Context
Wife has always wanted an etron since it came out. Last year in December, we decided to lease the new 2023 Q4 Etron. I did not know about LeaseHackr until recently . We went with the lease b/c this is our first EV and do not want to fully commit and planned to upgrade in 3 years.
Car is not bad and my wife loves the upgrade from her Prius, but the monthly is a hard pill to swallow now after seeing people getting much lower monthly on much more expensive vehicles. Audi also just had to throw in a $7500 lease incentive a few months after we got it too, ouch. We also has only put 2k miles on it so far.
What would be the best financial strategy, now? Early buyout, End of lease buyout, end of lease turn in, trade in for another lease, etc?
Leasing for 3 years $46,200
$15,400 / year cost of ownership
Financing for 5 years assuming Audi’s 2.99% for 60 months and the same $3k down payment and a 60% depreciation over 5 years:
Finance for 5 years $59962
$11,992 / year cost of ownership
This doesn’t tell how bad it really is though because on the Q4 you should’ve at least seen a 5% discount off MSRP plus a $7500 rebate which would be $49463 financed and $9748 / year cost of ownership. Just give me $3k a year and I’ll save you $6k a year as your accountant.
FYI for $200 / mo LESS than this Q4 lease you can currently lease the $100k e-tron GT. Go see @Samaudibh
You can dump this lease as you dont have to stay stuck for the entire 36 months term. Please check your current payoff, and see how much you can sell for. You will have to check the trade-in value at multiple places to get the best value.
Payoff is around $58,000. I see similar cars are selling around $50,000 but since it’s so new there’s still not much data.
If I buy it out, wouldn’t it be better to keep for a few years before selling it right after for depreciation sake or does it not really matter for lower residual value cars?
why do you have payoff of $58k as of today? I mean you did put down $3k plus you have been making the monthly payments for the last 5 months… so you should have lower payoff balance. Can you re-verify your current payoff balance?
Lets assume if your current payoff is $58k, and if the open market value for this car is $50k, even though if you buy it out at $58k, then you still do have $8k unrealized losses. Whether you keep it or dump this lease, it doesn’t matter. Only thing is that if you dump this lease, then your unrealized losses will become realized losses. Just like we have to shop the rates when we buy the car, so the same rule applies when you want to sell the car. So you would have to find a dealer who can pay the most for your car. Or find someone who can take over your lease even though if you have to give him some cash as incentive to take over the lease.
All your options suck as you’ve already dug yourself a deep hole. I would recommend buying it out. At least then you own the vehicle and can part ways with it easier in the future when your negative equity isn’t so bad.
Alternatively, you can buy your way out of the lease by selling it to a dealer and eat the $10k in negative equity right away.
I’m sorry to say, but you have no good options once you sign a bad lease.
Your options here are:
Pay $58k to own a used Etron, this will absolutely begin a cycle of negative equity
Or
Bite the bullet and make the monthly for the next 2.5 years (sadly prob your best of the bad)
Don’t think Audi leases are swappable, someone can correct me if they are, and you can try to pay someone $7-$10k to make this more attractive to assume this lease.
Avoid the temptation to go pummel the salesman that swindled you, it will just lead to legal headaches and won’t get you out of the lease.
. We went with the lease b/c this is our first EV and do not want to fully commit and planned to upgrade in 3 years.