In my case I’m leaning towards the later, so if I already “ate the green ones, I could also eat the ripe ones” huh?
There’s definitely no free lunches as you said.
For one, a car is a depreciating asset. Lots of discussion and leasing and reasons why you might not want to buy it out - before the accident.
If it’s been wrecked, it has a dirty Carfax which makes the depreciating asset you don’t own but are choosing to buy worth LESS, forever. You are moving from dating an auction piece to marrying it without a prenup.
I’ve owned or leased four cars that were in accidents: none of them were quite right after they came back (and I’m not just talking about the paint match). Every one went to an OEM brand approved body shop.
In both rear-end accidents, I did not extend the lease, and the day it was up it went back. Maybe it’s just as safe after being welded back together and the bumper shock absorber is replaced, I’m not interested in testing that out.
If you asked, “after I submerged my car in the 2nd-floor bathtub of my house - why didn’t the paint change color?” I’d be less surprised than this question. No thank you, please return with both keys and owners manual to the captive.
1 Like
You want to do this the right way 2 recommended options:
Copart- plenty of cars with accidents
Car auctions - there’s dealer licensed brokers floating outside literally at the physical entrances offering to take you inside for 150-200 bucks.
Yes you need to have a dealer license to enter one of these
Pick a lux car for cheeps and get it repaired. Sometimes it pays off it you’re a car expert sometimes it still doesn’t
I do not believe TFS will negotiate on the buyout/residual. If these were minor accidents and repaired correctly to resemble no body work or paint work has been performed, then I would entertain keeping the vehicle if and only if the vehicle history report does not indicate the car has been in an accident. To my knowledge, if you did not report the accident to DMV or via police report, it does not show up in the history.
Check the Carfax. Not just body shops scanning your VIN ratting you out…
1 Like
If you are so attached to the car just track it down after lease and buy it.
Good luck!
I do not believe TFS will renegotiate the terms of the lease contract to potentially lose more money since you wrecked it twice.
This is the entire point of leasing, pay for a pre-determined depreciating asset and not have to worry about a vehicle out of warranty or with accident history.
If you love the Highlander, go find the same model year certified. Still retains warranty and it’ll take care of you. Or find one outside of warranty, but with low mileage if you’ve had only good experiences with yours and you trust it.
There is no such thing as a perfect restoration after an accident. You can always tell when something’s been paint-matched and fixed. Always.
2 Likes
Plus it’s purple, rule number one, never buy a purple lease out
1 Like
So my aunt who I helped lease a Lexus had a similar dilemma as the OP. I assume since they are sister companies, it would be similar rules but I dont know. She got into 3 accidents all of which were not her fault. The damages were not extensive but nonetheless, 3 accidents is not good for resale value. What Lexus told me, they do not negotiate at all with resale and they ship it directly back to lexus. They would not even entertain pricing on what it would be sold off to a salvage yard. I assume they do all this to assume best value, product and quality in the used car market.
1 Like
Can’t you close the lease, then negotiate a price with the dealer to buy it used? The dealer would rather likely sell it to you than have a car with accidents go to auction. I’m guessing you can get a price below the buyout price.
The dealer has no skin in the game regarding it going to auction with accidents. It’s all on the captive lease company.
1 Like
OK, then yeah the accidents are not OP’s problem. OP should just go buy a used one without accidents or one with accidents at a substantial discount.