The lease on my 2016 e-golf ends in early November, and I wanted to take advantage of a Carvana offer at $400 over my personal buyout amount (residual plus final payment plus a couple of bucks) now and step up to a 2019 e-golf, which they’re practically giving away here in Norcal. Today I discover that VW Credit’s dealer payoff quote was $840 over my personal payoff, and $440 over the Carvana offer, putting me in negative equity territory. Lots of forum posts here confirm that high dealer payoff quotes are typical for VW Credit and its Audi counterpart.
Therefore I’m tempted to simply buy it out myself and sell it to Carvana once I have title, taking advantage of the 10-day resale window to avoid paying CA sales tax. But I’m concerned about the timing with Carvana: I can’t arrange an appointment to close the transaction with them until I have title in hand, and I’ve heard stories about it being hard to get timely appointments with Carvana. That 10 day resale window to avoid CA sales tax is non-negotiable. I’ve seen people on the forums suggest doing what I’m contemplating, but has anyone actually done it? Any advice?
Actually, I lose $840 on Carvana doing the payoff vs doing it myself and selling to Carvana, all else being equal. (If I buy out lease myself, I’ll make $400 on the deal; if Carvana does the payoff, I pay Carvana my $440 negative equity). But I see your point: at what $$ is it worth the hassle. I guess that’s what I’m asking the forum, since I’d love to know how much hassle it would really be.
Carvana offer is locked for 7 days from original appraisal. Current offer expires in 3 days. I’d just get a reappraisal (2 minute task). Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. I’d just assume they go down.
Wear and tear charges. I’ll be dinged on dings. Cheaper for me to go with Carvana deal even at high dealer payoff than to simply return the car and pay turn-in settlement. And if I weren’t buying another VW, there would also be the disposition fee, so lots of reasons for buyout and not just turn it in.
I’ve pondered the same. 840 bucks is a decent amount of money for a few hours work, but I think there a real risk that you end up paying calif sales tax and flip the whole thing to a loss.
Also, If you somehow have to go the DMV to make this happen, it just got a lot less attractive
I am facing the exact same dilemma on my '17 Passat right now. Have about $1k in lease equity based on consumer payoff number. I am delaying getting dealer payoff with Carvana b/c I lost my current registration slip (official copy in mail from DMV now), but figure I will likely break-even or lose a bit once dealer payoff is tallied.
If I’m within $200-400 (negative) I’ll probably end lease early and let Carvana take it, even though on recent visit to dealer, salesman was convinced cost of “excess” wear and tear consisting of curb rash on rims and a scratched section of bumper would be <$300. He (yes, the sales guy) suggested I get an inspection so I know whether waiting for lease-end (December) or pulling trigger now makes most sense. 90-day window starts this week, so will prob get inspection so I’m at least fully informed. Good luck–I will report back as well.
Yeah, ironically I had a pre-inspection scheduled for today that I had to cancel, so now I’m waiting until Friday to find out the damage. Going by the VWCredit guidelines, I do have bumper scratches, curb rash, and a shallow but long dent that I’d be charged for. Waiting on that pre-inspection to make the decision. FWIW, I called Carvana, and in the SF Bay Area, most people are getting appointments within 7 days of uploading docs. But I believe the title you receive from VWCredit will still have them on it, and you’ll have to go to DMV or AAA office to get them off the title before you can even upload it to Carvana. So indeed, the risk/reward is high.
I was looking at having Carvana do a dealer payoff…number just came back $1,300 over their offer (and $2,300 more than my consumer payoff#) so unless I have damage in excess of $1,000 it makes no sense to unload the car early (taking disposition fee into account).
Just got the return inspection, which came in at $755 for a small dent, curb rash, tire damage, and bumper scratches. So if my next Carvana appraisal is as good or close to the last one, it makes sense to go with them and pay them the negative equity. I do think the personal buyout and resell within 10 days is too risky.
If anyone’s interested, I decided to sell the e-Golf to Carvana, paying them $408 negative equity, since that was $525 cheaper than the excess wear-and-tear charges I’d have to pay to turn it in. The day after Carvana received the new dealer payoff fax from VW Credit, I emailed an image of a $408 cashier’s check to Carvana, and later that day, I was able to make an appointment to have the car picked up two days later. Pickup was at home – a 15 minute affair. Four business days later, VWCredit account showed no balance due. Pretty simple. Quicker and easier than going through the lease turn-in process. If were a risk taker, I think I could have bought it myself and resold it to Carvana within 10 days of receiving title and saved an additional $700-800, depending on the Carvana offer at that point, given how quickly I was able to get a pickup appointment. But I think those of you who suggested that the risk wasn’t worth it were probably right.
FWIW I did a Carvana sale (not VW)and the delays I had did not result in re appraisal. They were cool. Will post on their thread.
Your biggest risk though was the 10d limit. Good you played it conservatively.
Wondering if there’s any grace on that 10d limit. Seems crazy to have no exceptions.
