Car Strategy...is it worth it?

[loonzilla]

First, I'll be filing in July so I wanted to ensure I plan effectively in the upcoming months.
Situation:
1. 1 car exemption in my state for $4K
2. I own 2 cars...a 1991 Toyota Celica w/150K (worth 1,500 BB)and a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee...both are paid off. Jeep books for 7K trade-in value.
3. Family needs 2 cars. Wife stays at home but needs transportation for medical appointments. Public transportation is a joke.
4. I don't want to sell the Jeep and get a cheaper vehicle for 3K or less since I don't want the extra money showing up on my records as income.
5. I'm guessing I would be offered around a 4-5K settlement to keep the jeep from trustee...I wouldn't be able to afford it and would have to give it up.

My plan: Go to a used car lot and trade the jeep in for two vehicles. I would get one desired vehicle for around 4K book price, not worrying if they have it listed for more, then get "whatever" to make up the difference.

When exemptions are applied, I would place them on my desired vehicle, hoping the trustee wouldn't want a 16 year old Celica to deal with. If he did, it would probably only be 1K to buy it back. They can have the other vehicle.

This way, I still have two vehicles and don't get hit with added income. Am I thinking too much into this???? I've been going over tons of scenerios and this one is the only option where I don't get added income, don't pay much (or any) to trustee, AND get 2 vehicles.

Please scrutinize my plan. I haven't slept for 24 hours so my thoughts could be a little off. Thanks!!!

[HHM]

1. Double check you exemption scheme.
2. Are both you and your wife filing, if so, can you double-up the exemption.
3. I think your making a pretty big assumption about a car dealer (even the shadier used car only lots) willing to let two cars go for a trade in of one without some out of pocket cash.

Bottom line, your plan is probably wishful thinking.

[loonzilla]

Yup...no sleep got to me...I'll be able to take 8K out with me and my wife both applying, so I don't need to worry about it. Thanks!!! I'll only post when I conherent next time

[LostOne0069]

woah, be careful! not ALL states let you do that "double down" thing. I know that we had to use Utah exemptions and the Utah exemptions do not let you double the exemption to one vehicle... we can claim both, but they have to be on two cars... AND those cars have to be our source of transportation for our employment. We were "lucky" in that we don't have any equity in our car and didn't have to worry about it... but I'd make sure that I read the exemption law VERY carefully... and not just the posts on the sites about what youre exemptions are... go to your state's court web site. We were able to find the Utah state court site and find the actual code that described in detail those little "summaries" that you find on other sites... after doing so we were able to avoid a TON of mistakes that our attorney (whom we fired) was making.

Don't take ANYTHING for granted and, as I'm sure EVERYONE on here will agree... regardless of the advice you hear on this site, check everything out for yourself. This site was a life saver for us and we would have likely ended up with a real nightmare without the help we received here... but we took that help and used it to give us guidance on where to look, and it paid off BIG TIME. Do the research... it's a lot of work, but it's really worth it.