“This is not a joke,” an Atlanta-based used car dealer, Yusuf Benallal, tells followers. “There is always a way to get around, never tie up yourself in bad situations like these.” The dealer spends most of his time buying and selling used luxury cars. Recently, though, he added car loan consulting to his services. Benallal takes calls from drivers hoping to escape their underwater car loans. And this one, on a used Honda CR-V, is a doozy.

Used car buyer signed up to pay $27,000 for a 2014 Honda CR-V

“Honestly, I made a deal with the devil,” the caller tells Benallal. He says that he and his wife were desperate for a car. No one would finance them. Finally, they came across a dealership in New Jersey that made something work.

However, the driver claims that the dealership gave them the runaround. While he thought he’d land at a $300-something a month payment, he’s forking over $514. The kicker: it’s all for a 2014 Honda CR-V with 170,000 miles.

The caller purchased the CR-V for $18,000. Telling Benallal he didn’t “really” understand the deal, and that the dealership “twisted” things around, the caller got saddled with a 54-month high-interest loan. We’re talking 26%. All told, he’ll pay more than $27,000. “It’s ridiculous,” he says.

Car dealer tells the driver, “You should have walked away, brother.”

Once Benallal listens to the caller’s context, he starts asking questions. Unfortunately, after gathering more information, it turns out the caller just doesn’t have his finances together.

The caller has 400-level credit, and his mom actually got the loan. It’s not even in the caller’s name. “It was literally the only offer I got.”

Here’s the thing: the caller says he has $2,000 cash now. If he had opted for a cheaper, still reliable car and had negotiated loan terms – or even refused to finance and just paid cash for an A-to-B daily, he’d be so much better off.

Unfortunately, though, the 170K-mile CR-V is only worth about $6,000 on trade. The caller still owes $16,000 on the car. “It’s just not gonna happen, man,” Benallal tells the SUV driver.

Without another several thousand dollars to pay down the CR-V, there’s virtually no chance of obtaining rollover financing on the remaining balance after the trade-in.

Even if the caller could secure a new car loan with the 2014 Honda leftovers, it’d likely be another high-interest, high-payment, long-term loan.

His best bet is to continue to pay down the CR-V loan as fast as he can and then offload it as soon as the balance hits its market value.

“Make sure on your next deal, just read the terms and conditions, please…” the car dealer advises.

While it’s tough to hear about car salesmen making these types of deals, it’s ultimately up to the driver to understand what they’re signing up for.