How to figure out what your vehicle is worth

[helpsoneeded]

Do you use the trade in value from the kelly blue book? We also have 3 vehicles, 2 are paid for, they are worth about 4500 each. The 3rd one we just bought, so no equity in it. My question is, do you think we could keep all 3, only because one is actually just a work vehicle and it is one of the ones that is paid off, but not worth much. I actually work inside the vehicle. If i dont have this vehicle, i dont work. I was wondering if that is automatically an excemption. I read somewhere that truck drivers rigs are excempted for that reason and its kinda the same situation. Its not a family vehicle and it only has the 2 bucket seats in the front. Thanks again

[Flamingo]

Do you use the trade in value from the kelly blue book? We also have 3 vehicles, 2 are paid for, they are worth about 4500 each. The 3rd one we just bought, so no equity in it. My question is, do you think we could keep all 3, only because one is actually just a work vehicle and it is one of the ones that is paid off, but not worth much. I actually work inside the vehicle. If i dont have this vehicle, i dont work. I was wondering if that is automatically an excemption. I read somewhere that truck drivers rigs are excempted for that reason and its kinda the same situation. Its not a family vehicle and it only has the 2 bucket seats in the front. Thanks again

Our attorney used the blue book value on our vehicles. This was done right in front of us.

[bigreddog]

I was in the car business (business mgr.) for 10 yrs. Some use the Kelley Blue book and others use NADAGUIDES. The dealers and anyone with any experience use Galves. We used to call both the Kelley and the Nada, the "DREAMBOOKS" If your attorney used the book in front of you, that's too bad. If you go to their website, they ask you all kinds of questions about it and it's condition and it spits out three different prices. There's always a big disparity between the high and the low. If your work vehicle isn't worth much, you should be able to use your $5000 tools of your trade exemption if you haven't already.

[Flamingo]

I was in the car business (business mgr.) for 10 yrs. Some use the Kelley Blue book and others use NADAGUIDES. The dealers and anyone with any experience use Galves. We used to call both the Kelley and the Nada, the "DREAMBOOKS" If your attorney used the book in front of you, that's too bad. If you go to their website, they ask you all kinds of questions about it and it's condition and it spits out three different prices. There's always a big disparity between the high and the low. If your work vehicle isn't worth much, you should be able to use your $5000 tools of your trade exemption if you haven't already.

The attorney uses what their district mandates them to use - I don't think there is much of a choice on their part or on the filer(s) part, unfortunately.

[bigreddog]

I'm sorry if my answer was wrong. I just know I've helped alot of people over the years buy and sell cars and you'd be surprised about the #'s. I know our attorney used value #'s that were far less than KBB & NADA. If the district mandates a value, I wasn't aware of that. How do they value something like a personal use 2004 Bobcat Excavator?

[bmcmull]

beware of this deal in a ch13. Go to KBB.com use the loan value. This is not what you will pay for the car though. You will owe the loan value as secured in your plan, the remaining balance from loan value will be unsecured debt and you will pay back whatever % is in your plan for unsecured debt..... mine was 38k - 24k (loan value)= secured .
14k unsecured at 33%....... Just becareful what you put in the plan, it doesnt alway's come out good

[bigreddog]

I'm not sure but I think our attorney erred to the FAR SIDE OF CAUTION in that every number put down as far as valuation goes. But no creditors objected and the plan was approved. At the confirmation hearing we were 1 of 2 plans approved with over a dozen rejected. If the judge approves the plan and 9 mths. have passed, does that mean let sleeping dogs lie? Don't ask questions? Someone was asleep at the wheel?

[Flamingo]

I'm sorry if my answer was wrong. I just know I've helped alot of people over the years buy and sell cars and you'd be surprised about the #'s. I know our attorney used value #'s that were far less than KBB & NADA. If the district mandates a value, I wasn't aware of that. How do they value something like a personal use 2004 Bobcat Excavator?

The district doesn't mandate the value of the vehicle - just the source of the information. Whatever source the attorney uses to determine the value of your vehicle is controlled by that district/state. The attorney is just not going to pull magic numbers out of the air - they have to use a consistent source. Our attorney in front of us explained they use the Blue Book for value purposes and did the numbers right in front of us and those were the numbers that were submitted. Our vehicles were crammed into our Plan utilizing the Blue Book value.

[lrprn]

At the confirmation hearing we were 1 of 2 plans approved with over a dozen rejected. If the judge approves the plan and 9 mths. have passed, does that mean let sleeping dogs lie? Don't ask questions? Someone was asleep at the wheel?

Let sleeping dogs lie. NEVER voluntarily do anything that has the slightest possibility of increasing a confirmed Ch 13 plan payment.