Upside down advice

You owe 30k. Sell it for 25k. Do you have 5k in cash to pay off loan? Home equity loan? Renter? Buying a 40k truck is not good for a person with tight cash flow/no savings. Did u have a 6yr loan?

@VOLVO_V70 As a large person, (6’ 3", 210 # ), and 76 years old, I don’t know that I would be comfortable commuting 100 miles a day in a small car. I base this on having to drive long distances to conferences and being assigned a Honda Civic Hybrid for the trip. My research partner who is about 5’ 5" and small build (not the same person with the 100 mile commute) has only owned Honda products since her first car, a Renault LeCar, and has no problem driving long distances in a Honda Civic. She has a 40 minute commute to her job. I don’t have enough leg room in a Civic. One person in my carpool to band rehearsals has a Prius V. When it is this person’s time to drive, we make the 15 miles and back.
I have a problem with legroom with many cars. We had a 1993 Oldsmobile 88 and there wasn’t enough legroom for me to drive and be really comfortable. I really prefer traveling in a minivan, SUV, or pickup truck.

The only thing I would question is whether a Prius is a good highway car or not. Does it get that much better mileage on the highway than in town? But I don’t know.

I bought my Olds diesel in 1981. Paid $10,000 for it including the $800 for the diesel option. Two years later it appeared it was a mistake going to diesel so checked to see about a trade in on a gasser Olds. I think I had 40 or 50K on it. I got offered $2500 for it, so you might say I was upside down. It was a great highway car though, roomy, comfortable, 24 mpg, etc. just the diesel longevity sucked. At any rate I got mad and decided to keep it for eternity and finally sold it with 480,000 on it for $200. I don’t know if it was a mistake or not but the first engine replacement was a Goodwrench factory remanufactured at 200K for $2500. Then a used engine at about 350K for $1000, along with several head gasket jobs at $1000 each, $500 injector pumps, $300 starter, AC compressors, and so on, You get the picture.

I don’t think I should have traded for $2500, but I do think my life would have been easier if I would have junked it for $500 at 200,000 with a bad engine. Problem is if you get above about 70,000 miles depreciation is so bad you almost need to keep it.

The 2016 Prius is rated at 50 MPG highway, it is not better than the city mileage but consumes half the fuel that the truck consumes.

The maintenance on the truck is more costly than a common sedan, 10.5 quarts of synthetic oil for an oil change, diesel exhaust fluid, diesel fuel filters every 20,000 miles.

The 2016 Tradesman Ecodiesel with 50,000 miles has an average trade-in value of $23,175.

The 2014 Tradesman Ecodiesel with 100,000 miles has an average trade-in value of $15,725, if you keep this truck for two more years you can expect $7450 in depreciation.