Car Value and Chapter 7

[frank w]

I purchased a 2001 Ford Taurus SE with 82K miles on it in July of 2005 for $4,500. The car had some interior and exterior fixes needed (dents, scratched paint, stained carpeting, cracked windshield) that allowed me to purchase at that price which was below "blue book". 1 month after purchase I had a transmission problem and the local Ford dealer told me the transmission needed to be replaced and would cost $2,500 for rebuilt or $3,500 for new. They tweaked the computer and the car runs better, but still needs to have transmission replaced. Problem is this: I want to keep this car, but the "Blue Book" value for retail is $7,145, which is over the federal exemption of $3,425($2,757 plus $850 wildcard). How can I convince a trustee that this car should NOT be valued at Blue Book and value it at or below the exemption?
Thanks,
Frank

[mangoman39]

My Grand Cherokee is a mess, but the blue book value was well over the exemption. What I did was go to a Jeep Dealership and have them write up an estimate for everything that needed to be done. I pointed out EVERYTHING about it too. For example, the little metal thingie on the inside of the rear ashtray was broken. So I had them estimate the cost to fix that. I erally don't care about it, but it added %40 to the estimate. By the time they got done. The repairs would cost more than the blue book value of the Jeep. I just took a copy of the estimate with me to the 341 in case the exemption was brought up, but it never really was, at least not regarding the blue book value.

[SinkingFast]

We're doing the same thing. Documenting what's wrong with vehicles or getting fair market appraisals from Dealers to use as our basis for exemptions.

One has some serious rust issues, got hit in the rear end a couple weeks ago. The body repairs alone run nearly $4K and we need to get the exhaust looked at from the rear end collision. The body shop said they would send it out to get that checked and repaired if necessary so we're just gonna run by Car Max or some similar shop for an estimate. The cosmetics will total out that vehicle's value.

One has some cosmetic issues and needs a new clutch. We're gonna get pricing on that to dink the value.

One has some rust issues, the upholstery is shot, the radio doesn't work, etc. Same thing. Gonna doc that for valuation.