Dilemma

I think for now we will try to sell the scion

 

Is your truck financed through Toyota Financial Services?
If you do sell the car what are your plans for the cash? If your intent is to lower the payment, make sure you approach TFS or whomever holds your loan and explain the situation, ie. refinance with money down & lower payment. If you send money to TFS without explaination, they automatically push your payments out. i.e send a check for 10 grand now your next payment isn't due 2 yrs from now or whatever it work out to be.
You must tell them what you are goal is. Put on principal will not lower the payment. It must get refinanced as mentioned earlier.
I find credit unions have great rates.
You situation is doable, just think it through. I would not trade now, you will be paying upside down for a long time. $750 at 4 yrs is painful but something new with something old snowballs quick! GLWS.

 

Yes it is financed thru Toyota. If we are able to sell the scion, I will put most towards the truck. I know they will push out the next payment in the future. We will continue to make payments, even though we don't have to, so in a sense, I make my payments lower on my own

 

You will get hosed and upside down if you trade the tacoma in right now. Sell the scion and put the 6K into the truck, or, if you can't refinance, keep it in the bank and DONT SPEND IT. If you need it, then it is there and you can afford to live a little tighter. Plus dumping the scion should alleviate a couple bucks a month from insurance.

 

yeah it will be nice not paying insurance on the scion. already put it up for sale on craigslist. but if we have trouble selling it, there is still a plan b

 

OP, go to a credit union and refinance. At the credit union I have my tacoma financed through, the interest rates are less that 3% for a new or used vehicles. When I financed it was 3.19%. I think I financed $29000 and my payment was $500 for 66 months.

 

Gl with sale. I just sold my 2005 xB once I bought the taco. It's a good market for used cars so you shouldn't have any issues

 

At first I was going to say go for the Tundra but then I noticed you put it as a 2008. I personally would love a Tundra but I wouldn't go back that far as there were changes to the frame in late 2009 early 2010 to make it stronger and flex less on washboard roads. Fixed a lot of problems with the flex and complaints about the twisting between the cab and bed.

Since you already have a 4Runner and a newer one at that I would say dump the Tacoma alltogether unless you need a bed. Two cars paid off brings you $750 more per month for mods to the runner

 

well if we are able to sell the scion, then i think we'll be ok without refinancing

thanks. hopefully it won't take long to sell it.

hmm, i didn't know that about the tundras. thanks.

haha, i doubt my wife will like me modding our family vehicle. she's already mad that i got scratch on it when taking it offroad.

 

Shitty fuel mileage, huge monthly payment, and no real reason to own a truck...I say it's pretty obvious what you should do.

 

you have a point there, but i do like having a truck. we do go camping a lot, and it's nice not having to borrow a truck from someone else to haul stuff around the house.

 

Selling the Scion won't make a big dent. Trade the truck for some thing else that's less money take the excess and run then sell the Scion.

 

After the selling the Scion, you could either keep that cash back and use that to pay the next 8 months of truck payments; or you could use it to refi.

In the end, the most you'll be able to knock off your truck payment would be what? ~$100?

If it were me, I'd rather have that money in the bank and use it to cover gaps where needed - or emergencies with the kiddo/wife/yourself.

Let us know what you decide to do!

Fink

 

we are trying to sell the scion, but in the meantime, still discussing other options. so i'm still open to others' suggestions.

if we are able to sell the scion, we will put most, but not all of it towards the truck. then we'll be ahead on payments, but continue to make them, just less than $760.

my gut feeling is still to get a cheaper vehicle. but we are still discussing it

 

750 a month? god damn.... u gotta get rid of that thats crazy... thats 50 bux less than my house payment... deff keep the 2 that r paid off

 

tell me about it. yeah unless we are able to sell the scion soon, we will be trading both and getting something else. just sure what though

 

well we were able to sell the scion yesterday. got $8,500 for it. i was very pleased.

we are still deciding if we should keep the current truck, or get a used tundra 2wd. the tundra would give us more room, in the bed and the cab, but the gas mileage would be a little worse.

still not sure

 

Good deal with the sale of the scion -

What i would suggest is put $8k towards the balance of the tacoma ($32k is what i believe you stated you owed) - leaving a new balance of $24k

if you refinanced $24k at 72 months at say a rate of 4.25% - you would have a monthly payment of - $379 --- which is a difference of about - $371.00 per month from what your current payment if now.

Which sounds like a big diff from the $750 your at now

#### and then you still have $500.00 to put in the bank - as emergency money #####

Good luck with your decision - Hope everything work out.

 

I say sell the Scion and use that money to either pay down the loan on the Tacoma or put it in the bank and use it as a reserve for when you are short on funds one month whether it be the car payment, groceries etc. Either that or go to a credit union and see what you can refi for using the money you got from the Scion to pay off some of the truck so the new note is less than what you have left on it now. Credit unions usually offer pretty good interest rates.

 

I'd get rid of the Tacoma. That's $750 in your pocket every month. Both the Scion and 4Runner are older vehicles and both registration and insurance should be less expensive too (so there are some savings there over a new vehicle). The Scion prolly gets decent mpg so use it for commuting/grocery getting.

You can camp out of the 4Runner. Get a Yakima/Thule gear hauler for the roof. Plus you'll be more comfortable.

Buying new(er) may not save as much as you think it will. But saving the money you'd spend on gas, insurance, etc. will put you farther ahead tomorrow. When your financial situation improves, then get another truck but for now, hunker down and save the money.