Fusion auto finance payoff

Ask the Hackrs
1

Good afternoon,

In 2020 I leased a ram 1500 through a credit union in New York. It was through groove I believe who were purchased by fusion. Had no issues, and was contacted 6 months prior to lease end about extending or turning the car in. The conversation I had , they cannot find the emails or phone transcript for however I believe I was told the extension was at the same payment and it still continued to pay down my principal with a subsequent buyout at the end of the extension. All this made sense to me.

When my lease was coming due I contacted them only to be told an extension would forfeit my right to purchase or trade the vehicle and I would be charged 25 dollars a month extra as a service fee. So naturally I declined. They waived the service fee and allowed me to retain right to purchase or trade. Aside from a small error by the bank, all has been smooth. I’m 4 months into the 6 month extension and saw a truck at my dealer. Called them to run some numbers after using the calculator and forum, only to be told fusion doesn’t give a payoff to dealers they just give market value as the buyout. Basically eliminating any equity I thought I had.

Called fusion they told me I waived my right to purchase or trade, I directed them to the emails with the manager, whom I was speaking to. They said ok we will let you buy the vehicle at the lease end contractual amount. The amount I paid on extension is just “rent” and doesn’t go to principal, and they said “ we own the car we can tell the dealer the payoff is 300k if we want to.”

I understand the theory of the lease company wanting a piece of all the equity , but man it just seems crazy to me. Does anyone have any thoughts or input ? Is this a common situation ?

In all my dealings with auto financing purchasing selling etc when you want to sell or trade in the amount owed to the finance company is the payoff amount . Now I am basically left to purchase the vehicle and pay the tax cutting my equity in half if I wanted to do anything other than turn it in.

iAny feedback is appreciated !

2

Yes, that’s normal since 2020.

Preventing buyouts to make money is how banks work now.
Just be glad you weren’t in a Ally or a US Bank lease as they add extra items to just piss you off.

3

Lessors can charge third party buyers any amount they want; they own the vehicle and are not contractually obligated to sell to a third party at the lessee’s buyout/RV price. As mentioned, this practice has picked up steam over the last couple of years and certain lessors are notorious for this.

As for what your actual buyout amount is post-extension, what does your lease agreement say? Do you have anything in writing from the manager that communicated the extension to you?

4

This is common. The only surprise is that some dinosaurs still haven’t caught on.

If there was a publicly traded finance company that allowed their assets to be traded below market value and shareholders raised a fuss, then heads would roll.

5

yeah this is accurate. fusion is basically the same thing as USbank or CAL. can only be bought out by lessee.

6

Thank you for the replies and feedback just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something

7

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