EQB lease - early buyout worth it?

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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Hi all,
First time leaser here, asking the sages here for wisdom.
I just got my EQB lease a few weeks ago at what I think is an okay price : $60K MSRP, $10K off + $7500 rebate.

I’ve been contemplating whether I do an early lease buy out or not. Key motivation is economics in case I want to keep the car down the road, I like the car so far.

My thought process is that:

  1. If I payoff, the total OTD price that I would have paid for the vehicle would be $46K + taxes (~$4K) = ~$50K
  2. Vs. If I keep the car for the duration of the lease, I would be paying ~$22K for the duration of the lease. If I were to buy it out after the lease, it would cost me an additional ~$33K (incl. Tax) so OTD total would be ~$55K
  3. So, it feels like buying out is the superior if option if the following is true:
  • If I decide to sell the car sometime around the ~3 year mark for at least ~$28K or more (which feels doable), my cash burn over the 3yrs would have been $50K - 28K = $22K, which would make this a more profitable decision than leasing
  • If I decide to keep the car for daily commute - I would be paying $50K for the car (vs. 55K if I bought at end of lease) - so that also feels like a superior option.

Am I missing anything? Other factors I should consider in my decision?

Many thanks in advance!

2

Isn’t whole point of leasing an EV is to borrow it for awhile and return?

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I Dont Think So No Way GIF by FTX_Official

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4

If I recall, the MF is pretty low on those leases, somewhere around 2%, so I don’t think there is an advantage of buying out the lease early.

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5

The other thing you should consider that the EQB does not get very good reviews

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6

Thank you. So the thinking is that I might have a hard time selling the car later at a reasonable price or that I might not like the car down the road?

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That’s an excellent point - if I think about the interest expense for financing the payoff, that will influence the math… thank you!

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8

If you have negative equity at the end of the lease you return it and it is mbfs problem. Read through the lease 101 section and you will find your answers

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9

Depends on what you mean by a reasonable price.

Battery tech changes quickly, so EVs generally don’t hold their value very well since what you get today will probably be outdated 2–3 yrs from now. The dealer didn’t offer you $10K off b/c the car is selling well.

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10

You are not comparing apples to apples here. You are comparing a cash price today vs the cost of borrowing capital (via a lease).

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11

Thanks for the pointer. Will defo read through. Probing a bit on the comment on EQB not getting good reviews tho - even a 40K mile 2020 GLB is still getting $33K+. My thinking was that the EQB would at least hit that price. Curious to get your take.

12

The market is too volatile on EV right now, I don’t recommend it.

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13

I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that MBZ has a 4% penalty if you turn around a buy a vehicle out of lease before a certain amount of time has elapsed?

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How come? What was the MSRP of that GLB when new and were people essentially at MSRP for it, or were they getting huge incentives like they are w/ the EQB?

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Volatile? Huh?

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Lol. Yes. Unpredictable.

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