I’ve heard some bolt ev owners were able to buy their vehicle at end of lease for much less than the residual price. Is this true for GM leases? I know they added the $7500 to the residual. I have a 2024 Hummer ev 3x with off road that stickered for 120k, i got it for 104k with an 87k residual. Its not worth $87,000 6 months later with 5000 miles on it, so it definitely won’t be worth anywhere near that in 3 years and 36,000 miles. I want to wrap it in ppf for off roading but hate putting $5000 in something I’m going to give back. My thought is if I could buy it for actual value at end of lease I might do that as I like it and I’ll be well under the miles. Maybe give it to daughter.
My dealer also told me they offer them a buy out price less than residual but often is still higher than what they can buy them at auction so they rarely do it but that applies to ice vehicles. They haven’t had any ev lease turn ins yet.
Don’t waste your money on PPF. You can spend a lot less touching up any paint prior to return or paying a charge of like $250 per panel or whatever it currently is.
And the business model assumes they’ll be under water at return. Between that and the cost of hiring people to negotiate lessee purchases, they’ve found it’s cheaper to just send them to auction.
I’m sorry, I should have mentioned it has the special matte paint. I got hit a month after leasing and found out just how expensive it is to repair that matte. Also you can’t buff out scratches like regular paint and i’m going to off road park once a month so I feel ppf is needed to avoid massive charges at end. I bought the Hummer ev specifically for off roading. Rock crawling, trails, not mudding.
Ok, so I just need a bunch of Hummers to catch fire. Got it. Seriously though I’ve heard the same for other brands, but for GM the only ev example ive heard is bolts.
I don’t think PPF is going to protect your paint if you scrape it against something hard.
JMO but you’re pushing square pegs through round holes. You need something smaller and less fragile for this hobby. A leased vehicle with such a long wheelbase and matte paint is not it.
I’m asking about lease return buyouts for current value. I didn’t ask for your opinion on my vehicles off road capabilities or how you think PPF works. Instead of posting uninformed comments why don’t you try google and educate yourself.
FYI, its been rock crawling 4 times already and I had PPF protect my truck paint when I slid off a trail and into a tree. PDR fixed the dent and heat gun healed the ppf.
I want to say that I read on this forum before that manufacturers frown upon dealers buying the car back from them at lease end, then selling them back to the original leasee for less than the agreed upon buyout price that’s on the lease contract.
Edit: just noticed that another poster mentioned that, “[y]ears ago,” GM did lower the buyout vs. the residual.
I do not recall reading about that since I’ve been on LH (2018), except for more predatory type leases, where the leasee has to pay the difference, if the resale value is actually higher than the RV (or something like that).
“Years ago, GM had leases that were way, way off residual value. At the end of the lease, GM offered the lessee the car for market value, which represented a huge discount from stated residual lease-end balance. It was a win/win since GM was going to take a loss either way, better to retail it to the lessee than wholesale it to dealers via auction.”
As to dealer buying the vehicle GM doesn’t care if they do or if they sell it to the lease holder. Remember your still turning it in and paying whatever mileage penalty or excess wear, so you’re not gaming the system in anyway. What do they care if the lease holder buys it or someone else?
Anyway, finance manager at dealership told me this last week when I called and asked him the same thing I posted here.
What I’m trying to decide is whether its worth gambling I’ll scratch that matte paint or pay the $5000 and just consider it a cost of playing in the rocks
And yes matte paint is stupid but i got an amazing deal on it thanks in large part to this forum and I wasn’t aware of hard it is to repair matte paint.
If I could get the vehicle for actual value I might buy it and give it to my daughter or something but its not that big of deal. Just hate throwing away $5000 for basically insurance. That’s all.
