I think the damage has been done, unless you want to fork out alot of money to get the truck back. I'd say just suck it up and drive the car and enjoy the fuel savings for a couple of years and wait until the new F150 model comes out (hopefully in 2013).

 

I just bought a new 2011 and Love it! But at 100 miles a day for work. I have a Toyota corolla for that. And then I have the truck to play in on the weekends! So did you get the 49mpg that they adverstised.

 

Good luck, Brandon, but I think once you find out what you will lose in the trade transaction and if you seriously crunch the numbers for what the fuel cost difference will be each year you commute in the truck vs the VW, you may have a hard time justifying getting back into the truck. Especially if the truck is going to be your only vehicle. It sounds like you don't really need the truck but rather want it as a "hobby", given you already got rid of it for the car. You will probably lose a few grand making the trade back, and a couple grand each year in fuel...don't you have something you could use that money for, like saving for retirement, etc?

I have owned a full size truck or van continuously since 1978, but in recent years, my van sits a lot of the time while I drive an economical car on trips where I do not need the interior room.

And I have also bought and sold a LOT of vehicles over the years, including some that I dumped in a very short time when I found out I had made the wrong choice. The difference is that I bought them USED, and generally got out without any financial loss or even made a few bucks. In your situation, you are simply gonna get hosed by the dealers, who are in the business of making money on every transaction. They have to, in order to pay their employees and keep their lights on.

Good luck,
George

 

Brandon, I wouldn't worry about trying to get your truck back. I see you have about decided on a new one, and that is exactly what I would do. But, I would wait it out a few months before I jumped in. Let the water settle a little before making any decision. You are not going to lose much by driving the car for a little while. Find the truck you want at the price you want.

Sometimes making two rash decisions don't cancel each other out.

 

Brandon you might want to wait for Memorial Day weekend before you get another truck. Last year Ford had really great deals in my area. Historically its one of the biggest weekends to purchase a new vehicle, and its the end of the month (a very good thing!). There might be some good rebates and factory incentives available. If your going to have some negative equity on your trade a good rebate package makes it less painful and Ford Motor Credit might still offer you a low APR depending on your beacon.

Don't fall in love with the first beautiful truck you test drive. Use the whole weekend to search and don't hesitate to walk out because you have a better deal elsewhere. Ask to speak to the GM if you must. He wants to shrink his inventory that weekend more than anyone else. I've had several push-a-unit deals. That means i was not a profit just a unit out the door!The dealership still gets factory kickbacks so it not a wash for them to just move a unit. If my salesman and detailer do a good job i don't hesitate to give them a good tip.

Btw if you have AAA see if they will do an X-plan for you my dealer did it twice for me.

 

Hey Brandon, we all live and learn. If you want the truck and can afford the financial hit, then get the truck and be happy. Sometimes our decisions bite is in the but, but life goes on.

 

This can be a painful lesson! I traded a six month old BMW for my 2010 Platinum a year and a half ago and although it really hurt the bank account I am happy I did! I am sort of the opposite side of your story, as i drove cars (mostly) and the idea of the truck was a bit of a stretch for me. My wife actually hated the idea of the truck so I bought another car (she actually really hated the BMW! Said it was a bankers car.) and it so happened that the car I bought was showing all the signs of becoming a lemon. I became frusterated with the "issues" and decided I'd just tradr away on the truck.
Wow,am I glad I did! This truck is hands down the best vehicle I have ever owned, 35000 miles and 18 months later I am hooked! Two trips to Florida, lots of miles in New England, one set of tires and oil changes every 5000 miles and this truck is virtually faultless. I am sooooo converted!
Best thing is that my wife actually loves the truck. She says that it is too big for her own daily use but she loves riding in it and she even loves driving it occasionally. I am very happy I made the decision to trade in spite of the loss on the BMW.
Rifboy

 

