down payment on car before filing

[nodough]

We currently have a truck that is financed by Ford and we've been warned that they will probably repo even if we stay current because that's just what Ford does. We were going to look for a used vehicle that wouldn't be financed through Ford and would lower our monthly payments. Does anyone know about how much is safe to put down? I don't want to put down too much and then have an equity situation that causes problems when I'm ready to file but I'm not sure how low I can get the dealer to go on the down.

[jribe]

We currently have a truck that is financed by Ford and we've been warned that they will probably repo even if we stay current because that's just what Ford does. We were going to look for a used vehicle that wouldn't be financed through Ford and would lower our monthly payments. Does anyone know about how much is safe to put down? I don't want to put down too much and then have an equity situation that causes problems when I'm ready to file but I'm not sure how low I can get the dealer to go on the down.

just as an FYI- i just had a horrible experience with a ford repo in Nor Cal- so my first advice is to make sure the car is out on the street. Seriously. Search my post and you'll see what happened..

Now back to your question- it really depends. Do you own a home that you plan on keeping? If yes- you'll need to figure out if you have equity (ha! lol in CA?!) that you need to exempt. If you don't own; CA has a 20k unused exemption for any property. So if you have 2k in equity in a vehicle- you can exempt it if you stay within your 20k limit.