Need some opinions. My dealership called asking if I’d be interested in turning in my 2022 CR-V 10 months early because they need to boost their used car inventory. This excited me because of the ongoing sunroof leak and ensuing electrical issues that they couldn’t resolve - along with the sheer feeling of being stuck in a car with high monthly payments only for it to rain on me while I’m driving.
I told them I was only interested in doing this if there wasn’t any negative equity. Between the car having less than half of the total mileage allowance (and their desperation for inventory) they assured me that I would be taken care of so I agreed to meet with them.
When I arrived, they sat me down, gave me a bottle of water and inspected the car. They came back, said how great the car is and offered to take it off my hands - if I wrote them a check for $900. Remember, I didn’t ask for this, they did. Why would I pay them for something they wanted so badly from me. Feeling frustrated about having my time wasted, I declined the offer and left.
As I was driving home, they called me to say they “made some calls” and now offered to take the car without the $900 check from me, and no lease termination/other fees - free and clear.
Should I accept their offer and just walk away from this problematic leaky car that has roughly $4,000 in remaining payments? I want to get into a better lease - not with Honda - so I’m thinking this may be my way out?
Thanks for the info! With Honda blocking third party lease buy outs, do you think a Honda dealership would take the quotes I got from CarMax and Carvana into consideration? I feel like they would just scoff at it and say “that’s great and all, but they can’t buy your lease anyways”. Maybe I should bring it to other Honda dealerships?
Earlier in my career I wrote direct mail pieces for car dealers.
It didn’t matter what inventory actually looked like, there was always “unprecedented demand for late-model used vehicles like your [year] [make] [model].”
A little Background: I currently lease a CR-V that has electrical/leaking issues with 10 months left in the term. Initially I asked for numbers on a Touring FWD and instead got cheeky and sent me this for Touring AWD and Elite AWD.
Here is the offer that they sent me today if I was to turn my CRV in and lease a Honda Prologue.
I was told this includes the state and fed tax rebate and other honda incentives that I qualify for. First column would be $0 down payment and just the dealer/doc, government fees and the others would be with a down payment I’m assuming - which I have no interest. Does the math… Well… math?
Put together a well researched target deal on this before speaking to any dealers. You’ve got to know where you’re trying to get to before talking numbers.
Honda doesn’t allow third party lease buyouts so I can’t really act on those other than maybe use them against the dealer. I just figured they would say “that’s great, but you’re stuck with us”.
You have some equity (kinda, minus the $2k you put down) and room to make some moves. If you can get $26,500 on the CRV AFTER you work a deal on your next ride you are all good with your $2k back in your pocket and no leaky sunroof.
Figure out what you really want, Honda or otherwise, have a plan on getting the deal you want, close it and then get your $26,500 for the CRV on the tail end of the deal as was said above.
Exactly what I thought as well. Which is why I requested numbers on the FWD Touring model because it’s below the MSRP cap. So when I asked him about that he claimed that since he was discounting the MSRP that it would still be able to be applied. I told him I’ve never heard of that happening before and didn’t know that was even possible. He also “wasn’t aware” that I was eligible for the 1k loyalty incentive as well so I’m even more skeptical. He’s gotta be playing dumb right?
