I bought the car 1/05/2002 for 12,995 with zero down and it had 28K miles on it. Yes I have put a good amount of miles on it since then...but even with 78K miles on it, I think its worth more than $7,000-8000....all the problems it currently has is what hurts the resale value the most.
Cars are a losing proposition anyways...but I am really stuck with this one for a long time, which isn't totally a bad thing. Hopefully I can refinance my loan in a few years, because the montly payments suck!
Sounds to me like you bought more than you can afford. I'm a strong believer in the "car buying rule" proposed by a radio talk show financial/legal advisor guy named Bruce Williams (don't know if he is still active these days). Bruce's rule for car buying was "If you can't pay off the car in 3 years, you do not have the income to afford it". Looks like you bought at least a 48 month contract? And your putting 50K miles per year on the car? If the high miles are largely work related, that's one thing, but if you are just joy riding, you are wearing the car out faster than you can afford to pay for it.
It looks like you should review your lifestyle expenditures here. At least this is my impression based on limited information within this thread.
Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT
