The Ending to Frustration Plus

[Chassol]

OK the story started here: http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/for...tion-plus.html

The person buying for the Russians - wired the money to the CU and the Subaru (21-23 MPG real mileage) is now paid for and is his. The problem was that the timing on selling it was not good. If we could have sold it 6-9 months ago we probably could have broke even on it. Thanks to the gas hikes and the press bad mouthing SUV's in general, it drove the price down to where we had to pay the Credit Union $4k over the selling price to pay it off.

In the interim (6-9 months), the CU quit financing 100% of everything and is now only doing 110% of MSRP for everything. If you have no trade and buy the smart outright the sales tax, dealer doc fees (A joke here in Florida), tag transfer, etc is over 110% and we're having to come up with a couple of hundred dollars more to finalize the purchase.

I believe the reason the CU lowered the amount they will finance is current losses increasing, BTW they had actually lowered their best rate to 4.25%, but have now RAISED their best rate to 4.75%.

This tells us they are having some serious problems and/or losses and it wouldn't surprise us that it is probably heavy in trucks and SUV's more so than cars.

Personally we think the CU has over reacted a little bit. Anyone trying to come out from under a truck or SUV and if they lower their balance quite a bit should be given a bit of a break if it's close and only a couple of hundred over their 110% to do it (in other words case to case basis).

We lowered our monthly payment by $300 a month and hopefully will, almost, double the gas mileage to the high 30's or low/mid 40's after 1-2k miles, which will lower our monthly gas costs - until gas goes to $5-6 a gallon - and don't think it isn't coming .

Bottom line is one way or the other we pick up the smart tomorrow afternoon (05/21/08).

OBTW, the CU will allow you to get gap insurance and an extended warranty through them over and above the 110% (another profit center). The CU warranty is administered by the same company that does the smart warranty and is cheaper.

If nothing goes wrong between now and tomorrow this will be a done deal.

We are looking for the smart to be a commuter vehicle only for me between home and work. We are keeping the other Subaru (it gets 22-25 MPG) as the BIG car .

Everyone keep your toes and fingers crossed, we don't need any other "bad timing" things to happen.

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by Chassol

This tells us they are having some serious problems and/or losses and it wouldn't surprise us that it is probably heavy in trucks and SUV's more so than cars.

Personally we think the CU has over reacted a little bit. Anyone trying to come out from under a truck or SUV and if they lower their balance quite a bit should be given a bit of a break if it's close and only a couple of hundred over their 110% to do it (in other words case to case basis).

I have a prediction... mortgage crisis 2008, SUV financing crisis 2010. This could get ugly.


I also have an SUV - 4.6 liter Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer, big old beast with a touch of class. My wife loves it, and isn't getting rid of her Freddy. Yes, she named it after Freddy Krueger and put skulls on the license plate holders. She's strange like that. The 10mpg beast will haul friends, family, whatever ... it did a great job hauling Tom Savini's severed heads and other props when he visited last year.

And, the 10mpg beast has now lost enough resale value that it's not worth selling. KBB lists it for about $10k... we paid $17k two years ago and that was a steal. Now we know why.