Honda Financial Services Buyout Question

My brother has a 2019 Honda Civic Si lease that is maturing in about a week. He already got a new 2022 Honda Civic Sport M/T. We realized there is positive equity and want to sell the car to a 3rd party, such as CarMax or Carvana. However, from what I read, it seems like Honda Financial Services has barred 3rd party sales. My question is…

Is it better to finance the buyout or pay cash, and then resell to CarMax? Which is better? Don’t we end up paying less sales tax if we finance the buyout (From leasing, I noticed the sales tax is based off the monthly payment amount, whereas if we paid cash, I am assuming we would pay the sales tax based off the whole buyout/residual amount)?

You’ll pay the same sales tax in either situation

Ah, I see, same tax implications for either options. Uh, I guess, one last question – once we finance the lease buyout (let’s say with Honda Financial Services), can we sell to CarMax right away, or only until we pay it off and have title in hand? Would we still be barred from selling to 3rd parties?

You have two options and wont know which is better until you get some offers

  1. Sell it to a Honda dealer. A lot of people have had good experiences selling to Autonation dealers in general and there are a few Honda ones in Socal. You can get a quote from their online portal

OR

  1. Pay sales tax and sell it to whoever you want
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Hey Jeff, you’re the one who helped my brother get into his new 2022 Honda Civic Sport M/T recently, thank you. :laughing:

Autonation has an authorized Honda dealership (Autonation Honda of Costa Mesa), so I am assuming they are not barred from buying Honda lease-ends like CarMax, Carvana, and the rest from HFS?

Anytime!

Autonation Honda or any Honda dealer can buy it directly from him with no sale tax paid, I recommend getting at least a few offers for it

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