Surprised to hear you are upside down… What are the specs on your Challenger (MSRP/year/miles)?. You must have had a pretty good lease (high RV) to be upside down right now.
It’s an 18 Scat Challenger with Leather Interior Group, Driver Convenience Group, Scat Pack Appearance Group, 8 Speed Auto, Sunroof, Nav and 20 Inch Forged Wheels. It currently has 26k miles. I haven’t driven it much since March since I’ve been working from home since then. I think it’s still on the same tank of gas, LOL.
MSRP was 48,260 at the CDJR in Long Island when I still lived in NY back then and they were able to do 0 DAS @ 513/mo on a 3 year/36k mile lease using a credit union (TFCU) as the bank. I know, not the best deal during those times, but it seemed reasonable.
When I started looking into the payoff, the bank told me that I have to contact Fusion Auto Finance, which I found strange.
I’ve checked the dealer payoff quote twice in the past few months and surprisingly the 2nd time I checked, the payoff was higher. They explained that they base it off on how much they can get for it at auction?
They likely have 2 pay off amounts. One for you and one for a dealer. Find out how much yours is before tax. Depends on what state you live in but might make sense to buy it yourself and then immediately sell to dealer.
Ah yes you’re absolutely right. I asked what the difference was and they said that my payoff would be different because the dealer pays no tax. I automatically assumed that it would be higher instead of asking for the amount. I’ll check again.
35,800 dealer payoff, 32,412 buyout + 7% FL taxes. It’s a little over a thousand cheaper than dealer payoff but still about 1500 more than the highest offer I got (ALGO). Oh well.
Check your state rules if their is a grace period on sales tax.
Man that’s rough. That will make this car impossible to buyout because the auction value’s are super, like unreasonably, high. I’m sure the total of your remaining payments plus the RV are less then the actual buyout, but I guess you have no options, other then don’t use the CU again.
Yeah my other option is to buyout at my price of 32,412 plus taxes (34,680), instead of the dealer payoff amount(35,800, it was 36.x last I checked with them a few weeks ago), which is still about 1500 more than my highest offer (33,200 - ALGO). LeaserOC suggested looking into the grace period on sales tax, in their case if I was in CA instead of FL, I can buy it out before tax and have 10 days to sell before I have to pay tax. If I sell within that timeframe, I don’t have to pay tax.
I’m still super glad that I ran into this post. I was getting depressed thinking I was gonna have to settle for a Volvo S60 lease or something. I don’t know if I can sleep at night downgrading from a 6.4L to whatever 4 cyl turbo theyre putting in those things.
Don’t down grade from the 6.4 you will regret it.
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None the less – this is an interesting datapoint. MSRP 48260 worth $33K after 36 months, that’s $432/mo or roughly $10,173 after 24 months. So applying it to my MSRP, I would have a balloon payment of $30,800 due and a market value of $33,207 – $2407 in positive equity.
Yep, when you look at used scat prices (challenger or charger) they cost almost as much as a new one. If that trend continues you will be in very good shape.
Don’t let the bear hear you.
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Once the music stops and a big junk of the folks pushing up used cars stop making payments all bets are off. Is there a way to play used car price futures?
Yeah, buy puts on Carvana. I have been contemplating it.
But a decline in market prices might not hurt them (assuming they are turning their inventory quick enough).
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Carvana has been giving amazing trade in values for as long as i’ve known about them. I’ve sold two vehicles to them (they’re getting a third on Friday) going back to 2016, and they have always offered at least $2k more than anyone else. Even on my wife’s uber-subsidized Cherokee lease from 2018 - they are offering $2100 more than the inflated residual.
They just operate on thin margins and depend on volume. Both the cars I sold to them were turned around for sale in a couple days and listed at about $2400 more than they gave me for them…they both also sold in less than a week. It could also be that people are really taking to this new Amazon-like car buying model. It’s great to just look over the car, see the price, then click “Buy it Now”. Done. I think it’s the future of car buying really, and I can’t wait to be done with the dealer go-around process.
As for the balloon loan risk, it’s very simple really. First, the loans only really work for certain cars. I also tried this approach for a Camaro, Mustang, and Cadillac CT5-V. In all three instances, factory leases would have been much better. So you need to be smart about the car you choose, but the bank also helps you out by letting you know, via the projected residual, which cars are a good idea and which are not. Furthermore, you know the balloon payment from the start - so just make sure you would be ok with financing that payment…if so, then there’s really no risk at all.
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I double checked with Carvana their offer is 3k less than my offer from ALGO for my Challenger Scat
Your lender is playing some BS games. $32k+ is a completely unrealistic residual for a car bought back in 2018…that residual would be pushing it even in this ridiculous market…let alone back in 2018. I mean look at z0lt3c’s awesome deal, buying in this la-la-land we’re in, and his residual is still $2k less. Mine will be $28500 for a $45k car. Either they are playing games to keep you in your car or they just completely blew it with the original deal.
Regardless, why would you want to get rid of your car already? You’ve got the Scat…enjoy it!
Well, I haven’t driven it much since I started working from home since March, and the earliest we’ll return to the office is January, after my lease ends. I figured why lease a car that I don’t use.