Loan company has title

Just to be clear, Cargurus doesn't buy or sell anything. But to answer your question, when a vehicle is traded in that you still owe money on the money that you owe is added to the loan for the new vehicle. Any amount left over is your actual downpayment for the new vehicle. For example, if you get $20,000 for your trade in, $19,300 is added to the amount financed, and $700 is your actual downpayment. Your payments on the new vehicle will be much higher, unless you finance it for a longer amount of time, and you'll be paying for two vehicles. One of which you no longer have! The money you owe on the old vehicle doesn't just go away. Now if you can sell the vehicle outright, you send a check to the finance company and pay it off. They send you the title and you immediately sign the title over to the new owner. Any money that's left over is yours to keep. Hope that helps! Jim

I thought so. A private sale always beats a trade-in.