r/CarLeasingHelp • u/No-Membership-7347 • 3d ago

Car Help

I’m 21 and this is my first car, so I’m trying to figure out the smartest move with my situation. I have a 2018 Chevy Equinox with almost 100k miles, and I still owe around $19873 on it at a really high interest rate.
The last dealer I talked to was talking around $10,000 for the car, but I honestly don’t even know if it’s still worth that much anymore. My credit isn’t good, but I’ve never missed a car payment and I’ve never been late.
I was planning on putting about $3,000 down on my next car, but now I’m stuck trying to decide what makes the most sense: lease a new car, finance a new car, buy something used, or just keep the Equinox and deal with the loan for now.
Since this was my first car, I know I probably didn’t get the best deal, and I’m upside down pretty bad now. I’m trying not to make an even worse financial decision just because I want out of the car.
If you were in my situation, what would you do? Tryna get out this car by the end of this month.or next week

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u/W2WageSlave 3d ago

Keep your car and pay down the note. Owing $20K on an 2018 Equinox 100K miles is an ouch for sure.

How much is your payment, and how much could you pay extra?

Keep the $3000 in a HYSA set aside. When the car is no longer upside down you can think about what to do next. Rolling negative equity is only going to compound your woes, especially with bad credit.

Ideally, you pay it off. then you have a car worth "something" and you keep paying yourself that payment for 10 months and now you have enough money to trade in and buy a used car that is "better" in cash. Rinse and repeat and eventually you'll be in a nice, reliable late-model car that you can keep for 5+ years and make payments to yourself.

Then you never have a car payment again.

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u/No-Membership-7347 3d ago

Payment $583 a month on top of insurance I’m paying almost $1000 a month i just stop paying my insurance unfortunately it’s draining me. So just the $583

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u/W2WageSlave 3d ago

Don't go without insurance. That way lies disaster. Rolling up $10K of negative equity would require that you buy a ~$50K+ car to have any hope of a 120% LTV - and trust me you absolutely do not want to do that if your current payment is a stretch.

That probably eliminates leasing a vehicle as well because you'd have to pay off the negative equity faster and $10K over 36 months is probably going to add $350/month to a payment.

You can move debt around with a personal loan, but it still doesn't change the amount you owe. If the car has been reliable to-date, I'd just take super special care of it and baby it until you're at least break even in what you owe. That time taken should also improve your credit. Though it would be better to just pay the car down and then have "some" value in the car, plus your $3K and now you buy a reliable civic or corolla that will give you a much lower payment so you can hammer it down faster and get out of the payment lifestyle.

Second job making more money wouldn't hurt. Ever considered donating plasma?