Need emergency loan to repair car with bad credit - Is this impossible?

[jg1983]

First i will tell you about the car then I will tell you about my credit situation. Back in December I purchased a 2009 Chrysler 300 for $15000 with 30k  miles on it. Unfortunately I had no credit score so the only loan I could get was through Wells Fargo Dealer Services wit a 16% interest rate for 60 months. I had hoped to eventually refinance when my credit is better but that is a subject for another time. Anyways I had a knocking noise coming from my engine a few weeks ago and the dealership came and picked up the car to diagnose it. I have no warranty by the way. Wells Fargo refused to allow me to put one on my loan and I couldn't afford the upfront cost. Finally today the dealership let me know the engine has an internal failure and needs to be replaced. They quoted me $6500 for parts and labor. At this point I am going to be upside down on the car no matter what I do but I think I can have the work done for $3000-$4000 somewhere else. I will be talking to the manager at the dealership tomorrow to see if they will take on some of the cost considering the low miles on the car and the short period of time I have had it. I am not holding my breath though.

My problem right now is I have no savings so i can't pay for the repairs upfront. I need to get a loan which may prove impossible with my credit. I checked my Experian FICO score last night  and it is 523. I don't have FICO scores for the other agencies but I do have Credit Karma scores for them. My TransUnion is 515 and my Equifax is 471. I have some negatives on my credit. The biggest one is a credit card I spent $58 on with a $300 limit. I created another post on these forums about this issue. I am in th process of writing dispute letters for this account. It is reported as "paid" and "closed with a $0 balance. The only problem is they are still reporting it 120 days late. Other than that I have my car loan with one 30 day late reported in June which I am in the process of writing a goodwill letter for as it was a result of a misunderstanding. The only other thing I have is a $100 cable bill in collections for a couple years which I am also working on. There is nothing else positive or negative on my credit report.

Is my situation hopeless? I know this is really a long shot but do you think if I explain the situation to Wells Fargo they might add the repair costs to my loan? The only other option I can think of would destroy my credit for a long time and would be a very last resort but what would happen if I simply tell the bank to come get the car and stop paying on it? I am open to any advice at this point. I feel like I am in a no win situation.

[bourgogne]

OP, I am very sorry for the pickle you are in.  forget karma, if you want real scores use check credit total and a $ 1 trial will tell you where you stand.  I think WF is your only solution, they need to extend more $ to you so you can get the repair done.  what exactly is the issue?  don't even think about walking away on this, the one and only rule of credit is never be late or miss a payment.  get your scores and report back.  where do you live btw?

[sarge12]

jg1983...There would be a problem with allowing repo on vehicle. WF could get a judgement against you for the defecit. How much other debt do you have? Bk may be an option, because that would prevent a defecit judgement.  Edit...just reread your post, and doubt you have enough debt for Bk...I hope someone on here has better answers for you, as I am failing to come up with good advice.

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

[sarge12]

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

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Did you miss that it was a 2009 model?

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

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Did you miss that it was a 2009 model?

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No. I didn't. My car has a 10/100k, or were you referring to something else?

[jg1983]

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@bourgogne wrote:

OP, I am very sorry for the pickle you are in.  forget karma, if you want real scores use check credit total and a $ 1 trial will tell you where you stand.  I think WF is your only solution, they need to extend more $ to you so you can get the repair done.  what exactly is the issue?  don't even think about walking away on this, the one and only rule of credit is never be late or miss a payment.  get your scores and report back.  where do you live btw?

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I know Credit Karma scores aren't very accurate but it's better than nothing. I did a $1 trial to get my Experian FICO and I'm in the process of opening a DCU checking account to get my Equifax FICO.What do you think my chances are of getting WF to add on to my loan for repairs? I was not aware this was something lenders would actually consider doing for a car loan but I was going to try as a last resort. It would be in their best interest because otherwise they risk being left with a car that doesn't run. Although I thought it would be in their best interest to let me add a warranty on my loan but they refused. I wonder if I can still refinance down the road if WF adds onto my loan for repairs.

The issue as far as I can tell is I spun a rod bering. Hopefully I will get more answers tomorrow from the dealership as far as how bad the damage is but they told me I need a new engine. The manager at the dealership is supposed to call me tomorrow and hopefully he cares about their reputation and can at least help with some of the repair costs.If he refuses I will file complaints with the DOT and BBB and move on to other options for repair. They want $6500 for a new engine installed with a 3 year/100k mile warranty. I have been doing some looking and I can get a remanufactured engine for around $2500 with a 5 year/unlimited mile warranty plus whatever the install costs are (thought about installing it myself but the conditions of any loan I  might get may make that impossible).

I live in Wisconsin. I really don't want to ruin my credit by walking away from the car because I have a family now and I want to buy a house and maybe a car for my wife in the future. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. My wife and step son are in the process of immigrating to the US which is not cheap. They are a few months away from having visas and the only thing holding things up is I need a couple thousand dollars for fees and eventually plane tickets. That alone is not a problem as I earn enough at my job but this situation with my car could mess things up. Screwing up my credit is the last thing I want to do but at the end of the day worst case if it comes down to it my family comes first.

[sarge12]

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

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Did you miss that it was a 2009 model?

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No. I didn't. My car has a 10/100k, or were you referring to something else?

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I just did not believe lemon laws covered a vehicle that old, and thought you may have missed seeing that...I should probably just shut up, as I unfortunately can not think of anything helpful...which is frustrating. I wonder if someone might have tinkered with the odometer...engine failure with that low a mileage is ridiculous, and who drives a vehicle 5000 miles per year...sounds very fishy.

[jg1983]

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

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I certainly did keep up on maintenance. Had an oil change every 3000 miles (even though Chrysler recommends every 6000 miles). Two things that are concern me. The first thing is if you google the engine I have my issue is common at low miles even. Some people think the oil passages are too small on the engine. The second thing is I looked at the carfax report. The first owner kept up with oil changes then at 13k miles the second owner bought it and there was only 1 oil change record from 13k to 29k miles.  As far as lemon laws go that is a dead end. I spent all morning today calling lawyers and all of them said they couldn't help me if I don't have a warranty.

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Burned2manybridgesB4 wrote:

Guessing the factory warranty is long dead.

Ten months to failure from purchase is fishy. Question is, "did you keep up on maintenance of the vehicle?" If so, lemon law research for your state.... Only thing that shoud fail at 30k is the windshield wipers wearing out, and some brake pad wear.

When it comes down to it, do you want to dump money into a hole? 

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Did you miss that it was a 2009 model?

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No. I didn't. My car has a 10/100k, or were you referring to something else?

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I just did not believe lemon laws covered a vehicle that old, and thought you may have missed seeing that...I should probably just shut up, as I unfortunately can not think of anything helpful...which is frustrating. I wonder if someone might have tinkered with the odometer...engine failure with that low a mileage is ridiculous, and who drives a vehicle 5000 miles per year...sounds very fishy.

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For the majority, LLaws don't usually cover used, but there are exceptions. As far as OP's dilemma of a warranty, had they been the original owner without any transfers then a 7/77k factory warranty would've been in play. Yeah, it's very wrong to fail at 30k, unless the original owner never changed the oil, and used it as a short distance driver (old lady's car). Nothing worse to destroy an engine than drive a mile or two on a daily basis, or less.