Here is my situation - any help is appreciated!

First of all I don't understand how car financing stuff works! I am a newly single mother and I need help so I don't create a bad situation for myself. I need someone to look out for my best interest and I hope that someone here can help!

I am recently divorced, I am currently still un-employed. (I have been a stay-at-home mother for 7 years.) I have gone back to school and I do get spousal and child support.

My husband and I had two vehicles. Both of which are in his name and his name is on both loans. When we separated, he took one vehicle and left me with the other. The vehicle that I have is a 2002 Yukon Denali. It has about 59k miles on it. I believe the payoff amount is around $19,000. The current monthly payment of the car is $516 a month. Again, the Denali and the loan for it are in EX's name so he has been makiong the monthly loan payments.

It was put in our separation agreement that I would get the car placed in my name within one year from the date of the agreement. How exactly does this work? Would this even be in my best interest? I do not know if I should just give him the car back and try to get a car on my own or should I try to keep the Denali? My median credit score is around 630. Again, I don't know how this kind of thing works. If it is advantageous, I would prefer to keep the Denali. It has been a very good car for myself and the children.

ALSO - if I give back the Denali - would it be better to lease or purchase? I do use a lot of miles. Probably average around 12k miles per year.

I need help figuring out what to do - any and all advice would be VERY MUCH appreciated! Please let me know if you need further information.

Thank you in advance!!!

I would imagine you would need to payoff the current existing loan.

One way to do that would be to secure financing for the payoff amount with a lender of your choice.

Thanks Marv Bear. The problem is I think the loan is a little more than what the car is worth; around $1500.00 - $2,500.00 more. (Is that what you call being upside down?) I really don't want to pay more than what the car is worth. The other day I checked the blue book value and it's around $16,000 and the payoff amount is somewhere between 17,500 and 19,000. I realize for some people 2,000 over might not be such a big deal, but for me it really is. My life has changed so omuch since all of this and now I have to watch every penny.

A few close friends of mine have suggested that I just give the vehicle back to my ex-husband and go get a new vehicle. Some have said there are usually some really good lease deals where the payments might only be $300 or so which would be less than what my ex has been paying currently for the Denali. (I'm figuring whatever terms I might get to finance the Denali probably wouldn't be any better than what my ex has gotten for it; especially since he is employed full-time and I am un-employed at the moment.

Any more thoughts about this? If I looked for a new car I would still need an SUV because of the kids. I don't know what to do or which would be the best way to go. Can you give me some pros & cons? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you, thank you!

Don't lease because they will limit you on the miles. Any miles you put on above your quota are .10 to .20 each usually. They aren't cheap.

There was a dealer add in my area that would take your vehicle as a trade in and payoff your existing loan even it the loan was more than the value of the car. I don't know how this works or if there any stipulations, but see if any dealers do that by you. I didn't really pay close atention to it sicne I don't have a car loan. Just an idea.

If you just give the car back, perhaps it would be a good idea to check with your attorney, in order to determine you liabilites, and would you be subject to a contempt of court order, or possible litigation from your former spouse.

In my case a lease might work for me because I really don't do any long distance driving. The miles I use each year are very low.

Thank you for the other suggestion, that it something I had not thought of!

That's a good point. I will definitely check into that. If I am able to give it back or trade it in which do you think would be best for me - a lease or purchase?

Thank you for your help.

Happy New Year!

Are looking to get a cheaper priced SUV or are you looking in the same class? How many miles does it have right now? If you refinance this SUV for an another 60 month you can get the payment to 375 a month, assuming that this vehicle has low miles and would run for another 60 month without any major problem.

It has about 59k miles on it. I'm looking for a good reliable SUV it doesn't necessarily have to be in the same class. I'm interested in whatever is going to give me a little lower monthly payment.

I have found that right now Chrysler is offering a very very good lease deal for a 27 month lease on the Jeep Commanders (I think that was it) .. 12k miles per year overages a 0.20 per mile .. so be careful about that one .. One additional thought that you will likely wan to take into consideration is the insurance costs. I found that my insurance doubled when I went from a purchase contract to a lease contract. The result was that I found myself only a few dollars less monthly OOP than if I had done a purchase.

The thing about Chrysler however, is that they don't want you to turn the vehicle in after the lease expires ...

My experience was that I had a 3 yr lease on a new 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee .... 331 per month .... after the 36 months were up, Chrysler contacted me and offered me a vehicle loan on the market value rather than the residual balance. The net result was a residual of 16k was cut to 10k, and they offered it to me a 0% for 3 years ... now I am no rocket scientist, (don't even play one on TV) but the combined cost of the 36 lease payments (which I was able to deduct from my taxes as a business expense) and the 10k at 0% .. I am still a long way from the original $27,500 original sticker.

I heard on the clark howard show on the radio that these deals would likely get sweeter as Chrysler has to move so much more stagnant inventory.

You should check out his site for more information as I don't want to be the purveyor of incorrect information.

a purchase.

It appears that you cannot give the Yukon back to your ex as that will violate the divorce decree and he can sue you. You have to pay off that loan and take it out of his name so he is not obligated to pay for it. Now he isn't going to complain whether you then keep it for yourself or sell or trade it, just he has to be out of the loan within the required time.

So you could either:
* Obtain a new loan, "put it in your name" (buy it from him for the payoff of the old loan), and keep it for yourself. You may have to put cash into the deal to get approved for a new loan because the loan amount can't be a lot more than the vehicle's value.
* Take it to a dealer and trade in on a different car. The excess payoff amount will be applied to the new deal. He will have to sign off on the title, but it appears that the divorce decree compels him to do so.
* Sell it directly to someone, which gets a higher price than trading at the dealer. However if the sale price is insufficent to pay off, you will need to pay the difference with cash or an unsecured loan.

Call the finance company and get the exact payoff amount, as you are just guessing at a range now and whether it is $17.000 or $19,000 probably considerably affects your options.

I would suggest if you get a different vehicle, do not lease. You are in a transitional period. You don't expect to drive many miles now, but if you end up with a job that requires a long commute, you will end up exceeding the lease miles and paying a big penalty.

The last round of comments has me thinking that if your EX agrees to take the vehicle then you can get out of it, but it would likely be his call. Of course seeing that he is currently paying the bill, as underhanded as it might be, you could wait until the last month before transferring and still be in compliance with the decree. Of course if he decided to stop paying it would hurt both of you financially. This might buy you some more time to let the LTV ratio get in line.

Wow everyone, thank you so much for your input!

I think I should state that this advice really wasn't for me but for a very good friend of mine who is going through a lot. The situation with her vehicle needs to be addressed very SOON and neither one of us is good with "vehicle stuff." She has no family nearby and she's really needing help. We were talking the other day about this particular situation and I suggested we post her concerns on CB. I am on these boards every day (usually in the credit forum) so I knew that we could get useful information by an impartial group.

Thank you so much for all of your help. This is such a great group of people and a great board. If anyone has any other thoughts they'd be appreciated.

As an added thought - or I guess I should say "question." Is there a thread in the automotive forum that discusses the do's and don'ts of purchasing an automobile? Or somewhere that talks about how to get the best deal? What to be wary of - how to negotiate? (Auto-mobile purchasing 101?)

This information would help both my friend and myself as my VW lease is up next month! I always get confused with all the "Cash Back" "Rebate" and "Incentive" stuff. It seems like when I am trying to negotiate a lower price the sales people come back with something relating to one of those three things. It is so intimidating because sales people know exactly what they are talking about but there are those of us who have no clue and walk out of the dealership feeling like the sales people are laughing at us.

If someone could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Again, thank you so much!