Yes this is a very real possibility. Drive the car, pay it off, buy the next gen f150 whenever it comes out.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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UPDATE: So I went to VW today. The #'s they showed me were strange... in order to make it work for the bank they had to write it up as follows: Buy my Golf back for 29,700 (3k over sticker) and sell my truck to me for 27,700 (that was the sticker and they gave me 22,000 for it). AND the only bank that would do this deal wanted 6,000 down. As usual they weren't coming out upfront and telling me what the total was that I would be financing... and I didn't ask. Dealerships always tell you what your payment will be but not how much you're financing, so I always have to pry and crunch the #'s to figure it out. ("Oh you want to be at $500 a month? Ok here let me change that 60 months to 72 and bam there you go lets write it up!") But I digress. SO apparently there's another guy who will be working in the morning who has been doing this for years and years and may know of a bank that will do better for me, so they said they will ask him tomorrow morning as a final effort... we'll see.<o></o>
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And as many of you have guessed after the VW dealership I drove directly accross the street to the Ford dealership. I think the # for my trade in was $21,000 or so, which is low (sticker was $26,500). They were asking $28,500 for the ecoboost that I test drove (and loved <?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /><v:shapetype id=_x0000_t75 stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" oreferrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><vath o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f"></vath><o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></o:lock></v:shapetype><v:shape style="WIDTH: 19.5pt; HEIGHT: 21pt; VISIBILITY: visible; mso-wrap-style: square" id=Picture_x0020_1 type="#_x0000_t75" alt="0" o:spid="_x0000_i1026"><v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\BRANDO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01 \clip_image001.gif" o:title="0"></v:imagedata></v:shape>) (XLT Screw 4x2 4.2" productivity screen...) I thought that was a pretty decent price considering the sticker is $35,500. They got me at a payment of $680 for 72 months.<o></o>
Meh whatever, I told them I would sleep on it. These guys are cool I must say, they weren't TOO pushy, very little actually (Mac Haik Ford Georgetown TX).<o></o>
Also, I test drove a 3.7 SCab 3.75 XLT tonight. I thought it did OK considering it's a 6 trying to push a truck... I've seen larger motors in trailblazers <v:shape style="WIDTH: 11.25pt; HEIGHT: 11.25pt; VISIBILITY: visible; mso-wrap-style: square" id=Picture_x0020_2 type="#_x0000_t75" alt="0" o:spid="_x0000_i1025"><v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\BRANDO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01 \clip_image002.gif" o:title="0"></v:imagedata></v:shape>! The 3.7 might have 305hp but it's at 6500 rpm! and the torque is seriously lacking. But this motor, like all other motors has a purpose and I'm not knocking it. I'm mostly just pointing out the FordMoCo's advertisement glitches. They love to say "the 4.6 only produced 290 hp, this 6 produces 305" and blah blah blah... <o></o>
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Guys I seriously gotta say thanks. Your comments are great and it's a lot of fun to get to talk to other like minded people! <o></o>
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But don't be surprised if you see a picture of a new ecoboost over this weekend on here...<o></o>

 

$680 a month for 72 months seems awfully high. Were you upside down in the truck that you traded?

This is what I would do.

Figure out what my payoff on the VW is as of right now. Nothing you can do about it if some of the truck was financed in with it. It's set in stone, so you should be able to come up with that number pretty easily.

Don't talk to the finance people yet. Find out what they are going to give you on trade, as if this were a cash deal, or you have your own financing. Don't tell them what you owe. Since they already probably know, act as if you are going to pay off the difference. If they are going give you $21k, fine. Don't let them monkey with numbers. If you owe more than they are giving you, find a way to pay off the difference. Don't let them add it back in with the new truck, and still have to come up with a large down payment. This is how dealers screw people everyday. If you don't believe that is what they are doing, be aware that financing $40,000 for 72 months at 7% would be about $680 a month. Do you owe $31k on the VW, $10k over what they are offering on trade? And if they require any cash down, they would be taking you even that much more.

Just my opinion, but slow down and get your numbers in order. Don't make a 8-10k mistake.

 

I tried to do the same thing a long time ago, traded my full size Bronco in on a Ranger to get the gas miles. Worse mistake I ever made. I ended up keeping the Ranger for a while so I would "learn the hard way".

Good luck to you, hope it works out.

 

Another option if you had some cash Brandon would be to try and sell the VW to a place like Carmax or some other used car superstore. The point is to get from under the vdub and buy the truck with a clean sheet of paper.

The F-150's are still hot selling trucks right now even with gas as high as it is. This isn't going to be easy no matter how you slice it.

Do you have total loss coverage, (gap insurance) on the VW? Cars roll into lakes and rivers all the time.

 

HMMMMMMM...is some unnamed person here advocating insurance fraud???

There is NO WAY that the OP isn't going to get financially hurt in this deal. It was his mistake in the first place...dealerships will try to trade him out of it...but...it's going to cost!!! Dealerships are not...I repeat NOT...charitable organizations. They have bills to pay also!!!

 

Well I could get into an ecoboost for the exact same payment... with just an extra year of payment. I sat with the sales manager today and pulled out my VW paperwork and realized that if I did the deal I'd be throwing away another 6k... so I told him I was walking away. and I did.
This completely sucks. I don't see any up side to it. But I have to start moving in the right direction at some point. And I feel like a few years from now when I'm towards the end of the VW payment I will be glad that I keep it.
As SteveVFX4 mentioned this will put me right in line for the next gen F150.

OldGrayMare are you happy with your decision to keep the ranger or do you think it
would have been worth it to go back to a Bronco (or whatever you wanted)? I mean in the long run I'm still making a payment every month.....

 

Just see how it works out for a little while. You never know, you might like the VW more than you think you do. I've second guessed auto purchases a number of times. But it always turned out for the best. You just have to give it more than a couple of weeks to find out. It certainly isn't going to cost you anything to see. And, if it turns out that you hate it, it will make that new truck seem that much better

 

Never an advocate of breaking the law, just making a funny.

Personally, if the payments are the same but for one more year, I think it's a pretty good deal.