Do you owe more money on your vehicle than what it’s worth?  There’s no magic solution to the problem. If you don’t beliee me, believe Jalopnik.

If you have a vehicle that you need to get rid of and you owe less than $5000 more than what it’s worth (wholesale), you might be able to finance the negative equity into a new caar loan.  Very important:  shop only for new cars if you are going to do this, and you might have to settle for a car that is in very low demand, the kind of car that you could get $5,000 off MSRP.  Last year, I would have said the primary contender would be the Chrysler 200 (but that car is discontinued now).  I don’t know what vehicle is rotting on dealer lots now.  The Chrysler 200 wasn’t really a BAD car, it just wasn’t as good as the competition.

DON’T ROLL A NEGATIVE BALANCE ON A PREVIOUS VEHICLE INTO ANOTHER USED VEHICLE LOAN.

If your finanical situation is really bad, and you are a wage earner, you can look at a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. In a chapter 13 bankruptcy, your car loan can be written down to the actual value of the car.  Chapter 13 bankruptcies aren’t free though, so there are a lot of factors to consider. This blog post is no substitute for bankruptcy advice from a bankruptcy lawyer.