Hi all, I’ve been lurking here for a while but this is my first serious post. I’ve searched around but nothing matched my specific dilemma. I traded my 2016 Accord in to a Mazda dealership. My lease on the accord isn’t up yet but my payoff and trade value were a wash. I call Honda and get a payoff quote, the Mazda dealership is getting a payoff quote that is $350 higher (equivalent to the turn-in fee).
The lease contract states that if I don’t purchase the vehicle I owe the $350 fee. No question there. My question, and the question that I went back and forth with Honda Finance on is the fact that the vehicle is being purchased. It shouldn’t matter whether I pay out of my own pocket, get a loan from a bank, loan from uncle Joe, or have the dealership pay the car off on my behalf. After all, that is what we do when we sign a power of attorney.
My other argument with Honda against this fee is that the lease contract is between Honda and myself. NOBODY else can purchase this vehicle without my consent and agreement since they are a third party to the contract. So if the vehicle is being purchased there should be no turn-in fee period. Unfortunately, the supervisor I spoke to at Honda just hung onto the fact that I wasn’t paying for the vehicle with my money.
What do you guys think or what has been your experience?
You state that the lease is between you and Honda, and that if you do not buy the car, you owe $350. Since the Mazda dealer, not you, would be buying the car, the extra $350 has to be paid, right? You are not buying the car.
Mazda is buying out your vehicle and you are giving them permission so there should be no disposition fees. Take a look at your original contract with Honda.It should state in the disposition column if this is different.
Not sure which state you are in because my comment has to do with taxes, but to consider, when I traded in my Honda lease around 4 years ago, Honda Financial would only give me a payoff quote which included the tax as if I was buying out the vehicle. They would not give me the dealer pay off which is without tax. So the actual dealer pay off with the new dealer (non-Honda) had to pay was about $1800 less.
In your case if you are in state that pays tax on the monthly lease payment, you might want to check this out.
Im in MD. What’s interesting is when I use their automated phone system I get three options:
1-lessee, bank, credit union payoff
2-Honda or Acura dealer payoff
3-other dealer
Options 1 and 2 give me a payoff with no disposition, option 3 asks for a zip code. With a MD zip code the payoff includes the turn in fee. However, when I try a CA zip code I get the same payoff as I do with option 1 and 2 with no turn in fee.
My Genesis lease has the same payoff no matter what option i select as did my infiniti previously and my VW…so I dont think it has anything to do with MD laws requiring it.
I think Honda is trying to make a few bucks even though the contract clearly states that if I don’t purchase the vehicle I owe the turn in fee.
I’ll call honda again tomorrow, took me 25 minutes to get someone on the phone today.
Chuck, the thing is that the dealer is only buying the car with my permission and through me via a power of attorney. They are essentially settling my lease contract in full and requesting the title as any bank would if i were to take out a loan…i don’t see the difference.
Read your contract. Audi Financial Services is similar in that they give different payouts for the leasee and a 3rd party dealership. Audi’s price difference is usually much larger than just the disposition fee.
Jon, according to the contract I owe the remainder of the payments, the buyout and any applicable taxes and fees. I know that the $350 is a “fee” however, the only place where the $350 turn-in fee is mentioned is “If I don’t purchase the vehicle.” My whole argument is that by trading the vehicle in, I am purchasing the vehicle from Honda regardless of who is financing it (in this case the dealership) and then what I do with the vehicle is none of Honda’s business.
My payoff includes the remainder of the payments, there are no other fees identified in the contract and the taxes are taken care of on the new Mazda 6 so I’m thinking that this “turn-in” fee is bogus in this case since the contract doesn’t differentiate among third party financing. I don’t know if you saw my post above but when I use a CA zip code for the payoff there is no turn-in fee.
According to my Honda lease agreement, executed in Ohio, if I exercise my option to purchase prior to the end of the lease term, the purchase price will be…
The adjusted lease balance plus
(a) any payments and other charges due and unpaid except excess mileage and excess wear and;
(b) any taxes or fees required by law in connection with the purchase.
The adjusted lease balance is the unamortized portion of the adjusted capitalized cost determined on an actuarial basis where earnings are accrued on the first day of every period.
In other words, my purchase price is the sum of…
(1) the present value of your remaining payments plus the present value of the residual using the actuarial rate (i.e., interest rate) implicit in the lease.
(2) any other payments and charges in connection with the lease
(2) all taxes and fees required in connection with the purchase.
Your question illustrates the need for lessees to create a lease amortization schedule such as the one found here
Under no circumstances should one be charged a disposition fee when exercising the purchase option. Some lease agreements require the payment of a purchase option fee which is usually the same amount as the disposition fee. There is no purchase option fee specified in my Honda Lease Agreement. There is, however, a turn-in fee (i.e., disposition fee) of $350 IF I don’t purchase the vehicle.
there’s one big assumption made here, that the $350 fee difference is in fact for the dispo fee. Did anybody actually state that or are you just assuming that given that the amounts match?
That’s not to say Honda doesn’t do things differently state to state or region to region. Chrysler doesn’t charge an acquisition fee in every locale…it’s based on region.
I just went though the same thing, though I haven’t contacted Honda about it yet.
I just traded in my 2015 Odyssey to a local used car dealer with one month’s payment left on the lease. So my Honda account online shows the buyout price as the sum of the value stated in my lease contract, plus my last remaining payment.
Yet when the dealer called Honda, the amount they were told is $370 higher. I am assuming this is the 350 disposition fee plus 6% PA tax.
One reason I’ve been hesitant to call Honda is that in bold on the back of my lease (which I didn’t notice until a day or two later) it says something along the lines of “Honda has the exclusive right to sell this vehicle”…
Either way, had I turned it in at lease end it would have cost me the disposition fee plus one more months payment. By trading it in, I got a check for a few hundred bucks. Maybe that check should have been $370 higher, but at this point I’ll take it and be done with it.
(In the mean time, my Honda account now shows as past due, as they apparently haven’t applied the dealer’s check to close my account yet, 10 days after the trade in…)
The funny thing through all of this is, when I spoke to Honda, the rep and her supervisor both informed me that the purpose of this fee is to ensure loyalty to the brand I promptly informed them that nickel and diming customers is the worst way to ensure loyalty to their brand. This was my second and likely last Honda for a while.
I have another lease coming up due soon where I had my eye on a 2.0T Accord Sport but I think I’ll look elsewhere…
I never said or assumed that the two amounts must match. What I said is that they usually are the same amount. At least, that’s been true in every lease contract that I’ve seen. I realize there may be exceptions. Some of the posts above make reference to a disposition fee. There is a difference between a purchase option fee and a disposition. I want to make sure everyone clearly understands. Geez, do have to spell everything out?
What I said was there is no purchase option fee in my Honda Lease Agreement (executed in Ohio). This does not, in any way, imply or suggest that this is universally true for all Honda lease agreements executed in other states or regions…
This is the part that I am referring to that @khezik isn’t paying attention to. Can you copy and paste the entire text relating to that portion of your contract? Thanks.
I don’t have it handy to post at the moment, I’ll try to dig it up tonight.
I’m just figuring that if Honda wanted to prevent me from selling the Odyssey to a used car dealer, they would have told the dealer that it wasn’t my car to sell and that he couldn’t buy it from me. But they gave him a price, and he gave me a check, so in my mind they approved the sale by providing a price to the dealer!
I promptly informed them that nickel and diming customers is the worst way to ensure loyalty to their brand. This was my second and likely last Honda for a while.