Well they take what the car is worth versus what you owe. In my case I owed more than my minivan was worth. Then they include your car into your chapter 13 bankruptcy so that you are just making one payment. In my case my bankruptcy payment was MUCH less than my car payment and our liabilites were over 240,000 due to medical bills. As far as being able to sell the car....you can trade the car in for another one but it has to be approved by the trustee handling your BK case and you must show a reason why you need another car....like the engine is going out etc and then you have to tell them how much you want to spend on another car and then they will decide to approve you to buy another one. Without a release from your trustee the car dealership wont approve you. Hope this helps. Linda (discharged from a 5 yr CH 13 - 1 1/2 yrs early (yeah!!!)