My car, should I surrender, cram-down or just leave out of my plan

[bigstick]

I picked up my packet today from my attorney and I'm trying to review and make some decisions. I'm having problems trying to decide what to do with my primary car. I have a 6 year loan @ 4.5% and have 4 years left on the loan. I put a lot of miles on my car, approx 30k per year so I have 60k on it right now. My payments are $440 per month. I owe approx $21k but it's worth only $9800 per Kelly Blue Book.

My attorney explained that if I was to surrender the car that the trustee will take the $440 payment and will want that since it's now extra disposable income.

He also explained that if I was to cram-down the loan I'd be in the same situation with having to give the $440 to the trustee who would then pay the cram down value to the car creditor and take the rest for the other creditors as extra DMI.

If both of these are true I'm guessing keeping the car out of the plan seems to be the best choice, but I wanted to get some opinions.

[iv65536]

Based on your situation I don't think the car can be crammed down.

[debtinohio]

That is a lot of miles to put on a car, but you're kinda stuck here. It seems like you may want to keep it, otherwise it just goes to unsecured and you have nothing.

Perhaps if you still have ok credit you can somehow purchase a different car with similar payments and surrender that one. That may be far-fetched and would require advice from your attorney.

[NowImDownInIt]

I don't see how your attorney is presenting cram-down as an option seeing as the loan is less than 910 days old. I think that your best option is to keep it.. Sucks, but I don't see there being another option. I put a comparable amount of miles on my car as well and I think that, unless it's an older car, or has an exorbitant interest rate, you'll need to keep it and make your way through with it.

[bigstick]

That is a lot of miles to put on a car, but you're kinda stuck here. It seems like you may want to keep it, otherwise it just goes to unsecured and you have nothing.

Perhaps if you still have ok credit you can somehow purchase a different car with similar payments and surrender that one. That may be far-fetched and would require advice from your attorney.

Do you think I could swing a loan from my dad for approx the same amount that would satisfy the trustee? Or does it need to be an actual secure loan? My dad has a fairly new car that he doesn't use that I would think he would sign over to me and I would pay him monthly.

[debtinohio]

Do you think I could swing a loan from my dad for approx the same amount that would satisfy the trustee? Or does it need to be an actual secure loan? My dad has a fairly new car that he doesn't use that I would think he would sign over to me and I would pay him monthly.

It would need to be an actual secured loan.

The worst case here is you finish out paying for a car under the terms you originally purchased it for, which isn't the worst. At least you'd have a decent car for a few years, just try to get it to last all 5.