UPDATE: When I went to the DMV to transfer the title to my name, they collected the sales tax. So while it wasn’t collected as part of the payoff made to Honda Financial, it was collected by the county when I went to transfer the title to my name.
I have a lease on a 2018 Accord Touring that ends in September. Right now my plan is to purchase a Tesla Model Y. The payoff on the Accord is $19,000 something. Tesla has offered me $25,100 as trade value on the Accord. CarMax has offered $26,600 (Vroom and Carvana were both less) But, HFS does not allow 3rd party buyouts. I have enough cash where I could buy out the Accord.
Is my best option to buy out the Accord and then turn around and sell the car to CarMax for $26,600? Or should I just take Tesla’s offer of $25,100?
Out of curiosity do you know how the payoff situation works if you finance a car coming off lease? If you pay cash you could not sell it until you receive title in mail from HFS. How does it work for finance? Do you have to wait to payoff loan/sell car until bank gets physical paperwork from HFS?
This is becoming more of an issue now that many finance companies are preventing third party buy outs. Would be interesting to know what allows a quicker sale of vehicle, paying cash or financing for buying car at lease end.
Honda has had that listed for years and is in reference to 3rd party individuals rather than 3rd party dealers.
That isn’t to say if they have or have not recently changed their policy regarding dealer buy outs (I’ve seen one unconfirmed report saying they have, but it was also from somewhere that had said a handful of other banks were no longer allowing 3rd party buy outs as well that have been since confirmed to still allow them).
I don’t know definitively, and I imagine that it varies by state as to if there’s a paper title floating around or if it’s all done with electronic titles. I can’t imagine it could ever be quicker to not pay cash though and every extra step must add some time.
I will check. I guessed I just thought that CarMax, Vroom, Carvana, etc., would be considered 3rd party and not dealers. But, maybe they are considered dealers as they do buy and sell cars.
I think the question they’re really trying to address there is “My neighbor Johnny wants my car for himself instead of me turning it in. Can he just buy it from you instead of me?”
Honda will allow a CarMax buyout. I just hours ago sold a leased Acura to CarMax, which is Honda Motor Finance company.
Will post details on separate thread soon.
I spoke with CarMax today, and like others have said they will buy out leases financed through HFS. They said they’ve heard rumors that Honda will be changing this, but nothing has come of it yet.
It’s a touring, it’s the top of the line honda accord trim. And yes they are offering over $25k for the buyout, I have just recently received the same numbers for my accord touring as well.
However looking for a new honda lease is impossible, every dealership selling at msrp. My payment on my touring is so low I’m going to extend it another year, I can’t even get a base no frills honda civic for the price I’m paying now.
And if I have to ill buy the lease out which if the low inventory chip shortage nonsense continues will still be cheaper than leasing a new car with the same options my car has.
