[DakotaDave]

Well today I think my wife and I made up our mind that we may let the Magnum go back. $600.00 a month payment is getting us in a tight pinch. The first payment is coming up here tomorrow, and its going to take my wife's whole paycheck from her full-time job. With me on disability; half of my check goes to my truck payment, and the rest to bills. If we keep this car; we'll barely have enough for gas; for either car. Im disappointed, but it doesnt help when my wife wanted to go "Open Housing" Sunday afternoon. I told her Saturday when she brought it up; that all it was going to do was get her hopes up, and she's going to fall in love, and shes going to drive me nuts when we cant afford it. I told her that if we didnt have the car; we may be able to afford a couple of the houses that we looked at. Granted if we let the car go back; my wife wont have a car to drive, or she'll have to drive my truck and put an ass load of miles on it. ...I dunno; I am so frustrated, and I dont really want to get rid of the Magnum; its a great car and I LOVE IT!

What do you guys think?

 

[HEMIwoman]

That is a tough call Dave...regardless if you love the car or not, you need to do the right thing by your family and the finances...sounds like a long talk with the wife in front of the books is in order....good luck!

 

[da BoMM]

Can you sell it? How much do you need to get out of it? How many miles, what are the options, etc, etc.

Unfortunate, but there may be a win-win here for a couple of people.

 

[wbornio]

Hmm --- I'd have to say that Magnum ranks 4th. It's close, but it's right behind 1.)Food, 2.) Clothing, and 3)Shelter.

Nail down the first 3 and then see if there is enough left for Magnum ownership/enjoyment.

Best Wishes - Wayne

1st payment due tomorrow? Did you get the 30 day return (minus restocking fee) employee pricing deal? Should be interesting to see how that works out.

 

[formerice]

The Magnum is a seductive car, but it's not worth spending your last cent on either. I waited until I could pay cash for mine, cause I concidered it somewhat as a luxury and my old car was paid off and still reliable. Seriously a 10 year old Camray, especialy a 4 cyl model in good shape would give you guy's a good 10 years of cheap transportation and give you a chance to put some bucks away. Hope I didn't sound like your dad! I had a 96 Camray with 4 cyl and 5 spd that would get 42 mpg on the highway, boring and slow, kinda like me.

 

[MAGnificent05]

Solutions For Keeping the Magnum:
1. Gas/Food - Eat LOTS of greasy food, then pour the buckets of grease into your car (i read that it really works with a minor mod)
2. Shelter - C'mon...you didnt think that they made the rear cargo area just for toting around stuff did ya??
3. Clothing - Join a nudist colony (it worked for me!!)

There ya have it, PROBLEM solved..... But seriously, i was just trying to crack a smile for ya. If you ultimately have to give it up...how's about downgrading to the Calibre. Its like a Magnum "Mini-Me" and the payments would probably be cut in 1/2..... just a suggestion. And i wish you the very best.

 

[DakotaDave]

Thanks guys for trying to help and trying to cheer me up.

wbornio: They didnt have the "Employee Pricing" deal when we bought it at the end of June. Right now Im kinda kicking myself for not waiting, but you never know when the best deal is going to come along. Im not waiting forever for the best deal either.

formerice: Im sorry; I will not EEeeeeeever step in, let alone drive Japanese rice no matter how good people say they are! Nothing against you, but Id rather drive a gas guzzler and keep this thing than drive Japanese!

 

[iamkungfool]

Solutions For Keeping the Magnum:
1. Gas/Food - Eat LOTS of greasy food, then pour the buckets of grease into your car (i read that it really works with a minor mod)
2. Shelter - C'mon...you didnt think that they made the rear cargo area just for toting around stuff did ya??
3. Clothing - Join a nudist colony (it worked for me!!)

There ya have it, PROBLEM solved..... But seriously, i was just trying to crack a smile for ya. If you ultimately have to give it up...how's about downgrading to the Calibre. Its like a Magnum "Mini-Me" and the payments would probably be cut in 1/2..... just a suggestion. And i wish you the very best.

lol two and three are sound ideas. number one only works for a diesel and only if you filter the crap outta the oil. i've put a lot of research into the grease car thing. google grease car it's so freakin' sweet. i'm buying a diesel truck before the year is out and i'm gonna run it off veg oil from work. should pay for itself by the end of next year :grin: .

but yeah dave, do what you need man. i was thinking about unloading mine a few months ago but things worked out. i don't know your situation, but maybe mag meant run your truck off veggie oil? that could work if it's a diesel.

the kit runs around $1500 then you need to figure out where to get a constant source of used oil. or you could go to the local costco, bjs, sam's etc and buy the big new ones for about $2 a gallon...it'd svae you a buck a gallon...i dunno but good luck either way man

 

[Super T]

you can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house...

'giving' it back will most likely hose your credit, and if you're on disability, those two things combined will most likely preclude from many favorable loan situations. definitely sucks a fat one... but can you re-fi it instead to knock $50/month off or something? Or at least trade it to the dealer for something else, like an SE or SXT? That might keep them from hosing your credit. I'd say the best place to start would be the loan guy/girl at your dealership. Ask for options on returning/trading it? Best of luck man, keep us posted!

