Beware at Lease End, especially if you live in Florida!

Veterans of this forum already know how to handle a lease end purchase. But this article documents challenges various people have faced when they go to a dealer to execute a lease purchase. Seems particularly bad in Florida!

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South Florida. Surprise surprise

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What are your options if you leased from a Florida dealer but live out of state, as is my case?

Youre subject to how your bank handles buyouts in your state.

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To the extent that your lease holder (bank/finance arm of car manufacturer) allows you to directly purchase the car from them, this is the most straightforward route. I live in California, and did that for my 2019 Hyundai Ioniq by purchasing from Hyundai Motor Finance without involving a dealer and it worked out great.

I believe some car manufacturer finance arms require you to do this through a dealer (maybe different state law?) in which case you have to check with several dealers in the nearby area and hope one of them will be willing to complete the transaction without additional fees.

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Yes you are subject to requirements of your lessor in your state. Some require you to do the payoff from a dealer and will refuse to accept wires/checks from a 3rd party. That being said, any dealer in the state can handle your buyout so it’s worth shopping around for the best doc/admin fees and pricing on any manufacturer CPO/extended warranty option if you’re looking for that.

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Thanks guys for your advice. Very useful info.

LOL as I just went through this, bought out a BMW lease in South FL. Figured 1, 2, 3 done, oops… Braman BMW wanted to do a “safety inspection” and said it would take a few hours. Instantly knew they were trying to screw me so I recorded the conversation, sent it to the Trade Commission Office and to a few different lawyers handling class action lawsuits just for this sort of thing. Even though I didn’t and would never get smashed like this, nonetheless, helping those who did by these crooks felt good.

Went up to Coggin BMW by Fort Pierce, they did the right thing and made it easy.

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