To keep or not to keep a vehicle......

[KKAB]

Okay, I am so glad we are not limited as to the number of opinions we can ask for on these boards! As many of you know my husband and I are trying to keep our vehicle....now we don't have a clue what to do.

We owe $15,000, the thing is worth a little over $13,000. We were told to correct our Schedule C claiming it exempt, and after we did so the trustee said he was taking it cuz it was over the exempt value. (I am wondering if in our state the amount of exemption is not doubled?!) Now we don't know if we want to keep it. We have a car that gets the same fuel mileage and a pickup (which holds 4 of the 5 of us, but we would love to leave our teen at home!). The pickup is a company vehicle of my husbands; we only pay for fuel.

Our question? Do we lose the SUV and keep the car or fight for the SUV too? We would save the payment of $666 over 2.5 years plus the extra in insurance which is $40/month if we let the SUV go.

I am totally at a loss with this one and would appreciate any and all opinions! As I have mentioned previously we have no public transportation in our town and bicycle weather is about 4 months a year. Thanks again for all the wonderful input!

[Help!]

We owe $15,000, the thing is worth a little over $13,000. We were told to correct our Schedule C claiming it exempt, and after we did so the trustee said he was taking it cuz it was over the exempt value.

The car is worth less than you owe and there is therefore nothing to exempt. It should not have been listed as an asset at all as you have no equity whatsoever in the car. The only time a car should be exempted is when it is either worth more than you owe or it is owned outright.

[deafbroke]

Most ofthe time just let the car go. You can always get another one and it saves you money in a car payment.

DB

[KKAB]

Thanks for the replies.... I am obviously missing something here as the trustee wanted us to list it, but wouldn't tell me how to do it. I, too, don't know how to exempt something with no equity.

[Stilltheone]

We purchased a vehicle (Cadillac Escalade) in November and we filed in March.

We had made up our mind that if it had no equity in it, we would let it go. We thought for sure we would owe more on it b/c when we purchased it, we had to roll $2K from our previous car into it.

Much to our surprise, it was worth $24K and we only owe $20K, so our lawyer made sure to exempt the equity.

If I were you and had a vehicle where I owed more than what it's worth, I would let it go.

[Help!]

We purchased a vehicle (Cadillac Escalade) in November and we filed in March.

We had made up our mind that if it had no equity in it, we would let it go. We thought for sure we would owe more on it b/c when we purchased it, we had to roll $2K from our previous car into it.

Much to our surprise, it was worth $24K and we only owe $20K, so our lawyer made sure to exempt the equity.

If I were you and had a vehicle where I owed more than what it's worth, I would let it go.

I agree. No sense in being upside down in a vehicle if you don't have to. If you do decide to keep it, you will want to reaffirm the debt. If you show it as a payment on schedule J, it will be clear to the trustee that it is a financed vehicle. I think the trustee wanted you to list it with an exemption value of zero since you have no equity.