I am sorta confused about what to do and I was hoping for some advice from this forum as you all have been great.
Went in today to lease another Audi which had lease payments of $400 a month. I told them my car has some bumper rash, but nothing that unusual for a city car (the dealership is in a major city). They inspect my leased car and tell me the car itself is loser by about $3k and they aren’t comfortable not alloting for damage. They want to “ground” the car whatever that means.
They tell me if I want them to take the car, they would have to raise the lease to $465 a month (on a 39 month lease). They were really pushing for me to just sign for the new car and have the car inspected by Audi on my own after the transaction. (I can’t and don’t want 2 cars overlapping)
I told them if I signed a new car and then got hit with a bill after for my current car that I didn’t have much of a bargaining chip.
Does anyone have any idea on my best course of action? I can’t get Audi to come inspect the car for 2 weeks and the dealer is majorily pushing to get me to sign the lease on a new car this week.
Wait, assuming your initial lease is not over yet. Get the car inspected, so you know what damage amount you are dealing with. It is still early in the month, and you should be able to get a better deal later in the month, as dealers try to hit their mid-year goals.
The $465 number assumes that they were going to take the vehicle on trade and buy out the lease, most likely.
However, they don’t actually want the car - they want you to go through the usual lease return process so they can pass on it and send it to Audi auction.
Go through the inspection process BEFORE returning the vehicle to the dealer (process known as “grounding” a lease) and see how much the damage is. Then you can decide if you just pay that or fix it before returning.
There’s gotta be something your not telling us about your car. Is it over or close to the mileage limit? Would the damage fail the lease return inspection? Low tire tread?
You haven’t mentioned what model Audi you have. So, check to see what the buyout of your car is compared to the approximate market listings are. Dealer might not want to take the risk if it’s an unpopular model with damage.
At the bare min, they should be able to keep you at the $400/mo payment and you can figure out what you wanna do with your current car later.
Unless they’re going to give you a true clean break (which they don’t seem motivated to do) and a good deal on a new car you want, there is no reason to take a hit with two months left.
…Both audi premier purchase and bmw owners choice are balloon financing plans. They function like a lease, but they mitigate certain tax burden in certain states i.e. Illinois.
