One in four trade-ins associated with a new car or truck purchase in the fourth quarter last year was 'upside down,' ...

Being upside down, if you will, leaves consumers with far less money to put toward a down payment and puts them at risk of taking on too much debt to finance the next car. Dozens of people check ...

Make no mistake, many people in these situations are trading in fairly new cars by some standards. The average age is but 3.3 years for a trade-in when consumers are upside down on their car loan.