hzuiel

On a brand new car I would agree with the 20% and 48 months, when I do the math that seems to stay safely ahead of the depreciation of the vehicle, but considering the car had already dropped so much within a year of it's original purchase I figured it had taken the steepest chunk of it's depreciation already. Somebody bought it, for no less than probably $30,500 less than a year before i bought it for probably about 22750 before sales tax. I thought close to 8,000 dollars worth of depreciation was enough to stay ahead of the curve. Also I didn't really get a chance to plan or save any money up, someone plowed into my car from behind and totaled it, so I was rushing to find something with only 2000 dollars leftover after paying off the loan on my last car and at the same time was lured in by the fusion's dashing good looks. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but as I said the fusion also seems to be depreciating faster than other vehicles in it's price range and class even.

It seems more aggressive for the fusion in particular though, if you price out something comparable like a v6 camry of the same year and mileage with similar trim it's worth significantly more, about 2,000 dollars more. Of course I can just keep paying on it, but that feels wildly restrictive on my life for quite a few years. If say my wife gets pregnant and I decide i need a van and not a car or something, I am like 3 grand upside down so I'll lose money on the trade and have to finance the other car for thousands more than it's worth, making the situation worse. If I lose my job and need to get a cheaper car, or just get rid of the car payment, i can't. The car probably won't be worth what i owe until some time in 2020 at this rate.

I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this about the fusion specifically, and I'm curious about real world trade in or private party sale experiences, but since buying my fusion it has absolutely plummeted in value on sites like kbb and nada. I purchased the vehicle used at the end of 2015, 2015 model, approximately 1 year old with 5500 miles. It is a 2015 titanium model with extra options that bring the sticker price up to about $33,000. I haggled with the dealership, and even had a coworker of my father's that used to work at the dealership in question, call and try to get them down on price. They waived all fees except for the $875 for the certified ford vehicle program which includes an extension of the bumper to bumper and drive train warranties of 10,000 miles each. Including sales tax I paid about $24,000, and put $2000 down. I believe the financed amount was $22,230 for 66 months at 1.9% interest. I'm paying $365 dollars per month. Considering the price i got the vehicle at, I thought that was an aggressive enough payment to stay out of being upside down on the loan. I checked a few months later and was shocked to find the value had fallen to well below the remaining balance on the loan. I've kept checking periodically thinking that maybe the freefall in value will stop at some point, but it hasn't. It's a 2015 model and it is 2017, with the car's tradein value being listed on kbb at around 13500-14500, private party barely above that. Only 35,000 miles on it, and a little over 2 years old or so and it has lost like 40% of it's value just from when i bought it, and over half total. This seems like insanity to me, does it ever plateau at some point?