Financial literacy is fundamental, folks. The first rule of being financially secure is to not roll two vehicles worth of negative equity into a ten-percent APR finance deal on a Hummer EV for 50 grand over MSRP. Don’t do that and you’re well on your way to being better with money than the guy featured in a recent Tiktok video from user @ridewithyusuf. Yusuf is a car dealer and this call with a customer is jaw dropping and eye opening. Don’t trust a bank to give you a finance deal you can afford, you have to know exactly how a loan will affect your day-to-day before signing on the dotted line.
Anthony, the Hummer EV owner, owes $168,000 on a used Hummer EV and is looking to get out of the deal after putting 11,000 miles on the vehicle. Yusuf wants to buy the truck from Anthony, but based on current values can only swing a seemingly-generous $89,000 offer. Anthony is paying $3,300 per month to drive this inefficient electric monster, and paying a massive 10 percent rate for the privilege.
So how did it get this bad? Well, Anthony made some real bad choices. For one thing, prior to this Hummer he had financed both a “brand new” BMW X6 and a “pretty new” Chevrolet Silverado. He owed more than either of those cars were worth, so he added the money needed to pay off both cars into the finance deal from the GMC dealer when he bought his Hummer. “I bought the vehicle when the Hummer first came out, when they were marked up.” Well there’s your first mistake. He got the truck for around $150,000, put $25,000 cash down on the deal. After sinking that 25 grand into the truck, and paying at least 30 grand more in monthlies, he still owes more than he paid for the damn thing. That’s rough, buddy.
Look, for a bank to loan that much money to someone, he’s probably got a really high income and plenty in the bank, but it’s still an absolutely absurd way to just burn money for no reason. Yusuf says in the comments of the client, “He has plenty money so I’m sure he ain’t sweating it.”
So what do you do if you’re a hundred grand upside down in a truck and don’t want to keep making $3,300 monthly payments? Literally nothing. Nobody will pay off that loan without collateral, the truck isn’t worth the debt, and he can’t come up with enough cash to pay the difference. He’s stuck until the loan is paid or he declares bankruptcy.