I have seen several threads saying that it might not be good financial strategy to take an F150 to the end of the lease term. I leased a loaded F150 Lariat Supercrew in May 2023 and it’s finished in May 2026. I didn’t pay any money down at the time and the payment is $903/month. Here are the details:
I could be a dumb dumb here but what is your buyout amount from Ford Financial? I mean a $900 monthly lease payment on a F150 doesn’t sound like a positive equity buyout…
I’m not exactly sure. I know that the residual amount at the end of the loan is $49,500. I’d assume that if I exited now, I’d probably owe either that or the truck plus the balance of the payments between now and May 2026
I don’t think Ford allows third party buyouts within a certain amount of days before lease expiration. So, if you take it to term, you will need to pay sales tax etc. Rules might be different if it is the originating dealer?? But then it hurts your ability to maximize trade in value and shop it around. This may have all changed since the last time I leased a Ford, but that is what I remember anyways. Worth looking into so you can understand what your options are.
The MMR today is between $46K and $48K, depending on the engine, so it sounds like your best move is to just return it at lease end, very unlikely you will have any positive equity in May 2026.
If MMR at the time of maturity is still upwards of 48k buying it out to keep it could be a decent alternative (given the low mileage, knowing the history of the car and etc).
Hi Max - I agree with you 100%. I was completely uninformed when I got this current lease. I’ve just always been a “Ford Truck Man”, which is dumb. One of the things that I’ve learned from everyone on LeaseHackr is not to get dialed in to any one specific vehicle. I’m going to develop a list of 4-5 options that might be cool and start researching them. But ultimately stay open and flexible to see what types of deals I can get when the time comes.
I’m probably the worst lease hacker here. Had a great deal on a Tundra Platinum, which is about the same level as the F150 Lariat, for $700/mo with tax. Great, right? $200 less than your deal.
Not great! My wife and I both hated the Tundra after a month or so - once the new truck excitement wore off. We test drove before buying and liked how it drove and the interior was nice. What we didn’t find out until we drove it every day for a month was a lot of gotchas that made it frustrating for us. Dumb things like the worst cup holders - literally any cup will either flop around when you drive or be too tight to fit. F150 cup holder? I can put almost any cup in there and not think about it.
Multiple users/drivers on the Tundra? Forget it! You can only have one person on the app for doing remote starts, etc. In truck you can have another ‘profile’, but it doesn’t work. We spent hours trying to get it to switch between users and never got it working. Ford? Takes a minute or two per person/key and it just works seamlessly.
Piped in truck noise? If you don’t love it, gotta code it out.
Sucky gas mileage? Yup
Etc.
A lot of complaints are things that many people might not notice or are not accustomed to in a vehicle. However, if you’re used to a Lariat F150 you might be frustrated. I didn’t check out GMC or Dodge(would never consider anyway). Nissan trucks are… well, Nissan trucks. Rivian? Guess you can hack those? Cybertruck? Hummer?
At the end of the day, it’s a truck. I’m guessing you buy trucks for a reason other than it’s ‘cool’, right? Definitely spend the time researching and driving. It might cost you more to hack the best lease and be sorry later than to just get exactly what you want the first time.
If you like your Lariat why not just buy it out? If you want a fresh new one, keep in mind that they dropped features (like leather) from the Lariat. I picked up a 2025 F150 and had to bump up to a Platinum this time. Your ‘23 Lariat isn’t really missing any new features and will be a lot cheaper than something new. And still under warranty.
Thanks for taking the time to give such a fantatic answer to this post. You’ve hit on a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about. I have been buying F150 trucks since the middle 90s, so you can definitely say that I enjoy them. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Tundra as an alternative but like you I think they are really kind of ugly. I know there’s a lot more to a truck but I have to like the way it looks.
Ford has some great things going for it. The aesthetics are good, the electronics work really well, and the drive is pretty good. My biggest problem is that for the price, there is just NOTHING (to me) that justifies the premium price that I pay for it. I have no problems affording it, there is just nothing about it that makes me feel like I’m getting the value. The internal screen is smaller than the competition, the fit and finish issues are irritating - there is always some part coming off, a squeak in the dash or with the A/C fans (drives me crazy!), and weather stripping coming apart.
I’m at the point that if Ford doesn’t do something that inspires me, I’ll take the payment that I’m giving them to lease and going elsewhere. I’m not sure exactly what that new thing would be but if I’m not choosy, I can sit back and let Leasehackr deliver me a deal that I can’t refuse.
I think the most exciting thing right now is that I have no idea what kind of deals will be available next May. Can’t wait to see what happens!
