My wife and I are thinking about trading in our current car for a new car sometime next year. Family circumstances have changed a bit in the last 2 years and it makes sense to change our vehicle.

I understand that we can try to sell on our own (to one of the tents, or direct to another person) or we can ask the dealership how much they would give us and use it as a trade in on a new car.

This is fairly straight forward, but since we are still making payments on the car I am not sure how this would work...

I understand that the finance company would need to "sign off" before any transfer of ownership can take place.

Does this mean that we would have to actually pay off the car with the finance company personally before we can sell or trade in the car?

-or-

Can it all be done together at the same time.... i.e. sit down at the dealership with both bank and sales person and agree upon total owed on the "old car", the trade in value, the purchase price of the new car and the downpayent and financing of the new car?

I realize that I could probably get a little bit more if I sold it on my own, but if it would be possible to just roll everything together and take care of all the buying, selling and re-financing at one time it may be worth it.

Would appreciate any information that anyone may have on how this process should work in Thailand.

Assuming you have equity in the car, the person or dealer who buys it will pay off the current loan and give you the balance of what you get for it. Most new car dealers sell the trade in vehicles to used car dealers.

On our motor, we had at one point about 500k outstanding of which say 50k was interest. They (SCB Leasing) said that if we paid it off, we would get a reduction equal to half the outstanding interest. So, in my simplified example, the settlement price would be 475k whereas continuing with repayments would cost us 500k. If you are selling, don't forget this reduction in interest.

Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely make sure to bring this point up with the Finance company.