• What to do with car?
    48 replies, posted
I know this is a longshot, but my dad, brother, and pretty much every other forum didn't know what to do... Anyway, i have a 2004 Pontiac Vibe. Right now it sits on the curb by my house. It's operational, but the brake system is faulty, and fires at incorrect intervals, and no one's been able to fix it. Also the drive shafts fall out of the transaxle, which I can only assume is a bad seal on the tranny itself. I have taken it to several mechanics, and just like me, they can not keep the CV axles in for more than 100miles. ANYWAY - I still owe $2,100 on the car, and have not paid it since January of this year. I do not want the car any more, and can't sell it for the owed value. I called the company initially in January and told them to come get it. They said they weren't interested in reposessing it, and that I was too far of a recovery anyway. (I live in CA, but bought the car in WA - they gave me paperwork to allow me to leave the state with the car). They basically allowed me to "have" the car without paying for it till I am able to pay again, and will not increase the interest. The problem is the payments are $270/month with 2 years left on the loan (shitty loan) and the only cost effective way of ditching the car is to buy it right out, and then sell it I guess? Problem is, I don't have the buyout money, and can't see putting the money into the car to get it under perfect operation again so that someone will buy it. I am basically tying to sell it for $2100 at the loan value and can't even get that. The only way someone would want to buy it is if you can procure the title, which you can't do unless the loan is paid off. So even if I took $1k or less for it, the buyer would not have a title. Basically the things that need to be done to it to sell it in CA is: New Catalytic Converter. Only one that is smog legal that I found comes from Toyota, and is $1,400. The current cat has completely failed. New (rebuilt) Transmission: $400 Import Fee (car is still being registered in WA due to the legal owner being in WA and not allowing a CA reg) $285 New right CV axle shaft $120 New Hub, and strut and disc/caliper assembly right side front $200ish... Hood needs to be painted (steel fell onto it and smashed it. I pulled it and sanded, primered. Looks like a primered hood... $200? Then I'd still have to sell it. To top it off I am still paying $90/month to insure it, which is due to the loan. My insurance company will not insure it otherwise and the last thing I need is someone to hit it with their car and it not be insured.. The car sits on the sidewalk and you basically can't drive it around a turn without the axles popping out. Te loan company won't repo it, even when I ask them to, and said it's ok to not pay for it even thought it's a broken piece of junk (which is why they probably don't want it) So, I was hoping someone had a similar situation, I know it's a stretch. The car was a nice driver till it went south after only 2 years of ownership, and didn't even have problems till I moved it to CA. Is there some way to force the loan company to take it back? Or junk it or something? Basically it's not mine, but I am being forced to keep it. What do? [URL=http://s43.photobucket.com/user/serj22/media/P1000112.jpg.html][IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e356/serj22/P1000112.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Edit: More info: I paid it on time every month for 2 years, and it was a 4 year loan for $4,200. At $270 a month I have already paid more than the total value of the car and the loan itself ($6,000 something i think) Which is probably why they aren't too concerned with it. I am definitly upside down with it.
You have full coverage insurance on it right? Slam the whole side of it into a guardrail because of a deer or something, idk. If you don't mind your insurance going up for 4-5 years you could just do an at fault accident. You could have an accident because the axles popped out or something, the brakes stopped working and chose a guardrail and park.
