (7k): 165 a month
-Home water system loan (6k): 125 a month
-Auto loan (15k): 288 a month

The house selling here in a few days (pending appraisal) gives after closing costs and realtor/title fees 130k

I have 6k in a savings account

Mini is only worth 8k for private sale or 5k for trade in per KBB. needs about 4k in repairs to be shipped over seas per the company policy.

1.5 hours isn't too bad a trip for the larger US base... Do you have another military member sponsoring your arrival? He/she may be able to give some tips on cars. You're also close to Belgium so there are some large Nato installations geographically close by (unless my memory serves me wrong as its been a few years now).

Plus you can search eBay or other online sites for your lemon of choice if needed. :) Or if you want a fun road trip you could always check out the larger US bases for their lemon lots and make a trip out of going to get a car.

just do it

Oh man, this had "Bad Ending" written all over it.

If you're hell bent on buying a BRZ here and shipping it over, keep in mind that KBB is a starting point, not an actual offer from a dealer. KBB may say $5K, but if you negotiate properly you may be able to get more. If the dealer really wants (or needs) to sell you a new car, they may be willing to give you more than you're expecting on the trade.

They may not. But my point is that you don't know until you actually start talking with a salesman, so I wouldn't just take KBB as gospel.

Bad ending? I don't see how you get off saying that. Been enlisted for 8 years and have excellent job security. All my housing costs will be completely paid for and I'll still bring home 50k a year after taxes...I'm fairly certain I can handle a car payment without issues.

Just looking for peoples ideas on stuff especially since I have never been in a European market. Trying to get a view on a bunch of different angles from folks to see if I am missing anything or not.

For starters, you said that you owe $15,000 on an 8 year old car that's worth maybe $9,500 on a good day in very good condition. Then you said that you owe an additional $13,000 on home improvements. You are super upsidedown on the Mini and you're talking about rolling over the debt onto a new car?

Someone already went over the math on this one, so I'm not going to re-hash it here. But yeah, this is exactly where I get off saying that this has "Bad Ending" written all over it. You wouldn't be the first military man fucking himself over financially because of a car thinking that your salary will cover everything.

Do what you want. I don't really care either way, but this isn't the first time I, nor other members of the military, have seen others go down this particular path. Hopefully, you don't end up with someone poking holes in a condom looking for a green card only to be divorced in a few years and paying child support on a kid that might not even be yours.

Get a Renault Megane RS. Thank me later.

I think you need to re read my posts before making your statements. I have never once said I would roll the debt onto the new car (I even explained that banks wouldnt do that)

I was asking for opinions in the best way to get out of it. Trade it in and PAY the difference, Sell it private and PAY the difference. Pay to get it fixed up and ship it over despite it not being worth the repair costs.

I got fucked in the first place. The mini depreciated faster than any vehicle I have ever seen from when I purchased it. Ive owned a lot of vehicles too. Ford focus, dodge neon, mercedes c230, toyota tundra, mercedes ml350, chevy malibu, mitsubishi eco x se, sunaru brz, and finally the mini. I had to get the mini because non insured asshat drivers in Tucson fucked my 2012 BRZ and i decided to trade in for a bit rather than eat the replacement costs. Terrible decision.

Never in my life have i been upside down, and am looking for the best way to fix it. No need to be a **** about it.