Can I sell a Honda lease to Carmax, Vroom, etc?

Ask the Hackrs
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I have a 2019 Civic Si lease I’m about 20 months into. I hadn’t really considered getting out of it but I got a + $6800 over payoff offer from the Carmax website. Which I would pull the trigger on if possible.

Has anyone been able to sell a Honda (HFS) lease to Carmax, Vroom, etc? I’m not sure if the wording on their website means only a Honda dealer, or any dealer?

Thanks for the help.

From the HFS Website:

We are unable to conduct third -party sales. Your leased vehicle may only be purchased by the original lessee(s) or by a dealer. We are unable to conduct third -party sales. Your leased vehicle may only be purchased by the original lessee(s) or by a dealer.

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The game is over on tax free sales. Most Banks are already preventing it.

there is no ‘which dealer does this apply to’. This applies to Honda dealers only. Everyone else is a 3rd party.
Now a better question, does it apply to ACURA dealers? That is a grey area. But selling to Vroom or Carvana and skipping sales tax is pretty much over. You buy it and pay tax and sell to them or you sell to a Honda Dealer

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As of yesterday, another member reported selling a Honda lease to CarMax. My parents sold their Pilot lease to CarMax last week with no issues and walked out with a ~$4k equity check. This could change at any time though

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I feel like the tax thing could vary based on state considering states tax leases differently.

There’s a CarMax about 30 minutes from me, for that much positive equity, I guess it’s worth a shot. Any idea how long the CarMax process took with your parents dumping the Pilot? I like how they have a physical location near me vs Carvana or Vroom having to do everything online then send someone to pick the car up.

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You can sell to Carmax. Sold my Honda Pilot lease to them on Monday. I believe that the 3rd party they refer to would be a private buyer, such as a friend. Carmax and the other car buying companies are technically dealers. That said, it seems like they can choose not to allow it anytime as other captives have started doing. Now would be a good time to head down to Carmax.

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Going to head over Friday morning and see what happens.

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Sold a Honda to Autonation last week. Had almost a year left.

Anyone know the best way to fight Honda on the “turn in fee” that added to my displayed payoff / ate into final check?

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~30 mins for them to look at the car and verify condition, ~90 mins to pay off + equity check + paper work – in and out in around 2hrs total with an appointment based on what they said… Just bring the code for the value that carmax spits out online.

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You can not fight the disposition fee. It’s in your signed lease contract.

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This is false. The restriction mentions third parties as in you cannot sell your lease off to another person. Dealers are exempted, meaning Carvana, Carmax, Vroom (all considered dealers), etc. I’ve had this explained to me ad nasueam by sooooo many honda financial reps now. The only reason people on here starting reporting that Honda financial was no longer selling to 3rd parties was because a single user on this site posted an erroneous text screenshot from GMTV.

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There was a guy who successfully fought the ‘Turn In Fee’ but it took a while.

Probably true when you turned it in. but haven’t you noticed that they are cracking down on all that now. Dealer might really mean OUR Dealer now.

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No that restriction has always been on there the wording has not been changed (my honda lease from 2018 had the same verbiage on the contract). When honda decides to change their policy they will specify in the verbiage or they will alert their reps that you can no longer sell to 3rd party dealers. If they do this they will more than likely follow the nissan path and give dealers and their lessees a period before they implement the new policy. As of yesterday afternoon things still remain the same. I’ve been keeping up to date because i’m in the works of selling my brothers car to Carmax.

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Ah I was not aware it hadn’t changed. I though OP was posting ‘new info’ and not asking ‘old info’ over.

Considering the fact that in the last few months at least 4 OEMs have dropped Vroom type sales, I thought we were referring to that.

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HFS’s buyout page has said this for years. In the past, 3rd party sales in this context have meant having a private party buy it out (your friend Joe), not a dealer.

It doesn’t specify that it may only be purchased by a Honda dealer.

That isn’t to say that HFS is or isn’t allowing 3rd party dealer buy outs, just that this isn’t evidence one way or the other.

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You agreed to it in your lease contract. It specifies the fee is due unless you buy the lease out.

One person here got it reversed after going to the BBB and making a big to-do about it, but ymmv.

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My appointment is at 11am tomorrow, if their offer holds up, she’ll be gone tomorrow pending Honda’s blessings. I’ll report back then. Thanks for the input guys I feel like there’s a chance!

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Yes and I eventually was refunded. Here is that thread:

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My contract clearly specified the “turn in fee” applied if I returned the car at lease end or exercised the earlier termination option. That same contract and my current contract make no mention that the turn in fee applies if the buyout option is exercised.

Additionally it is up to HFS to make the contract “clear and conspicuous” according to federal law. That same law states a “purchase option fee” is disclosed separately from disposition fee(s).

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The Honda contract I have very specifically says the fee is due unless I purchase the vehicle. Where is the ambiguity?

I get that it’s annoying, I’m glad that they refunded you, and I wish Honda didn’t do it that way, but it does clearly say (unless your contract is different) that it only applies if you purchase the vehicle. The federal law regarding a purchase option fee doesn’t seem to apply here since you never purchased it.

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