Mom is no longer able to drive but has 2 yrs. left on her car loan. What are the ramifications to voluntary repossession?

Maybe talk to a car dealership that has used cars. You might get more for the car than is owed and can then pay off the loan.

Try taking to car max and see what they will by it for. If enough to pay the loan. Go that route. My son when he inherited his grandfathers van. He took the one he had a loan on to carmax. They bought it and he walked out with extra money in his pocket above the payoff loan.

Why can't you sell the car? Surely you can get at least what she owes on it, if not more!

I took my moms car, put a for sale sign in the window and parked it in the back of a Sam's club parking lot near the Sam's gas station. Do you have any idea how much traffic goes in and out of a Sam's club gas station? You can't buy that kind of advertising! It sold within a week.

Look up the blue book value of the car. Get a for sale sign at the dollar store. Write some details on the sign....mileage, year, make and model, price and your phone number. I think you'll be surprised how quickly you can move it.

There are also car places that buy used cars. You go onto their website, type in the details of the car and it will tell you what they are willing to pay.

Lots of options...but the last thing I would do is let it go back to the bank.
Good Luck!

Sell it.

Do NOT allow them to repossess.

I just looked this up on-line. Verbatim, for Washington state, I found: "Even if you return the car voluntarily, you still are responsible for paying any outstanding debt on the loan, as well as the lender's cost of the repo, and your creditor still may enter the late payments or repossession on your credit report."

I would find someone to buy it for at least what is owed. Check around. You might find a local lot that will sell it for her on consignment.

Get value of car. Used cars are in high demand right now. Sell it. A repo would be of minimal consequences to her though. You may make a good profit by selling.

Kendra21: I did see your update wherein you stated that you were able to get a friend's help. That is good. Maybe you could use a auto detailing service to rid the nicotene odor.

Please do not do anything that will "ruin" her credit rating.

Why would she need her credit rating? Because credit rating is used as an objective measure to assess financial trustworthiness.

For instance, at the age of 95, my Mom got a Costco credit card so that she could charge her glasses and prescriptions to the credit card instead of paying with cash. She doesn't have any other VISA credit card. The real reason she got a Costco credit card was so that she could have the one extra year of technical support on her TV, therefore giving her 4 years of warranty instead of 3 (Costco was running a promotion.)

Even though she didn't drive, she still used a credit card for restaurants, travel, groceries, cataract surgery (Medicare does not cover cataract surgery or hearing aids), etc. I don't feel comfortable carrying around cash and most places don't take a check anymore. Some places won't even take cash (e.g. airplanes).

When she moved into the MC unit (private pay), they ran a credit check on her before they would let her in. They wanted to ensure they were going to get paid each month and doing a credit check is one of the easiest and quickest methods to ensure someone is financially trustworthy.

Without the credit worthiness, she probably will be okay. However, doing things that involve financial obligation will just take longer and be more complicated. Worse, someone might require that you put your name down to secure the bill if they are concerned that she might not be able to pay the bill.

If the car is the collateral for the car loan, I would talk to the bank about selling the car. You would need to anyway since they have the title to the car. If she has the physical title to the car, then the loan for the car is secured in a different manner.

Many posters advised selling the car. But if the car has a loan, which means the bank has the title, how would the questioner sell the car without a clean title? I am curious …

Find out how much the car is worth. If more than outstanding balance, sell it and let her use the equity money towards her care. You avoid any credit issue.

At her age and decline, it's doubtful she will need credit again in her life for any purchase. So if value of car is same as outstanding balance, let it go.

You do need to find out how an unpaid loan works in your state in regard to probate later on.

Cars that were bought new, still low mileage and still within their warranty - with the exception of Kia & Hundai’s, as those can get stolen in a heartbeat- should be able to be sold for over the balance of the outstanding loan. There still is a bit of a shortage of new cars on the market. It is not nowhere what is was a year ago…. That was absolutely crazy value on used cars. But it’s still good market for “new” used cars. The issue to me will be that this will be impossible for your mom to do at all as she has dementia and unless you have full financial POA ability and you have the time and savvy ability to deal with selling a car it runs too too much risk. I’d look into her doing a “voluntary surrender”, it’s different than a repo. It’s less bad on her credit.

Call whomever holds the loan to see what they need to have in front of them for you to start to talk with them on your moms behalf. If it’s the manufacturer’s lending group that is holding the loan, like what NMAC is for Nissan, they are going to need everybody in this dramas IDs and legal authority paperwork. I bought out my expiring lease last year at the height of the used car high $$$ value, in theory that is never supposed to be a good deal but it was a great deal, was some kinda crazy to get through though!

