What would happen to me if I decide to have my car voluntarily repossesed?

I realize it will hurt my credit pretty bad, despite being voluntary. I'm aware that there's no difference between voluntary and involuntary in the eyes of the credit agencies. Can the finance company sue me? Can they garnish my wages? I just can't stomach paying $800 a month between a car payment, insurance, and FUEL for a car that's not that nice ('03 Mazda Protege). I think I'm just gonna buy a scooter.

Good point, mega-mom. I'm in the state of Tennessee, city of Memphis which, ironically, is the bankruptcy capital of the country...half of our city council members have horrid credit and a history of bankruptcy...I would therefore imagine that debt collection practices are pretty lenient to the consumer here.

Well it would depend on the debt laws of your state. they can sue you in almost every state. BUt enforcing the judgment is where the state laws usually come into play. for example in Texas they can sue you but they have a difficult time gettin money because they cant garnish your wages, and they cant lien on your house.
look up the state debt collections act
you could also look into the fair debts collection practices act, it is a federal act telling you what is and is not legal for creditors to do to try to collect your debts.
this information is something that everyone should know anyhow!
Good luck

Yikes! That's a big payment. If they won't refinance and lower your payment, and you do decide to turn it in, they'll sell the car, and charge you the difference between what was owed and the sale price. This can also be negotiated down; they'd rather get some money than no money. You just have to be persistant.

My brother voluntarily let his car go back. It didn't hurt him much until he got ready to buy his house. They wanted nearly $3000 paid off on the repossesion before he could buy the house.