My 2021 Chevy Bolt lease is coming to an end in March, and I need to decide whether to exercise the purchase option. I really like the car, and it’s in like-new condition with only 14k miles, and a new battery pack installed about a year ago through the recall. However, the residual value in the lease is $20,479, which is higher than the KBB private party value (currently ~$17,500, down considerably from ~$24,600 when I checked last April at 10k miles).
It seems illogical to pay more for the car than it’s worth, but I’m not really sure what other alternatives make sense. A new Bolt would cost $31k or so, and I doubt it’s worth spending the extra money when my current vehicle is a known quantity with low mileage and a fresh battery pack. I had expected to enter a new lease at the completion of this one, but Bolt lease offers seem especially terrible right now. The lease pricing I’m seeing online totals $15k - $19k of payments over three years - astonishingly higher than the $199/mo, $0 DAS deal I scored in back 2021. I can’t see the logic in paying that much for a lease when the alternative is to pay slightly more to own essentially the same car outright.
The other alternative would be to lease a different make/model with more competitive lease pricing, for example the Kia Niro Wind which has an offer for $239/mo over 36 mo + $4499 DAS. This seems worth looking into, but I’m still not sure paying $12,865 for a lease over 3 years is very compelling compared to purchasing my current Bolt at lease end for $20,479.
Ask if you can extend your existing lease for another year. If not, are you able to pay cash for the buyout or would you have to finance the $20K plus taxes and fees? You may find that payment much higher than another lease payment. You need to decide if owning a 3 year old bolt is better than driving a new bolt or other vehicle for another 3 years.
Similar situation here, with our 2020 Bolt lease ending in April. Buyout is $20.5K, leaving at least $6K on the table vs buying a 2020 with the federal tax credit. Leasing a news EUV is around $22K, as much as leasing a $60K Volvo or VW EV. Our Bolt is on its third battery, so not as enthusiastic about the car as we had been. We may look around for a gently used Volvo XC40 or C40 EV to purchases.
An out of the box idea is to buy a used 2022 or older Volt from a dealer to claim the $4k federal EV rebate at point of sale (immediately). You need to make under $150k AGI household (if married) or $75k AGI (if single) though.
Glancing at CarGurus, looks like there are a number of 2021 Bolts in the $13k-17k range, which should make the actual cost $9k to $13k.
GM Financial’s website says they offer an automatic one month extension but don’t go beyond that. Is a one year extension something they might do on a case by case basis?
That’s an interesting thought, though it seems like a bit of a gamble.
From a strict financial perspective, probably not worth either buying out the current or another Bolt (and probably most EVs right now), but pretty much any similar sized gas or hybrid car would also be ~$25k-$30k.
A gamble indeed, however looks like the odds is on your side. I doubt that car will sell asap when it hit the lot nor will they sell it more than your current residual. You may also qualify for the used car ev tax credit. The only downside are 1. you’ll be out of car during this process. 2. if they choose to just send it to auction and it goes to other dealer out of state instead.
Please keep us updated since I may be in your position when my eqb lease ended. We plan to buy it, however with the depreciation we see, our residual may come up higher than the market price when the lease end.
If you must have a 2021 Bolt, I’d recommend buying a different one for $17-18K or whatever the current value is and claiming the federal and state (if applicable) income tax credits if you qualify. Can’t do that with your own lease buyout IIRC.
I called GM Financial and asked about extending the lease. The representative I spoke to told me that a one-month extension is automatically granted, and another two extensions are available to take it to a total of 6 more months:
By going to a GM dealership and obtaining an order number, the lease can be extended by 3 months, at the original monthly payment.
When that extension is up, it’s possible to get another two months extension by calling GM Financial and quoting the order number
This sounds a bit too good to be true… does anyone have experience going through that process?
Bolt qualifies for conquest on Ioniq 5, which brings for. The 24M lease to below the price of the Niro EV from what I can see. And it’s a bit more substantial a car.
I called a dealership next to confirm the particulars. It seems the piece I was missing was that the “order number” was for an implied order for a replacement GM vehicle. GM Financial didn’t say anything about waiting for a replacement vehicle as a condition of the extension.
Amazingly, the salesperson I talked to offered to provide me with an order number for a vehicle in transit I could use for this purpose. I guess I’m a potential sales lead when the extended lease finally expires, so why shouldn’t he help me out?
I think going for the extra 5 months (beyond the automatic 1 month extension) is a no-brainer, because $199/mo is a good deal worth keeping as long as possible, and it buys more time to find a good lease deal for a replacement vehicle.
I’d definitely take GM for ride and use the order number game to extend this to the max. If that doesn’t work, look at what else is out there. Too bad you didn’t get a swap of collateral, that’s where people really cleaned up.
The lease extension still seems like the best way to go, but I thought of a few potential downsides:
$471 in vehicle registration renewal fees are due on the lease end date. If extending, I’ll have to pay those fees for at most 5 months of additional usage.
I assume the cost to purchase at lease end does not decrease with an extension. If I do purchase the vehicle, it would be an even worse deal after paying $1000 in extra lease payments I could have avoided. I suppose I’d want to be pretty sure I won’t go ahead with the purchase before extending.
I’m seeing similar used Bolts listed for $17-$18k, so returning my lease and buying one of those could also be an option. But my car is a known quantity and it’s a tough call whether saving a few thousand dollars is worth the risk of ending up with a lemon.
