Cramdown Question

[SMinGA]

So I understand that if you include a car loan that you've had for 910+ days in your plan, it can be 'crammed down' if you owe more than its worth. Ending up as two claims basically, one for the secured portion and the rest as unsecured.

I also imagine it to be somewhat district specific as to how the value of the vehicle is determined. But I'd appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions! Before we filed, our attorney said that could be a possibility but then later he said it wasn't enough of a difference to bother with.

The vehicle in our plan is an 04 Avalanche (Hubby's Baby, we got it used in 07 for a good deal) with 104,000 miles now. In pretty good shape overall, though the seats are cracked/damaged. I guess it would be considered somewhere between average & good.

Looking at KBB.com (Kelley Blue Book) there are options for private party, tradein, and dealer. I know what they mean, but any suggestions for which is most relevant? Using those 3 options the Avalanche comes out from $7,075 to $12,950. Using dealer pricing seems wrong, since we all know if the lender got it back THEY would not be selling it for that. We owe a little over $12,000 on it.

Private party is in the middle @ $9,450. Just wondering what is realistic, and if I should make an issue of it. We are not yet confirmed... Maybe we'll take it by Carmax this weekend and have them give us a written value statement? I hear they do that. Does anyone think this would stand up? I mean, they advertise that they will 'buy your car even if you don't buy one of ours' so if the trustee wanted to do a quick sale on an asset that would be one way to go about it.

[olivies]

Not that our attorney ever actually filed our cram down, but we were told we had to go and get an appraisal at either Carmax or a dealership, and get private sale value (not trade in or retail value). We were also advised that sometimes trustees won't accept Carmax appraisals, so we just took our Expedition to the Ford dealership for valuation.

[tigergem]

Do not overlook the fact that in a cram down you are also allowed to look at the WHOLESALE value. You would have to be able to get the Price Digests national wholesale value. When I did my cram down I used the average of wholesale and low retail (NADA guides) value for my valuation, and nobody objected. The state of Texas conveniently provides us with the Price Digests national average wholesale used vehicle value, but it is based on sales in Texas. Yes your valuation might be surprisingly low. (Mine was!) And that's alright. I used the Till rate on the interest and got it at 3.25%.