Ridiculous the amount of time it took you to be able to drop off a car. My first lease return this year was with GMF and it was absolutely flawless. A dealer took the car without incident who I didn’t lease with. I was 2500 over mileage they didn’t even charge me. I didn’t lease another GM car, but will absolutely do so in the future. I’ll stay away from Chrysler.
How did you go back home after? This is a textbook example of how not to treat your customer. I leased a GC a few weeks ago and process was breeze including the delivery. We shall see at the drop off though I believe stiff competition in SoCal keeps most dealers in check regardless of the brand.
Good advice in here, sorry about the bad experience. For Mazda, it was painless. Got the pre inspection by SGS, dropped off the car unannounced to the local dealer we didn’t lease from in the car to be returned and the car we already leased to replace it. They could not sit us down to get us into another lease, and just took the ODO statement and we were on our way in 5 min.
Sorry to ask in this thread but I figured it’d be better than making another similar thread on this, but is there any issue for returning in a different state? I had some car troubles and am currently driving my dad’s Nissan cause there’s not much left on the lease. Only issue is he leased in Nevada and I’m in California. Will I have to take it back out there?
Im pretty sure you can drop it off at any nissan dealer. My case was a little different as I live in an area where the dealers are pretty bad. Even my neighbors get their cars from other areas. Also I had a dodge you’ll probably have better luck than I did.
Had a co-worker come with me. Guess your area is better than mine.
I have to return MB, BMW and a Caddy and never had a problem with any of them. Expected one from BMW since their service was terrible but to my surprise no issues.
Do you have to have a full tank of gas when you return? I can’t find any info on this. How about washing it? I don’t feel like going to the car wash for a car that’s going back.
Leased a BMW in Maryland, serviced it in NY at Rallye. I returned it to Rallye without a hitch. Made an appointment before, I even told them I got it elsewhere.
I also checked with Freeport as a backup, they would have taken it too. As long as I had the Autovin inspection, they didn’t care.
Maybe I got lucky, maybe it’s a mentality issue with these dying brands
No and no.
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I wonder what would happen if you left the keys, paperwork and signed odometer statement at the service department’s night drop with a note telling them it’s a lease return and that the sales department should deal with it.
When I returned my lease all I had to do was tell Ally where I dropped it off…There was no “verification” or anything.
Lol. Make sure you take pictures too. They might find some scratches that need fixing.
I’m dealing with Chrysler for returning my 2016 Fiat 500E. No one wants this car and they are pulling out of the market here in CA. Do yo guys think I should just drive the car and sit there until they take it back?
Also, the registration is expired. No insurance either. I’m so confused. Does it mean I can keep it?
Your best bet is to call the leasing company and tell them your situation. If you fulfilled your contract the car is theirs to deal with.
Have you tried returning it to the dealership you leased from?
Absolutely. It’s one of those unwritten rules like when you were waiting for the school bus as a kid and it was more than 30 mins late, you could go home and not go to school!
Before someone thinks I’m serious…no…you don’t get to keep the car. It’s still Chrysler’s. Try the originating dealership. If that doesn’t work, or you moved/bought from a dealer too far away from home, call Chrysler finance and tell them nobody wants to let you ground your car.
Incidentally, who told you Fiat was pulling out of CA? I can’t find a single bit of news on this. I can see them maybe shrinking their footprint by closing dealerships, but can’t see them pulling out of CA altogether unless they were pulling out of the US.
i used to work at a new car dealer . my job was to go get the lease return cars that they bought online from other same brand dealers .They are all hooked up to a website the public can not access… It was my understanding that the dealer that took in the terminated lease return had first crack at keeping the car…i often asked why the low milage creampuffs that i picked up were being sold off instead of kept for resale . The answer was always the same .To many of that model already sitting there taking up space, or maybe that model is not a hot seller wherever i brought it back from…
You know this thread got me thinking ,My wife and i have both been leasing for the last 15 years . We never let a car lease terminate … Since are cars alway are way under on miles and very good condition we alway end up selling it to whoever we get the
new car from .Usually a few months before lease ends .Might as well grab the equity right ?
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Had the exact same issue with a Hyundai lease. I called Hyundai Financial, and they told me I could return at any Hyundai dealership. Since the dealership I got the car from was a bit farther away, I called around to a few dealerships closer to me, but every single one of them said either their lot was full or I couldn’t return it at their dealership.
I ended up driving it back to the original dealership to return it. This inconvenience, in addition to some other issues with Hyundai FS made me vow to never buy or lease a Hyundai ever again 
Nothing new here. I’ve been leasing since 2004.
While the captive always says you can return at any dealership , the dealership closest to you doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork and prepping the car for auction. It’s more work for them and they’ll simply tell you they have no room to store it. I,e their lot is full or give you some other cockamamie story.
Dealer doesn’t prep it for auction. They store it till the captive sends a truck, however.