What to do? Keep current car, refi, redeem, buy new car? Confused

[tazunemono]

I currently have a 2006 Jeep Liberty, 96k miles, and needs mechanical work (read diff is slipping, needs new rubber all around, etc.) The Jeep gets ~13-15 MPG and is costing me $100/week in gas right now. I owe $6500 of $14,500 originally financed and pay $289/mo. I financed thru CarMax. I HAVE to get out of this car, it's falling apart and costing me too much.

Question: should I pursue a pre-discharge reemption program and get a cheaper vehicle with better gas mileage? Or, should I wait until my BK7 is discharged and go shopping then? I really need the car to get to work as I live 30+ miles from my job.

CarMax sent me a reaff agreement, which I didn't sign. I put a "ride through" in the other box on my BK schedule, hoping that if I continued to make payments I would be OK and they wouldn't try to reposess. I am current on my payments.

Appreiate any advice.

[bcohen]

With that many problems, I would have opted to surrender, and I would have quit paying the month before I filed for bankruptcy (the automatic stay prevents the creditor from repossessing), and drove it payment-free for a couple of months. Then, after the bankruptcy is discharged, and they repo the car, I'd use the money I had saved by NOT making payments on the Jeep as a down payment on a modestly priced used car. Or depending how much I could save up, I might just buy a $2000-3000 car for cash, and not worry about loan payments anymore. Of course when you buy an old car, you MUST be disciplined enough to set aside money for repairs, because you WILL need it from time to time!

Anyways, since you didn't reaffirm, QUIT PAYING NOW, and drive this turkey for a couple months until it's repo'd, then buy something else. Next time, buy something more economical, and with decent fuel economy.

[tazunemono]

Dang I just paid CarMax $289... Made 4 years of on-time payments, so it's habit.

Still, I need a car. If I don't have one when they reposess my Jeep I'm screwed.

I guess they have to FIND my Jeep first...at work it's in a parking garage, they'd never find it. At home, I keep it in a garage.

Maybe that payment was my last...it's looking like RoadLoans is going to give me a check (for CarMax) lol but I'm working with other lenders too.

[SMinGA2]

Roadloans/Santander is bottom of the barrel auto financing - and I have them as a lender. I've paid extra/ahead and never had a problem with them. I'm betting your approval packet has a disclaimer about needing confirmation of bankruptcy discharge though.

The only one to do financing before discharge that I know of is 722 Redemption.

Maybe that payment was my last...it's looking like RoadLoans is going to give me a check (for CarMax) lol but I'm working with other lenders too.

[jetsfan2010]

I was in a similar situation a little over a year ago, when before filing my ch 7, my prior car was costing me all types of money to fix. I wound up driving until i couldnt, then when it got repoed, financed through one of the local "buy here pay here" lots. I drove that car for about 10 months before recently selling and getting financing 3 months post bk with cap one for a lower rate than either of the prior cars. go figure.