If you must paint the hood, a place like Maaco would be pretty cheap and do an okay job. Or you could find a similar paint and spray paint it. With Maaco, you do the prep work yourself, take it there, and they spray it. Shouldn't cost much at all, way less than $200. With the cat, you can get a stock one for cheaper than $1400. On this parts website, there's three different cat's listed depending on what motor/whether yours is AWD; [url]http://www.newgmparts.com/parts/2004/PONTIAC/VIBE/?siteid=213815&vehicleid=1432958&section=EXHAUST%20SYSTEM[/url] I'm assuming that the factory ones are smog certified? I really don't know much about emissions or Vibe's to be honest. I can't help too much with the other issues
The problem is CA doesn't allow the sale of pre-owned cat's and every one I tried to order online that was not stock will cancel the order on me due to not shipping to CA. I went to an exhaust shop and the dude wouldn't even suggest a weld in and wouldnt touch them. I went to Earl Shieb and they told me $180, they'll do the prep, and match, and paint the hood to look like the rest of the car. Seemed decent to me. Basically a Vibe is a Toyota Matrix with different exterior styling (interior is piece for piece exact), and shares a similar powerplant with Corolla, and Celica, and Lotus Elise (basically) All the driveline parts come from Toyota. They go from there to GM, get put in another box, marked price up, and sold as GM stuff. The car was deisgnated as a Toyota when shipped to Japan and called the Toyota Voltz. This one is a 5 speed manual, with 138k miles on it. Not AWD As for ramming it into a guardrail, I have thought about it. Or letting someone else hit it, but I have never been one to really execute something like that, and i could get killed, and it's not the best example to set for my kids (well, ya know) Next year I'll be 25 so my insurance will drop, but I don't necessarily want it to increase at the same time... but yeah. I thought about it. It's not parked that close to the curb... And yes, it is full coverage insurance. Also the website you posted lists the CAT w/pipe for a 1.8litre FWD (mine) as being $1,120ish - which is still obnoxiously priced. Basically emissions in CA is like "what do you want to do to your car?... no." You want to buy a used what?...no. I feel like somehow CA gets a chunk of the sale price of Catalytic converters. If you go to a junkyard, they are all cut off the cars. Every single car. This is why I bought a 1968 as my current car. No smog. Never dealing with it again. I hate it.
On that site, the column that says Online Price is what you pay, plus the core charge. Send back your old cat and they refund the core. So the Cat on the site is ~$770+80, and you get $80 back if you send your old cat back. Still extremely high, but like I said, I don't know what else you can do with CA emissions.
I would never endanger another driver intentionally. You could just grind the whole side down with a guardrail, that would easily total it out lol. Maybe go park it in some shady areas and let it get stolen with the keys left in the ignition and unlocked. You could try parting out the car to pay for the loan but I have no idea who the fuck would want parts off one of those.. Fuck paying for a cat, unhook the battery right before you sell it to clear the codes and they'll never know any better. Sell it as is on Craigslist for what's left on the loan, ignore any problems and say you really need to pay rent. Some idiot will buy it, just keep at it. If you want to be a cunt, plastidip the hood and say you just plastidipped it because you thought it would look cool and tell them you can peel it right off. I would honestly fab something to keep the axles in the diff, make some sort of spacer on the hub to push them further to the diff with washers or something. Maybe if you put some washers on the end of the axles and then slide them into the hub, I have no idea lol.. Your axles have the little clips on the end where they go into the diff right? [img]http://z.about.com/d/autorepair/1/0/x/E/42282036.gif[/img]
According to the CA dmv," The seller is required to provide the buyer with a valid smog inspection certification at the time of the sale or transfer." So he has to make the car pass smog and inspection to sell it in CA
I thought about washers. Right now, the hub nuts (If that's what they're called are pulled out a little so the axle has some "play" basically it can move about 1/2" in each direction which keeps it from yanking it out of the tranny so hard, and allows for on the side of the road "resets" of the shaft. Basically the spring clip is fine and the CV's are brand new, they just don't stay in. This particular issue started when the Roller at the top of the picture blew off, so all three were seperated each with an individual piece of the shaft spider. The car made a grinding noise, but wouldnt roll under power.
Wow.. that's a whole lot of nonsense :/ Honestly.. like they said, if it's full coverage, total it.. somehow. Careful thought would need to be put into it to make sure everything goes as planned, and of course mention it to NO ONE (maybe we shouldn't even discuss it on here, who knows)
[QUOTE=clutch2;40286909]Wow.. that's a whole lot of nonsense :/ Honestly.. like they said, if it's full coverage, total it.. somehow. Careful thought would need to be put into it to make sure everything goes as planned, and of course mention it to NO ONE (maybe we shouldn't even discuss it on here, who knows)[/QUOTE] We probably shouldn't.. I was kinda hoping someone would hit it where it sits. So far nothing, and it's been there for 3 months. My landlord's mirror keeps getting knocked off his truck when he parks there, but not even a single fender check or anything. I was hoping there was a more - conscience friendly approach to ditching the car? Some kind of legal mumbo jumbo that forces them to take their shit, really dont want to risk injuring myself with premeditated crimes.
