Buy another car during ch13

[okracefan]

We are contemplating on buying a 3 or 4 yr old used vehicle due to our current vehicles having very high mileage (168,000 & 150,000). Both will be paid off in April. I plan on keeping the 150,000 mile vehicle because I think I can get 2 more yrs out of it. I am planning on either selling the other vehicle and use the monies for a down payment or trade the vehicle in on the newer one.

I have a friend who has a friend who owns a used car lot and can get me a car @ his auction price but I need to find financing that will let me do this. How hard will it be to get a loan to do this. (Example: Basic model "05" Mustang, V6, for about $5500.00). This car would get better Mileage than my Expidition which is the high mileage vehicle.

I have a letter from my trustee stating that I am allowed up to $10,000.00 for a used vehicles. It doesn't state any restrictions on the mileage, age of car, type of car, length of loan, etc.. This letter is on Trustee letterhead and signed by someone from the trustees office. Does it need to be signed by a Judge?

Thank You.

[AngelinaCatHub]

OK, everything here is opinion, so here is mine: DO NOT PURCHASE another car. You said they will both be paid for in April. This means they are FREE. At this point, maintain them well, new tires, lube and all. Much cheaper than another mortgage. Your cars have done you well to this point. The modern car is not the 1960-70 that is shot at 100k. My last car went 256K when the fifth gear went out. It still ran well on four gears. It was my excuse to get a new car. That was long ago and I have just paid my 2004 off this month at 140K. Still runs well. Of course little things go wrong but one car payment amount can fix most of this. Please reconsider. ‘Hub

P.S.
An edit, your milage now does not matter. What you will save in payment will more than pass what you pay in gas milage.

[chucksherm]

If you want to finance a car while in a 13, I'd get working on it now. We've been trying to get financing to replace my wife's lease car which was turned in last November. No reputable banks or lending institutions will touch us because we're in an open bk. We've gone to a high volume dealer which is owned by a person who owns about 20 car dealerships around the country. My reasoning was that these folks deal with a lot of banks and carry a lot of weight. Still nothing. Part of it is the open #13 and part of it is the economy.
You can always get financed though, There are some 'shark' companies out there. I call them 'bottom feeders'. They feed off people in bankruptcy.
One is Drive Time. Another in 720 recovery or something like that I'm sure I've got the name wrong. Just Google 'car loan in bankruptcy' and you'll see more of these companies along with horror stories from people who financed with them.
You need to have the letter from the trustee, but you're still in a BK and that's all the banks seem to care about.
Sorry to be so long winded. I'm just letting out some of my frustration.

Good luck,, Chuck

[okracefan]

I am not in dire need yet, I am just concerned about the milage on both vehicles since both of us drive about 50 miles round trip to work and back in different directions and nobody to carpool with. I am also considering Dave Ramsey's advice on saving up for a 5K car.

Thanks for the advice.

[woeisme]

We are in same boat, have a 12 year old truck with 160K miles on it and a 10 year old car with 150K miles on it. It's just a matter of time before one or both of them bite the dust, so have already started saving. Have about $2000 right now, so could get another beater car to replace one of my current beater vehicles if I needed to, but would really like to get savings up to 5 or 6K and then buy something that is much more likely to last us the next several years til our BK is done. It's hard tho, whenever the savings start to look promising, a water pump or head gaskets or something serious goes wrong... so far has been cheaper to fix than to buy, but with the cars worth only about a thousand each, it feels like pouring good money after bad some days.

[okracefan]

My truck with the lesser miles decided too take a break, possible head gasket. Have put on a new themostat, water pump, radiator flush and it is still over heating. At this time I have the engine halfway torn down to see if there is any serious damage. The daughter got it pretty hot coming home from school one day. Truck is only worth $2000 / $2500 when it is running.

We have gotten premission to incur new debt up to 10K from the Trustee but I need to use the other vehicle has collaterel, was paid off as of April 1st via chp 13 plan. I don't know if CU will release the lein since I have an unsecured loan listed in the plan.

Don't know what to do.

[lrprn]

I don't know if CU will release the lein since I have an unsecured loan listed in the plan. Don't know what to do.

Start by contacting your lawyer and get him/her chasing down the CU and your title.

The CU can't keep your car's paid-off title just because you owe them an unsecured debt that will eventually be partially paid back or paid back in full. That's a violation of your automatic stay. An exception might be if the contract you signed for the unsecured loan had a cross-collateralization clause. Did it?

Worst case scenario....if the CU refuses to give up the car title, then see what your lawyer can do about that situation. Hopefully it won't happen.