 

[formerice]

Sorry, Dakota Dave, I was totaly unreasonable! No one should ever have to ride or drive a car as boring as a Camray.:wink:

 

[matpat]

Well today I think my wife and I made up our mind that we may let the Magnum go back.

I'm confused, what do you mean by "go back"? Did you get that return within 30 days if not satisfied offer? If not, I imagine your credit will take a hard hit. A recent default on your credit may eliminate your chances at the house your wife liked :wink:

If you did not get the 30 day return deal, I would have a serious talk with either the dealership or a bank/credit union about refinancing to either a lower rate or longer term.

Did you finance through Chrysler and recieve the $1000 off at purchase?

 

[DakotaDave]

you can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house...

'giving' it back will most likely hose your credit, and if you're on disability, those two things combined will most likely preclude from many favorable loan situations. definitely sucks a fat one... but can you re-fi it instead to knock $50/month off or something? Or at least trade it to the dealer for something else, like an SE or SXT? That might keep them from hosing your credit. I'd say the best place to start would be the loan guy/girl at your dealership. Ask for options on returning/trading it? Best of luck man, keep us posted!

We do have a meeting tomorrow with the dealership and they said this happens all the time and they can help us find something. We already have the SXT and Im not going any lower than that on the Magnum or an LX.

 

[Super T]

$600/month on the SXT?! What's your interest rate? My R/T was $34,500-ish after tax/title/etc. With only $1000 down, it's still only $599.36/month at 9.1% financing over 72 months. Did you opt for a really short loan term?

 

[matpat]

$600/month on the SXT?! What's your interest rate? My R/T was $34,500-ish after tax/title/etc. With only $1000 down, it's still only $599.36/month at 9.1% financing over 72 months. Did you opt for a really short loan term?

9.1% financing!!! Ouch! Did you go with the Chrysler financing? If so, refinance as soon as you can. I went with the Chrysler financing long enough to get the $1000 cash back. Contacted my Credit Union the next day and got a new loan at half of Chrysler's rates.

The Finance Guy at the Dealership told me I would have to make a minimum of 3 payments to Chrysler or I would loose the $1000. Right on the loan it said "no penalty for prepayment". I called the Finance Guy the next day about the "no penalty for prepayment" lingo that is on my loan paperwork. He was supposed to call me back and let me know...that was in early April :wink:

 

[DakotaDave]

$600/month on the SXT?! What's your interest rate? My R/T was $34,500-ish after tax/title/etc. With only $1000 down, it's still only $599.36/month at 9.1% financing over 72 months. Did you opt for a really short loan term?

Well what happened is we traded in our Tracker; that had a $7000 lien on it, so they added that onto our loan. So basically we had to get a $40k loan for it. The day (Saturday) that we made the deal the salesman asked what kind of payments are we looking at? I told him right now I am looking at paying no more than what I pay on my truck; which is $470; since we didnt have the Tracker that day we had to bring it back that next Monday, and we'd talk about financing then. On that Monday we took in the Tracker, and they came to us with a $600 per month (through DCx financing)...I asked my wife if we could do it ( she does the finances, and I was to have a pt job by now); she said yes! If it were me; I would've ****ered more to get the payments we wanted. She wanted it so bad; that she said we'll make it work. Well she got a second job, and I still havent gotten a part-time job yet and I've seen how worn out she's getting...all this for a damn car; it just isnt worth it! We should've kept the Tracker; since the payments were only $170 per month on the lien.

 

[LP81]

I took out a 25K loan... 36 Months at 5.49% so I am paying $800 a month... (guess it helps to still live at home haha

 

[DakotaDave]

I took out a 25K loan... 36 Months at 5.49% so I am paying $800 a month... (guess it helps to still live at home haha

Im on a 6 year loan.

 

[FamilyWgn]

I too was also looking at having Dodge buy my magnum back yesterday. Can you believe that the dealer won't even give me KBB value for the trade? More like $1500 less. The only thing that was in my price option was a 2005 Neon. I am not about to take a $6000 hit to drive a Neon.:itchy-scr

But today, I got a new line on a better job, so looks as though I will keep her.

Plus, I don't know it I could even drive a 4-banger again.

Now, if I can just get the brake lights fixed.

 

[DakotaDave]

Well we went in and talked to the salesman to return the car. He told us if we wanted to get a used vehicle we could end up backwards on our loan. He also said that we could end up cheaper if we get a Caliber, but we would only be saving $100 per month. We could also take a few things off of the loan; like the service contract which is costing us an extra $1140 total which would help us alot. We are confused on what to do...Have the Service Contract taken off and keep the Magnum, or trade it in on a SXT Caliber which is smaller; has less guts, and only save $100 (same as if we take the service contract off).

I myself want to keep the Magnum; what do you think?

 

[da BoMM]

Well we went in and talked to the salesman to return the car. He told us if we wanted to get a used vehicle we could end up backwards on our loan. He also said that we could end up cheaper if we get a Caliber, but we would only be saving $100 per month. We could also take a few things off of the loan; like the service contract which is costing us an extra $1140 total which would help us alot. We are confused on what to do...Have the Service Contract taken off and keep the Magnum, or trade it in on a SXT Caliber which is smaller; has less guts, and only save $100 (same as if we take the service contract off).

I myself want to keep the Magnum; what do you think?

Get rid of that service contract -- you have a standard warranty from DCX, don't you? My 2 cents.