I have a 2018 Audi Q5 that’s leased through AudiFS. I’m going to be “trading it in” tomorrow to an Audi dealer towards a new car (dealer will be paying off the vehicle directly with AudiFS).
I’ve already finalized all of the numbers with the dealer (it’s going to be break-even - their trade-in offer is the same as my payoff amount).
Is there anything I need to do/should do on my end as far as dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s? E.g. should I obtain some sort of statement confirming that the lease has indeed been paid off and that I no longer have any financial obligation or responsibility as far as the lease/vehicle are concerned? Is there anything else that I might be overlooking?
are you sure that you don’t have positive equity? I’d consider buying it myself and then selling to one of the car buying services. Even after sales tax, I would be surprised if you didn’t see some $$$ in this market.
There are many Audi dealerships around LA who are paying extra $1000 just to ground a lease with them.
Agreed with the post above, please do a quick check on any online car retailers and see what they offer. AudiFS has different pricing for third party buyouts so you are stuck with selling your lease to an Audi dealer, but at least its a baseline and negotiating start point. In this market I would imagine a Q5 is significantly above the 60-63% residuals set by Audi so you should see positive equity.
If you don’t think you have equity in your lease at the current moment then that dealership is really fooling you. Just take an hour or so and do some research, you have multiple thousands in equity now on your Q5!!!
Lol - thank you to all 4 people who replied and literally didn’t even attempt to answer my questions / provide any helpful information re: my original post.
As bizarre as all of your condescending assumptions are, I assure you that I spent considerable time researching and evaluating my options re: the trade-in, and then made an informed, calculated, and astute decision.
Not bizarre. Daily occurrence that people ask about trading in their vehicle with no equity only to learn what shenanigans are being played. You’re complaining about internet strangers going out of their way to try to save you thousands of dollars.
You’ll get paperwork that the vehicle was grounded and the dealer will sign off the mileage at drop off. The car is essentially not yours at that point since they will hand you back the plates. Feel free to take it off your insurance. Once they submit the paperwork and the payoff to Audi (roughly 2-3 business days), you will receive a termination statement. Account is then closed unless they owe msd’s which take even longer to come directly from AFS. Is that what you needed to know?
I myself agree with the above tho. Go get your bag which should be a few grand on a well kept low mileage q5.
All we are trying to do is make sure the dealership is being rightful to you, this is a crazy market so we are all in relatively unfamiliar territory, and the last thing I would hate is for a dealer to take advantage of someone. i.e. I just sold my 2019 BMW 330I to a BMW dealer last week, and the first appraisal I got was 500 over buyout, just by sharing a simple screenshot from Autonation online appraisal, that instantly became 3k in equity. (With Audi’s residuals and crossover demand I would have expected even more equity, but I cannot judge that without knowing car condition etc.)
For other people on the forum, any idea why the dealer would be “trading it in” at a break even, other than saving on “wear and tear repair/reconditioning cost”. Since OP is getting a new vehicle from Audi the disposition fee would be waived. Is there any benefit the dealer/customer gets by selling to the dealer rather than lease return?
Might feel condescending but I’ll be frank, it’s better to cross the Ts and dot the Is then to have you loose out on thousands of dollars. You asked if you were missing anything, and all of these people provided solid advice.
Get a quote for your car to see if it’s worth more, if you could get more money check if you can.
Take photos of your car exterior and interior when you drop the car off, you should get a lease grounding statement and mileage statement, and that’s about everything important.
In today’s market breaking even on a Q5 at the end of a lease which originated ~36 months ago makes no sense - it makes dollars, and a significant amount tbh.
We know what RV’s were back then, and what market value is today.
Sorry if your offended by experience, awareness, and advice. Unless there’s something you haven’t disclosed about the vehicle which circumstantially negates your equity, you could be making a costly mistake and people here only trying to help.
