I owe $4,924 on a 2010 Accord worth $4,000 on KBB (w/ a “Good” rating and 123,000 miles). There are minor cosmetic damages from a hit and run case that was never settled. My insurance has a $500 deductible to fix them. I want to trade it in for a new car.

Aside from cosmetics, the car burns oil like nothing I’ve ever seen before; I have to top it off every 2,200 miles. And from what I’ve read, ‘08–12 Accords have that problem. I’ve spent the past two and a half years doing all I can to fix the issue with no positive results. Additionally, the front axle's cracked and the timing belt’s dry. All these things have been around since I purchased the car from a private seller in April 2016. The symptoms just didn’t show up till it was too late.

I couldn’t care less about the cosmetics of the car. I only bring it up because I don’t know whether it would be better to have my insurance pay for it (+ my deductible), the dealership I trade it into pay for it (along with the mechanical issues), or I bring it into a shop myself to avoid having an accident report on the vehicle.

And lastly, my bank is the one who gave me the loan for the car, and they treat me pretty well. So having a dealership deduct the car’s value from what I owe, paying off my existing loan and taxing the difference on to a loan for a new car is something I’m prepared to do.

 

it may help to include more specifics about the vehicle: trim level, body-style, engine/transmission type.

does not compute.

KBB is a good guess, but you'll need to take it to a dealership to get real numbers on a trade-in. re-evaluate once you have the real numbers.

this isn't a financial advice forum and I'm not a financial adviser, but in general it's a bad idea to trade in a running, functioning vehicle you're upside down on. you're essentially rolling you're debt into the next vehicles value making it more likely to be upside down on that one when you're ready to upgrade again.

I would suggest seeking legit, professional financial advise to understand your options and pick the best one.

 

If your car has damages from a hit and run then it is not in good condition. A new car dealer doesn't normally care about mechanical as is too old to put on the lot. Will send it to auction. Will likely offer $1000 in trade. Or even $5K but then charge you full price for the new vehicle. That's their game.