[QUOTE=FordLord;40286576]According to the CA dmv," The seller is required to provide the buyer with a valid smog inspection certification at the time of the sale or transfer." So he has to make the car pass smog and inspection to sell it in CA[/QUOTE] Out of state title, CA has no hands on the car on a private party sale AFIAK.
12960 is the total cost of paying off that loan...on a 4000 dollar initial principal. Not to be a dick but I hope you learned your lesson on this one, 75% interest on the loan? You could have bought a brand new car for that monthly payment. Anyway, good luck trying to get the deathtrap off your hands, try to get it totaled is all I can say. [editline]15th April 2013[/editline] Also, instead of buying a cat, buy a fake rear O2 sensor that will tell the smog computer nothing it wrong, unless they check for emissions differently in CA.
[QUOTE=slayer3032;40287066]Out of state title, CA has no hands on the car on a private party sale AFIAK.[/QUOTE] If the car is going to be titled in CA by the buyer, the seller is required to sell it with a valid smog inspection, even in private party sales [url]www.ehow.com/list_6160921_private-car-sale-laws-california.html[/url] [url]www.dmv.org/ca-california/buy-sell/state-regulations.php[/url] If you sell it without a smog cert, and the next owner tries to get one and it fails it, youll be required to pay to have any repairs done to have it pass smog. Chances are, the prices will be way higher then Waffle99, Im looking at how they do smog tests, they dont just do the plug in test like other states. A fake o2 would trick the plug in, but in ca, they actually test at the tailpipe and test the gasses that come out. According to one site " The emissions test is where they insert a probe into the tailpipe to sniff for combustion byproducts and attach a coupler to any spark plug wire to measure engine rpm. With those two items attached they begin the test on the dyno." Another site says that in some areas they dont use a dyno to measure emissions. In some areas they measure at idle and 2500rpms
Here they just probe your tailpipe and do the latter
[QUOTE=Serj22;40285920]The problem is CA doesn't allow the sale of pre-owned cat's and every one I tried to order online that was not stock will cancel the order on me due to not shipping to CA. I went to an exhaust shop and the dude wouldn't even suggest a weld in and wouldnt touch them. I went to Earl Shieb and they told me $180, they'll do the prep, and match, and paint the hood to look like the rest of the car. Seemed decent to me. Basically a Vibe is a Toyota Matrix with different exterior styling (interior is piece for piece exact), and shares a similar powerplant with Corolla, and Celica, and Lotus Elise (basically) All the driveline parts come from Toyota. They go from there to GM, get put in another box, marked price up, and sold as GM stuff. The car was deisgnated as a Toyota when shipped to Japan and called the Toyota Voltz. This one is a 5 speed manual, with 138k miles on it. Not AWD As for ramming it into a guardrail, I have thought about it. Or letting someone else hit it, but I have never been one to really execute something like that, and i could get killed, and it's not the best example to set for my kids (well, ya know) Next year I'll be 25 so my insurance will drop, but I don't necessarily want it to increase at the same time... but yeah. I thought about it. It's not parked that close to the curb... And yes, it is full coverage insurance. Also the website you posted lists the CAT w/pipe for a 1.8litre FWD (mine) as being $1,120ish - which is still obnoxiously priced. Basically emissions in CA is like "what do you want to do to your car?... no." You want to buy a used what?...no. I feel like somehow CA gets a chunk of the sale price of Catalytic converters. If you go to a junkyard, they are all cut off the cars. Every single car. This is why I bought a 1968 as my current car. No smog. Never dealing with it again. I hate it.[/QUOTE] >drive car to shitty neighborhood >AYO JAMAL >toss your keys to an upstanding black gentleman >tell him to enjoy his car >report it stolen in a week >they find it ripped to shreds in said shitty neighborhood
