Can I save money by selling my car for a cheaper one?

I have a ford escape now and was wondering if I should get a cheaper one. I thought that maybe it would make my payments lower? Also, if i could find one with less miles, i would think there wouldnt be as many possible problems? And finally if i can find one that is better on gas. I'm only 18 and haven't had a car very long. Asked my mom and she didn't really have a concrete answer. Just thinking about ways to save money.

If it has less miles and gets better gas mileage, the car will probably cost more. [And your payments would also be higher if you had to take out a shorter loan.] And, you might be buying someone else's troubles; so you need to assess the troubles your current car might have vs what a different car might have. {Read reviews in Consumer and Car magazines for guidelines.}

The time to pose these questions was before you bought the Ford Escape.

You can hardly get any car cheaper than ford escape. I do not know in which condition is your car but surely you stand to loose money on any exchange. Dealer would give you 3000 less for your car and car they you would take he would price at least $1000 more than it is worth. No way what you try to do will be a good deal for you. Stay with ford.

If you bought the Ford on finance
£10,000 for the car
£5,000 interest
You repay £15,000
most companies will insist on the £15,000 (Less any payments you have made) regardless of when you pay it off
So a new car on finance would start at £15,000 to pay off that loan and with the car trade in £10,000 still means a £5,000 loan to start with, Then the new car with it's interest
So no it is not a good idea
You could try contacting the finance company and see if they will extend the repayment time which would reduce the monthly payments

Andy C

Since you haven't had your car very long, it is doubtful that you can sell it or trade it in for the amount you owe on it. It is too late now to want something different and will probably take 2-3 years before you reach a break even pay off point where you can sell it.

Need more details to answer this question as in what year is the escape and how long ago you purchased it? What you can do is go to kbb.com and check the value of the vehicle and see if it is more than what you owe on it. If it is, then you could sell it and purchase what you want.

You'd take a big loss on your current car so a lower payment is unlikely unless you went down to a really cheap car which may be unreliable.