More research for sure.
But the waiting part is only obvious in hindsight. In December no one knew how February/March programs would play out.
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Although nobody knew for sure, the smart money was on the lessors passing through some or all of the credit under Section 45.
Which begs the question, why would he pick one of the only BEVs that didnāt have the full $7500 rebate
Thatās only part of it. Mercedes trunk money and dealer willingness to discount EQSās as well as AUDI dealer willingness to use up their VIP codes to move Etron GTs was just as important.
Again, I would have passed on the OPās deal in December personally, IDK if the marital benefits were worth it, but the fundamental crux of the situation (excess supply) really only manifested in March. And the obviousness of that eventuality is only obvious in hindsight.
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Most of them didnt in december.
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lol happy wifeā¦
If OP can afford $1200/mo paymentsā¦ they can probably afford to take a loss on a buyout/sale/trade-in and get a better car with a lower payment.
Just make sure the wife is onboard. 
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Iām plowing into anyone who is even remotely close to pulling out in front of me
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Do this. Get an EQS or perhaps even an etron GT or Demo 750. Sell your car back to a dealer, swallow the short term cash loss, and youāll probably still come out slightly ahead. All while driving a better car.
If you do a trade in, thereās possibly a little more to be saved on taxes, but also the possibility for a dealer to fudge the numbers a bit. Make sure you have clarity on whatās actually going on.
@Op Report back when youāve settled this. I want to know how it ends now.
Doesnāt hurt to try. How does the process of selling back to the dealer work? I assume I do not need to pay the residual/payoff tax?
If so then my buyout would be 55k. Assuming dealer gives me 45k for my car worst case. Would that 10k difference of negative equity just roll into the final price of the new lease?
So for me to come out āaheadā, the discount + incentives should be >10k. Then assuming a much lower MF, I could get myself a lower monthly yeah?
First want to offer my condolences to the OP and thank the lovely members of this community for offering up genuinely helpful advice.
I canāt imagine being in this kind of situation (overlooking how paying $46-47k to lease a $58k vehicle for 3 years could never logically make financial sense), but I feel like it would be a mistake to do anything but buy it out and either hold onto it for a few years or roll the negative equity into something else. I imagine youāll take something like a $6-7k immediate loss, but that amount is going to grow larger each month you continue to pay $1,200 lease payments while the carās value (and resell) continues depreciating.
There are plenty of vehicles that qualify for the full fed rebate that will allow you to almost cut this payment in half. Iād rather carry over $200/mo in negative equity on a better lease and chalk it up to an expensive learning experience. Sounds a whole lot nicer than paying what is basically the present day sales price for your car but only getting it for 3 years. You could probably roll the negative equity into another etron and trim your payment by a few hundred bucks.
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Not exactly. Your new lease should have payments roughly 300 a month lower for you to break even if you are going to eat $10k to get out of the current one.
The discount/ incentive/ mf/ rv combo on the new lease need to result in a payment $300 lower for our hypothetical $10k example.
Payments roughly 300 a month lower
That is only if I go for the same car with same MSRP right?
Most of the discounts and incentives I see are on cars with much higher MSRP, so my understanding is that the discount+incentive should at least cancel out my rolled over negative equity. Then any extra %off MSRP and decent MF rate would make the deal ābetterā than my existing lease for me, even if the monthly hasnāt changed or is higher.
Sorry quite new at this process and getting a bit confused by information overload online.
What would be the best way to handle this in California?
Hereās my amateur understanding:
- If I buyout on my own, then I have to pay the sales tax and then I own the car simple.
- If I donāt buyout and I bring my car to an Audi dealer, they appraise the car value (most likely lower than buyout) and then they can buyout my lease and Iāll be on the hook for the negative equity difference, which I either pay them or roll into a new lease, right? Does this process avoid me having to pay the sales tax?
Thanks for dealing with me
Correct, however itās important you determine 3rd party value from Carvana, CarMax, etc. the Audi dealer could lowball you a bit knowing theyāre the only game if you want to avoid the hassle and sales tax.
Are you definitely not considering just buying and keeping it? You might be better just holding onto it vs leasing yet another vehicle. You might end up spending more leasing a new car vs the depreciation on the Q4 at this point. Whatever value itās already lost is priced in regardless.
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Iām gonna get quotes on new lease options and weight all my options. If the new lease options and market value donāt work in my favor, then Iāll definitely just buy out the lease myself. If buying out, Iāll probably do all cash since I anticipate the financing rates to be much higher than my returns via other investments.
This is basically right. I would basically find a way out, because $1200/mo for the next 3 years on this car is just cringe.
Has nothing to do with the msrp of the next vehicle. Read up on the leasing 101 thread here on the forum, youāll get a better understanding of the lease structure.
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ah donāt know how I missed this reply, but this explains the way to get rid of the negative equity very clearly.