X100 I’d hate to see anyone paying that high of a (lease) payment on a sub $50K vehicle, rolling in that kind of negative equity. Look at it this way - for $11K in negative equity you could literally BUY and payoff a semi-decent vehicle and you would end up with a vehicle, whereas rolling the negative equity onto the lease is ONLY making the lease more expensive. There is nothing to show for it.
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@Jon the basic Ram 1500 not the new style body can be had for 249 a month, no money in oct of last year. I was typing that response late last night, have to dig up my buddies paper work for exact numbers, but it was more of a reference of what could be done. Ballparking the suv he got was Msrp 27k, they took his negative 8k equity on a high mileage vehicle trade in and took 4K off there’s and rolled the other 4K into payments. Essentially they took the 8k and stacked it on top of there 23k sales price. Dodge dealerships around me had 249 a month nothing down. Ally was offering something like 12k in incentives on the backend which I think they still may be. As my buddy was signing the paperwork the salesman looked at me and said I could get you one too if you want for 150 a month.
Even if all this remained true today, I dunno if a Ram pickup would really be a viable solution here. Two rear facing seats in a crew cab? And are we using tie-downs for the stroller in the bed?
you mean: thinking “outside box” ? 
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The ram deal was merely a reference although my buddy has front facing seats in his but that wont work for OP. I would work a unicorn till the day the kids came haha
To me, the biggest issue is the 2 rear facing car seats the kids will need once they hit one or so.
How tall are you and your wife/gf? The front seats need to be pushed up to accommodate the rear facing seats. I have an sq5, and it’s impossible to comfortably fit a rear facing child seat directly behind the driver or passenger seat (it does fit fine in the middle seat).
I’d imagine you can make a double stroller work- we have one and it doesn’t take up much more room than a single stroller (it’s a really expensive model, however).
all i’m saying is that there’s a solution to be had that doesn’t cost $11k. Is it a little inconvenient? sure but unless you really don’t care about $11k, then it can be managed
Sounds like a QX60 is needed, luxury badge, cheap payment and enough room. And you could keep the audi or roll it in. I have a feeling she won’t go for it.
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Most important thing is the safety of the kids.
I definitely agree that he can and should inconvenience himself with the stroller to save $11k.
But, he cannot compromise on installing and using the proper car seats to save money.
My hope is he doesn’t take any of the advice here and just decide to keep the a3 and put the kids front facing to save room.
If he gets rid of the a3, he needs to come up with a more creative way to mitigate the $11k negative than rolling it into a Mercedes lease.
Closing this momentarily to break the cycle of off-topic replies. I’ll open it up again to focus on what vehicle satisfies the OP’s needs.
TL;DR
Tiguan maybe? And keep the Audi? I dunno. I agree with many peeps here, it is not savvy to just eat the $11k. Of course, if you add $0.98 to my ramblings, you’d end up with a single espresso.
Something doesn’t add up here. I had two kids and used rear facing seats until about one and a half. After, we used front facing and those fit nicely in a small car.
Op is in California and by law must keep the kids rear facing until 2yrs.
Nobody mentioned anything about front facing, that’s a piece of cake.
So I just got someone to take over the Audi! Game is on! Lol. Now I’m looking into GLC 300, GLE Mercedes, or RX350 F sport
Out of curiosity, can you share the details of how you got out.
For your next vehicle, strongly suggest you skip a compact suv (glc300) and go midsize- qx60, rx350, gle, etc.
Just know that you are still responsible for that lease, even if you transfer it.
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For $11,000 I would find the most compact stroller even if it’s expensive. Or just do two-baby carriers.
Or buy a used Passat, Toyota Venza or minivan.
Now I’m curious, how did you get someone to take the lease? It’s not exactly a great deal in the first place. Did you incentivize?