Hey folks, I’m nearing the end of a nightmarish Cruze lease that I signed 4 years ago in Florida. It looks like the buyout is $10,812. At this point, should I just surrender the vehicle to GM? I did a quick appraisal and it seems the highest I’d be offered elsewhere is 11k. The car has a dent in the left front fender ($350 for a paintless dent removal). I’m just surprised I don’t have more positive equity given I’ve paid over $18k into the car. A lot of stuff seems off, I just want to understand where I messed up. Original lease attached. Thanks in advance.
You paid 18k to rent a 23k car for 4 years??
You should post this under the worst leases ever seen thread
You leased a Cruze for 48 months? Should have just financed it, IMO.
What they said. Horrible.
A lot of stuff seems off, I just want to understand where I messed up.
Wowza. Well, you messed up first off by leasing a Cruze 
but that’s a whole other discussion. And then you paid the equivalent of what many people pay for BMW 3-series, Volvos, etc. This is the sort of lease finance departments probably put up in a hall of fame somewhere.
At this point, you might as well turn in and move onto something else - and next time, negotiate a far more favorable deal or bring it here for review first. It’s hard to tell from this contract alone where things went wrong, but likely at nearly every step of the process (pre-incentive negotiation, MF, fees, etc).
How would you expect more positive equity from this? I would get rid of this car ASAP if I were you. Seriously though use this forum to your advantage and on your next lease for the love of god (ask before signing).
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Depending on the car you want for your next lease, just contact one of the Florida brokers or dealers In the marketplace and let them take care of it.
Chalk it up as a lesson learnt and move on. There’s too much historical data you’ll need to dig up. What was original MSRP? What were base MF/RV/incentives for 36 and 48 mths? You also have dealer hard adds of $706. Without all the data points though, no one can say for sure.
Was it a bad deal? Sure. Is it hall of shame worthy… probably not 
it’s not a $900/mth Accord or a $2k/mth M5… good luck on your next deal!
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How much equity you have at the end of a lease has nothing to do with your payment or how much you put down at signing. The residual is set by the bank and the actual value is whatever the market will pay for it at the end of the term.
Wow. Sorry.
Move on and do better this time.
Technically, you unconditionally surrendered to GM 48 months ago. But you should hand the keys back and start over, especially if this Cruze has failed to spark joy.
Plug this past lease contract into the calculator and start educating yourself for the next lease.
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Listen op, what happened in the past happened. No way to change that and no point in beating yourself up. Please for the love of everything that is holy do more research for your next lease. You have take a first step and arrived at this forum seeking help. Now follow through and act on some of the advice being given to you. There are tons of straight shooters here that will get you into a decent vehicle for a whole lot less than you paid earlier.
I’m curious where you got the idea to lease and what happened here. Did you have poor credit? I’m not seeing the plethora of rebates Chevrolet and GM Financial threw at the Cruze. Did you sign those away?
Just for some perspective. I had a sign and drive lease on a loaded 2017 Cruze Premier hatchback two months later than your deal for ~$65/mo through GM Financial.
Check out the Edmunds link below and you’ll see deals like I’m referring to.
To start, I’m thinking there is incentive money missing from your deal that the dealership pocketed instead of making you aware of it.
For those ripping the Cruze, that is still one of my favorite cars and I’ve had just about everything.