With getting rid of her car, that will free you up from paying anything for her expenses going forward. You are not the proper solution to her monetary issues. If she is still OK to live in independent living, I would look into getting her into a sliding scale rent elderly apartment. My MIL lived in one for quite a while and they figure out how much the renter can afford for rent after normal expenses. If she has no money besides her social security, then when her dementia gets bad enough, her only option will be to go into a nursing home.

Sorry for your mom's decline. My mom also has dementia and after living with me for 7 years (not recommended) she is in AL. When her money runs out she will have to go into a medicaid accepting SNF.

I tried to skim through but may have missed this information. Are you outside of the area where you are unable to handle the car directly and unload it? Is it worth less than what is owed? Are you just overwhelmed and let come what may it's going? I know that this stuff can be so overwhelming when it all comes at once. I for one cannot see where mom's credit needs to be a concern unless you think she would need to have a credit check to get her into a facility.

Contact the auto insurance company and tell them the car is not being driven. They can reduce the car insurance cost while you are waiting to sell. We did this when my M-I-L stopped driving but was not yet ready to sell the car.

I sold our second carcwhen my husband could no longer drive to the local dealer at a profit.

Sale the darn car for what is owed and maybe more. Dont donrepo if you can, maybe you can make a little money for her.

I would think it might be helpful if you posted year of vehicle and mileage. There certainly seem to be many here who understand the market of used cars but have limited information from you on those specifics. I know those factors come into play on resale value unless I missed that info.

I work in the auto industry. There is still a shortage of microchips used in vehicle manufacturing, which is why used vehicles are retaining more value at this point (not enough new stock availability). If the car is in good condition, it will likely be quite easy to sell it. You need to figure out the proper way to deal with the loan - I don't know what actions are needed to resolve that.

It sounds like you are wanting the Simplest Route to being rid of the car without damaging your mother's credit in case it would negatively impact her care needs. I don't read any answers to that question in these other comments, so far. Perhaps you could speak to a loan officer at your bank for this advice. These other suggestions are great but require you to invest time and effort and money you may not want to do at this point. Letting the bank/finance company take the car back may not be a bad solution to simplify the situation. You could pose this question to 'money guru' Clark Howard, great website, who will answer directly or have his team answer you. Good luck. I know having one less 'thing' when dealing with the decline of a loved one can be a big relief.

The car needs to be thoroughly cleaned inside (new cabin filter, carpets and upholstery washed) to get the smoke smell out.

No "bomb" will remove the smell permanently.

Sell the car for what you and pay any difference to pay it off.

Kendra has updated concerning the car.

Sell the car. Plenty of people are looking for good second-hand cars.

OP, the car we bought my son way back when was owned by one man and had $107k miles on it. He had died and his widow was selling it. It was his back and forth to work car, and he smoked the entire 45 minute ride there and back.

It was a good car for a great price so we bought it and the smell was included lol. We bought a couple of ozone cleaners from Amazon (people are sort of off ozone now so google). You turn the car on, set it off like a roach bomb, close all the doors and windows and let the car run with the ac on for about 15 minutes. Then you air the car out.

IIRC, we had to do 3 or 4 of them over as many days before we put a dent in it. I also bought charcoal sacks to keep in the car for a while.

So in other words, we bought it with the smoke smell knowing we would work on getting the smell out. I think it is probably ok to mention this in an ad so the buyer knows. This is all if you don’t want to be bothered with trying to get the smell out, which for us took a while after we bought it.

Carvana would be easier I’m sure but selling it outright in an old fashioned way would probably get you the most money for a small risk (cashier’s check, verify etc.)

Sell the car.See a bankruptcy lawyer then.

Chances are the car is in excellent condition and has low mileage. It's probably worth a lot more than you think!

Lots of people have recommended Carvana, but there are other car-buying companies. (Carmax.com and wepaythemax.com are two examples, not endorsements.) Make sure you shop around to get the best deal. When they ask you why you are selling the car, don't give them a sob story, they will take even more advantage of you.

For car odor place a bowl of vinegar in car overnight. Smell should be gone.

First, hug your mom for deciding on her own to stop driving. Bravo!

Second, get a loan of your own to pay off her car, and then resell it at a higher price. You might make a profit. Since your mom still has a loan, you can’t sell her car without the title.

Third, hug your mom again.

Was able to get a friends help. Caravana says $16k. Just need to find someone good to get that cigarette smell out of the interior then I think there might be a chance of making a few k. Once the car and car insurance is gone she will have about $600 a month for savings. Hoping to be able to sell for a few k to relieve some stress. Fingers crossed. thanks everybody for all of your advice!!

Research car value.
Sell car.
Pay out loan.