QOTD: Are You Upside on Your Car Loan?

by Tim Healey

Published: November 1st, 2024

Piggybacking off of today's TTAC podcast, I am curious -- are you or someone you know upside on your/their car loan?

This being the Internet, please don't dox yourself or provide personal info should you choose to comment. You can just say yes or no, or keep things vague.

Still, I'd like to know how it's going out there.

You know what to do, so go forth and comment.

Sound off below.

[Image: chayanuphol/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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2 of 56 comments

JMII on Nov 04, 2024
Maybe once. I always put enough cash down to ensure I'm good. Due to market conditions there have been times in which I'm close or borderline but as part of our financial planning we always check all our assets and liabilities every quarter. I've been doing this for nearly 3 decades and only once did I screw it up. I bought a new Rodeo in '97 and 8 months later I hated it so much I traded it in, which wasn't ideal (obviously). This forced us to leased our next vehicle since we didn't have the cash + trade to get a decent down payment. One of the other keys is I normally buy used to avoid that massive first year depreciation hit. Buying used + paid off trade + money down = never upside down. For new vehicles you just have to put a signification amount down. I tend to keep my vehicles long enough that I go years with no payments. During that time I save up for the next down payment. My last new vehicle purchase was at 0% APR which also helped.

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JLGOLDEN on Nov 05, 2024
Definitely upside down on the 2023 Model Y, and planning to keep through the end (or near end) of the loan. I truly love the car. If I was unhappy and itching to trade out now, the numbers would not be favorable to me. Meanwhile I am NOT upside down on the 2024 Murano, as the paid-off trade served as a $37,500 down payment.

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