[QUOTE=FordLord;40291148]If the car is going to be titled in CA by the buyer, the seller is required to sell it with a valid smog inspection, even in private party sales [url]www.ehow.com/list_6160921_private-car-sale-laws-california.html[/url] [url]www.dmv.org/ca-california/buy-sell/state-regulations.php[/url] If you sell it without a smog cert, and the next owner tries to get one and it fails it, youll be required to pay to have any repairs done to have it pass smog. Chances are, the prices will be way higher then Waffle99, Im looking at how they do smog tests, they dont just do the plug in test like other states. A fake o2 would trick the plug in, but in ca, they actually test at the tailpipe and test the gasses that come out. According to one site " The emissions test is where they insert a probe into the tailpipe to sniff for combustion byproducts and attach a coupler to any spark plug wire to measure engine rpm. With those two items attached they begin the test on the dyno." Another site says that in some areas they dont use a dyno to measure emissions. In some areas they measure at idle and 2500rpms[/QUOTE] Fuck Cali, just another reason I'd never live there. I suppose it's nice for car buyers though.. Sounds like totaling it would really be the quickest and most surefire solution, it'll get you out of the loan and all that jazz. You could try getting it stolen but what if it comes back in decent shape without a radio. You could also rig an electrical fire or something when putting on some walmart foglights or something, just say that it's your fault or something and you musta done it wrong. You might get stuck with the bill for emergency services or something though.
Around here you could take it up to the mountains(some how) and leave it, then report it stolen. Come back in a couple of days to find it torched.
[QUOTE=Concur;40291690]>drive car to shitty neighborhood >AYO JAMAL >toss your keys to an upstanding black gentleman >tell him to enjoy his car >report it stolen in a week >they find it ripped to shreds in said shitty neighborhood[/QUOTE] I have been thinking about "lending it to a friend" so to speak. Still going to keep the whole totaling it out on purpose as a last resort. I have 2 kids and the last thing they need is a dad in jail if ya know what I mean... I was even thinking of not registering or insuring it, but basically if you dont insure it, they will, and it will be 3x as much usually. About the loan itself - it was only supposed to be a 2 year loan around 22%. But somehow after two years of payment I still owe $2,100. I don't quite understand it myself and was told there is 2 more years on the loan. Shady.
Yeah, especially since the car you bought with the money fell apart. :v:
I don't know. The car was weird from the get-go, but for some reason I was stupid about it and kept it. I liked it a lot when we bought it. My wife was pregnant at the time and I needed another car. I was driving a 1998 Civic SI that I bought with full rice rocket equipment already installed. It was really rough to drive around in. I got the Vibe, and then took it home. I opened one of the hidden trunk compartments that day and found a stash of a bunch of knives, and a pair of gardening gloves... they were really nice too. Lots of Bowies, and Smith and Wesson, and some home-made ones. A week later the dealership called me and said the guy who traded it in left something in the car that got handed down to him from his father, and that I may have found it by then. I guessed it was the knives. The dealer asked if I could bring whatever it was (he didnt know) to the lot, or he'd come get them, and they'd give me a free oil change in a few thousand miles when I needed it. I drove across town and gave them to him. He asked how i liked the car, then I left. I asked about the free oil change a month later, and he said he remembered and to take it to Jiffy Lube nearby, and that's where he takes care of all his cars, and he'd phone ahead and pay. As promised it was paid for when I arrived, and when it was on the oil pit, the tech came upstairs and said that there was like JB weld or something on the transmission case and if I wanted to look at it. I said sure, and saw a small bit of what looked like Putty on it, but it didn't leak, and it wasn't anywhere where a problem would be. No idea what it was. He also said the dealer paid for a new serpentine belt as well, so that got changed. I drove it around for a long time and thought nothing of it, then after a year, all the "temp fixes" that were probably made started to fall apart, and the car was well out of the bring-back period. The ABS sensors were all JB-welded into place and every single one had a broken bolt. The engine cover fell off (only one bolt holding it on, rest was glued to valve cover) and then the shifter started getting flustered when you tried to put it in gear. The plasticine or whatever they coated the car with fell off, and you could see the body was sort of "wrinkled" on the front and back, like it was previously sandwitched in a wreck. The title had no accident history thought. It also took a good 2 months for the dealer to get the title from CA for some reason, and I kept having to get new temporary registrations. The loan was one of those weird ones for people with bad credit "name 10 people who could find you" sort of thing.
