About to but new Prius

I'm confused. Not enough info for me to parse your post.

Are you leasing? What's the length of the lease? If you're buying, what's the length of the loan?

For the "that includes about 6200 owed from my trade in", does that mean you're underwater on your trade in and still owe $6200 on it?

Are you shopping for cars based on a payment and being sucked into the 4-square system being described at Confessions of a Car Salesman — Edmunds.com (I don't lease cars and have never taken dealer financing.) My Prius was bought w/cash (err... check).

 

Not sure the reason for you trading in with such a high negative equity on your previous car.

It is not too hard. If your previous car has a loan for $10,000 left, then you owe $10,000. If you continued to pay principle and interest every month, you would pay more than $10k, but it would be interest on them carrying the loan. This assumes your loan has no pre-payment penalties.

I am not sure what you mean about paying off the lease. Is the old car a lease, that you are trying to get out of and then into a new car to buy (not lease)? So perhaps you have to "buy" the car from Nissan for the lease termination agreement so that the other dealer can accept it as a trade in and then sell you a new car (to buy). Is that even close?

If that is the case, then when you "buy" your leased car from Nissan, for $24,500 you will then have to register it as sold and pay sales tax on it. Dealerships however can buy cars and not pay sales tax because they are only buying them with the intent to sell to you. So if the dealership buys the car for $24,500 then that's the end of it. Either way the price is the same. One way you pay sales tax to the state, the other way the dealership does not. The dealerships that say the buyback is price + tax is because they do not want to buy it, they are going to get you to buy it and sell it back to them as a tradein so they collect the money for the tax upfront. Legally that is the state's money. I am sure some unscrupulous dealers may collect the tax then pocket it and decide to buy it themselves to begin with though.

Can't really say much more without more info and some clarification.

 

If you can afford it and really want the Prius then go for it and just chalk this up as an expensive lesson. If it were me though I'd stay away from rolling all of that negative equity into a new car - you are just kicking the problem down the road.

Also when comparing the different options do not look at monthly payment but rather total cost - once you decide on that then make sure the payments work with your budget.

Lastly you need to be positive that you will be in this car for the long run - if not you will be looking at cars in a year or two and be in an even bigger hole $-wise.

 

My suggestion would be to keep the Maxima and just buy it at the end of the lease. You're going to put a high number of miles on either vehicle regardless, and if what you save in gas is going to your new car payment, where is the advantage of having a Prius over the Maxima? Besides, if you kept the Maxima, you could sell it yourself once Prius supplies are replemished and purchase a new one for less than what you can today, and not have a ton of negative equity rolled in.

It's a tough call, but economically speaking, you need to get those "New Car" stars out of your eyes and think with your wallet!

 

4.9 percent for 60 months seems awfully high.............if you have good credit you can get somewhere around 3.......this with Toyota Finance even........

 

Remember the % on a loan is not just credit. The % of the value of the car vs. the amount to be financed is a factor as well.

So if you had 800+ credit score, but wanted to buy a $10k car for $20k, your % is going to be much higher than the guy with the bad 500 credit buying a $10k car with $5k down.

 

It's possible that part of the dealer confusion about your lease payoff is that the dealer doesn't know for sure when they'll deliver your new Prius. Unless it's an out-of-stock purchase, but I assumed you ordered something, or the dealer is locating from some other dealer.

You don't need to sign anything with the dealer about your lease payoff since you're on the hook with the lessor, not the dealer. Unless, of course there's more information you have not revealed such as early pay-out penalties, excess mileage penalties and/or damage penalties. I'm assuming you continue to drive the lease car while you await your new Prius.

Welcome to PriusChat.:welcome:

 

I still say keep your car, get your deposit back, and wait! 6 months to a year from now prices will be better because there will be more competition in the Hybrid market! There are other options available... While you wait take advantage of the many resources available on the web and your local library on how to purchase a vehicle without getting taken to the cleaners!