Related Keywords: autos . car loans . Chapter 13 . cramdown . secured debt .
The 2005 bankruptcy amendments added a "hanging paragraph" (that is, doesn't have a separate subsection like all paragraphs should) to section 1325(a) that says that you cannot cramdown an purchase-money auto loan that was obtained less than 910 days
The question is whether when a debtor turns in a car for a trade in, whether the part of the new car loan that is meant to pay off the balance on an old car loan in included in the amount that is by the no-cramdown protection of 1325(a)
It is neither "all or part of the price" of a new car nor is it "value given to enable the debtor to acquire rights in or the use of" a new car
The issues argued in these cases are whether the hanging paragraph allows a debtor to surrender a 910 vehicle in full satisfaction of his debt. If not, then, "the remaining debt must be treated as an unsecured claim in the Chapter 13 plan. Although the debt "need not be paid in full, any more than [the debtors] other unsecured debts, [] it [cannot] be written off in toto while other unsecured creditors are paid some fraction of their entitlements." In re Miller
So-called "910 loans" (Section 1325(a)) apply only to vehicles purchased for "personal use"