Oh man, you should have jumped ship when you saw the JB weld. Too late now probably though. :\ Shit I dunno, maybe talk to a lawyer? :v:
I'd go with laywer or get it totaled and use the insurance money to pay off whatever you owe and find something better.
Take it out on a rainy day, do some hektik skidz, then "loose control" and guard rail. Or misplace it and report it stolen. Either way, insurance fraud, here you come!
Full reverse into a ledge or something ought to do the trick
Thanks for the ideas guys. I think I may have found a solution. I talked to a lawyer's office. They told me I could force the auction and bill the loan company. So I will be taking it to Hayward, and entering it. And there's nothing they can do about it. They either get the $2,100 at auction, or they don't. Won't be my problem anymore.
[QUOTE=Serj22;40332836]Thanks for the ideas guys. I think I may have found a solution. I talked to a lawyer's office. They told me I could force the auction and bill the loan company. So I will be taking it to Hayward, and entering it. And there's nothing they can do about it. They either get the $2,100 at auction, or they don't. Won't be my problem anymore.[/QUOTE] That definitely tops all my ideas, good luck!
This is the one of those times where I am really, really, glad you spoke to a professional about options! Out of all those stupid suggestions to "total it" and commit insurance fraud, you do the logical thing and get the best possible outcome. Next time, bring the car to a mechanic first to get it checked out. :)
[QUOTE=>VLN<;40344201]This is the one of those times where I am really, really, glad you spoke to a professional about options! Out of all those stupid suggestions to "total it" and commit insurance fraud, you do the logical thing and get the best possible outcome. Next time, bring the car to a mechanic first to get it checked out. :)[/QUOTE] That was my 2nd, and last time buying a car used from a dealership. The first time was absolutely perfect. I bought a 1996 Silverado and drove it for 8 years and 200,000 more miles before it couldnt be smogged any more. This car was indeed a mistake. I had not really thought about talking to a lawyer. They helped me handle it for free. They didn't charge me a damn thing, and I am now waiting on a call from the dealership. The office told me to contact the auction and let them know the dealer is selling it there (basically force them to sell their own car) and then wait for a call from the dealership threatening me or something and to then call the office back. I was surprised when they said it wasn't uncommon for loan companies to try and weasel you into paying them and forcing you to keep "their" broken property since they are still the title holders. They also offered to help me sue the company for storage, abandonment on my property and any oil damage caused by it sitting in my driveway. Awesome.
Finally got a call from the dealer and they wanted to know why the auction was asking for the title. I told them that they were going to sell the car. Oh boy did that guy have some words for me. I think I heard all the various fallic objects one could suck on and lots of other colorful things. He became even more upset when I told him I was suing for storage and damage to my driveway, as well as all the insurance i paid on the car while it just sat there for no reason. Imagine the video where the marine is screaming at the guy to get out of the car so he can fight him. I had that look pretty much the whole time. He did not like how calm I was. I get to call the lawyer's office tomorrow and let them know to go ahead and mail him a letter (not sure how they work this). Basically he'll have to come to california to go to trial since the dealership made the mistake of giving me a signed letter saying the vehicle was ok to own and operate in the state of California, and gave specific instructions on leaving it registered in Washington (which is a crime here.) They said the car will probably just sell at auction and that the dealer will settle the lawsuit. They doubt he'll come down here to fight it. If I get money on top of the sale, I'm having my /6 rebuilt and turbo'd.
[QUOTE=Serj22;40375010] Basically he'll have to come to california to go to trial since the dealership made the mistake of giving me a signed letter saying the vehicle was ok to own and operate in the state of California, and gave specific instructions on leaving it registered in Washington (which is a crime here.) They said the car will probably just sell at auction and that the dealer will settle the lawsuit. They doubt he'll come down here to fight it. If I get money on top of the sale, I'm having my /6 rebuilt and turbo'd.[/QUOTE] Handling it like a [B]man[/B]
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