I called Infiniti Financial today asking about early lease termination law and the guy told me in California there is a special law for this. He told me I have to do a lease return inspection and go to an Infiniti or Nissan dealer. They will put the car on their inventory to sell and if they manage to sell the car for the payout payment, I am good. For what ever price they sell the car, I have to pay for the difference. Is that true? Anyone has any experience with this?
thanks
Very interesting to see if this is true. Seems like a hassle for the dealer b/c you’re essentially parking your car there with a for sale sign. Not sure what would be in it for them, if anyone has clarification, that would be great and very interesting to learn about.
I’ve seen a lot of CA lease clauses that involve this if you’re more than 90 days out of lease termination.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=2987.
Interesting, never as aware of this
They will wholesale it at auction, potentially leaving you on the hook for a large difference
I think this gives one some negotiation power when you trade in your car to get a new car from the dealership. The only drawback here is that you will be stuck with the same manufacturer. As much as I love Infiniti, I dont want another Infiniti. I am just afraid, they wouldn’t care at all and either give it to auction or just price it as low as possible to get rid of it.
Then move on to another brand.
The chances that you have any positive equity in your Infiniti is close to 0.
You have just described the contractual principle of “duty to mitigate.” I don’t know about the California law but i’d guess Infiniti just need to treat your lease turn in the same as every other lease turn in and they have followed the law. This probably just means shipping car to an auction.
This has nothing to do with the dealer. IFS owns the car and sells it at auction. If you think your Infiniti will sell for anywhere close to payoff amount, think again. Better be prepared for a huge bill if you go through with this.
and what if they sell it to an employee for a few hundred dollars?
How can a dealer sell it to an employee for a few hundred if they don’t own it? As I said, IFS will auction the vehicle.
exactly. referring to the original post
Aren’t the auctions closed in California for Corona holiday.
I see big fees to you and low auction prices. Didn’t the Manheim auction prices drop over 10 percent this month (unprecedented).
What you are proposing to do is usually a losing proposition. Right now, because of Corona, I see it as being spectacularly ill advised. You just might be out big big money.
and that’s on average. Imagine what they’ve done on infinitis!
here’s a fun article to read about used car prices…
The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index—a key benchmark for industry pricing—has declined about 11% compared with March and is down roughly 10% year over year. The last time the Index dropped a similar magnitude was, unsurprisingly, during the 2008-09 financial crisis.