Its a ‘tactic’…
This may unfortunately result in the car getting towed so be careful.
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Thanks for the information. I called Chrysler Capital again regarding my dilemma and they confirmed only the Ontario and Concord dealer locations have agreed to take lease returns. I said I left two messages for the Ontario location over a span of 2 weeks and haven’t heard back, so they said they will look into it for me. I’ll contact Ontario again tomorrow.
Anyway, having only two dealerships in the entire state of California that will agree to take lease returns is problematic.
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Typically for my store, you just come in and drop it off. Sign some paperwork and be in and out in 10 minutes.
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Last ditch effort, leave a BBB review and someone from their presidents office will call you and make arrangements.
Ok so what happens if nobody wants to ground the car? Isnt FCA obligated to take it? I mean you can send a letter to Chrysler Financial and say you tried but nobody wants to ground it. When they ready car is in your driveway for pick up. Again, just trying to think what is a clients responsibility here?
I thought towing was always an option. I only had to ground one lease, but that’s how they got it since my plates were already transferred to the new car.
I’m curious about this too. What does his contract say the penalty for not returning the car is? One would assume a towing truck will show up at one point…
Here are my legal thoughts - again I am not that crazy and my time is valuable. I’d figure out how to return it because even if I am right, much easier/cheaper fighting to get car returned than litigating. Anyhow:
My lease doesn’t have specific instructions on it. Just says I have to return it by lease end. I was curious and tried to do research on what the Virginia common law says about lease/rental property returns and basically couldn’t find any info, which I guess is because most disputes are resolved through arbitration these days.
I’m sure it varies by state law, but my guess in Virginia would be if the dealer you bought the car from refuses to accept it back and the leasing company can’t provide you a reasonable alternative/instructions you have no obligation to return the car until leasing company tells you were to bring it/asks to come get it. The law doesn’t allow Ford to lease you a car in Virginia and then at lease end say, oh BTW, you have to ground the car in Kansas. The presumption would be you return the car where you purchased it or somewhere reasonably close to that unless the contract specifies otherwise.
In a one party state like Virginia, I would record all my calls to be able to show I made an effort to return the car. Leasing company loses in arbitration if they say we don’t know where you return a lease 
that’s for you to figure out.
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Lets hope OP keeps up updated on what transpires. I need some closure. This and other threads, I hate that OPs sometimes never return.
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Looking forward to this as well.
I would start email blasting FCA executives and i guarantee it would be handled.
All you do is google search “Chrysler executives email addresses” and find a least one email format for anyone and then plug in the executives names into that format first.last@xyz.com firstinitial.last@xyz.com etc
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Better yet
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Now that’s legit
If you don’t ground it and it’s still at his house when the tow truck arrives, it’s a repossession.
I am coming up 3 months left on my Alfa lease worried about this - luckily in NJ i have a few dealers to try. I can understand your frustration. I’m not good with explaining what I need to do either and worried if they all say no. I’m not across the country from where I got it, but it is a 6 hour drive
I’ll be sure to update everyone on the outcome. I still haven’t heard back from Ontario but I got in contact with Glendale after playing some phone tag and am now scheduled for a lease return return this Friday!
I indicated interest in a Jeep but I was told they’re separate transactions and I don’t have to buy a car at the same time for them to process my lease return. So far so good but I’ll report back at the end of the week.
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That is true although in my limited experience (one semester working at a law firm) major leasing companies are much more hesitant to use repo trucks than the buy here pay here places. Those cheap places don’t worry about getting sued since their clients largely don’t have the money for a lawyer.
The big guys don’t want to risk a repo man doing something illegal and getting them involved in a messy lawsuit. Instead they will make more effort to contact you/get the legal system involved. This is a good example why. Trying to defend a repo when the claimant has strong evidence of you refusing to accept the vehicle’s return would be an unpleasant task.
The captives have no trouble sending a truck for their collateral. Obviously not at day 5, but if you have a new lease and haven’t made a single payment by day 61, or you haven’t returned your lease and it’s 31 days late, you better be certain your Uber/Lyft login is working. They will of course call first and make every effort before they send a truck, but they will clip you.
I have a good friend driving a 650 that someone leased and never made a single payment on it. When he bought it at Manheim (father in law has a dealership license and goes to auctions) the Carfax showed it had originally been titled less than 90 days prior. It had 1500 miles on the OD. BMWFS (among others) don’t play.
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Oh yeah, they are going to get their car back. There can be no doubting that and I wasn’t suggesting otherwise. But in this example, when someone calls you from FCA financial and you explain you would love to return the car tell me where, they are going to force a dealer to ground your car versus towing and hoping you don’t sue. Repoing is their last resort due to the costs of screwing one up (see for example SCRA) and they will work to avoid it. The big guys are also more likely to get a court order/use sheriffs deputies which is expensive but provides legal cover.
Now, the buy here pay here guys tow first and ask questions later. It’s almost like it’s their business plan to sell people cars/loans they can’t afford.
Hi Nikehz,
I leased not 1 but 2 Fiat’s from Orange coast Fiat for the crazy $49.99 Special and they did. Yes they closed down their fiat portion of the business but they are still open. I simply drove down there, I had already done the pre-inspection where they checked out the car. walked in there, they made sure i had the charger and both keys and signed a form and walked out, took maybe 10 minutes.
You should have no issues dropping them off at Orange Coast fiat, just get the Pre-inspection done and you should be golden.
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