Haven’t we been over this? There’s a reason it isn’t in your contract.
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The contract either states we can trade in our leases at any time or never. It can’t be both. And if they are allowing some people to trade in and others not, then that would put Ford in a position to be sued for discrimination so I have to believe it’s one or the other, not either at Ford’s discretion.
Regardless, it’s ridiculous even Ford’s lease specialists don’t even know because each one has told me different. I’ve now had them tell me you can’t trade in within 120 days but can outside of that, you can NEVER trade in a Ford lease, the 120 day thing doesn’t exist at all, if you extend your lease the 120 days is based off the new end date, you can extend but still can never trade your vehicle in, etc. All of this has been from Ford’s own lease experts.
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Your contract allows you to buy out your lease. It doesn’t allow you to sell their property.
They may choose to extend to you the courtesy of sharing the profit on the sale of their asset if they want to, but that is their prerogative. They certainly aren’t required to.
I agree that it is annoying that they aren’t consistent in communicating their internal policy of when they extend this courtesy.
It’s not both, it’s neither… If they elect to allow you to do something out of the kindness of their heart, they can do so on their own (even changing) terms no matter how much it may hurt your feelings as they are not contractually obligated to do anything other than allowing YOU to buy their car. I do agree that the inconsistent responses you’ve received has to be frustrating.
I’m plugged into this thread, I’m working on two new f150’s, so if you have more than 6 months remaining can you confirm a 3rd party buyout for the vehicle is possible?
Last f-150 I turned in a few months ago I had to have the dealer match the buyout and got a check from them, within last 120 days I have been told by multiple ford sm’s and gm’s that ford locks the price of the vehicle and even ford dealers cannot buy it at the price given to you, they must pay a different and higher amount that ford dictates.
That is absolutely how it worked when I traded in a Ford lease towards a Chevy last year. I made sure I chose a Chevy dealer that also had a Ford store down the street to make this easier. Of course, it still wasn’t totally easy as they screwed up the pay off a bit (I told them to make sure the payoff check was sent from their Ford store and not the Chevrolet store but they sent it from the Chevy store anyway) but it all worked out in the end after the Ford store sent the check✔️
And…The Ford store that sent the payoff was not the dealer that originated the lease.
I just turned in my newly leased Chevy vehicle because they took my Ford as a trade in and Ford refused payment from them. They also have a Ford store down the road and were told Ford could only accept payment from me. The fact that Ford is allowing one thing in one circumstance and another for you (or anyone else) could open Ford up to discrimination suits. Now I’m certainly no snowflake but who’s to say they aren’t stopping me from doing what you did based off age, race, gender, pick your category? It’s highly likely Ford is just extremely stupid and not malicious, but what’s to stop someone from claiming otherwise? Seems like extremely poor business practice to not follow the same set of rules 100% of the time, which is even what one Ford representative told me. He said if they allowed it for me they’d have to allow it for everyone. This entire situation baffles me.
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Nothing strange happened in your case, that is exactly the same as mine. The Chevrolet dealer cannot make the pay off. The Chevrolet dealer needs to get with a Ford Dealer to arrange it for you, and that is easier if they have a sister store.
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So in my case Ford wasn’t (isn’t) budging at all. Even with a Ford dealer under the same name as the Chevy dealer, Ford would not accept payment from anyone but myself. In which case I needed to purchase the vehicle first, which then would have cost $3,000+ in taxes and fees which completely wiped out my equity.
It seems in your case the trade eventually went through with some inconvenience. For me, I returned my Chevy on Monday night and took my Ford back because there was no way to physically trade it in, which is the point of Ford’s rules. Purchase it from them and pay taxes and dealer fees (wiping out any possible equity), give a car with equity back to them, or purchase a new Ford are currently my only options. All of those situations work out in Ford’s favor so I’m surprised they’ve gotten away with such anti consumer practices for so long since most manufacturers allow you to trade in leases anywhere.
To be fair, in my case it took just about a month for everything to be resolved. It was a major major inconvenience 
In the end, I think the sister Ford store to the Chevrolet store which I got my car from contacted the originating dealer for the Ford lease (in CA…my dealer was in FL) and somehow made the payment through them.
It also depends on how much time is remaining on your lease. I don’t remember the specifics with Ford credit, but that also plays into it.
The short story seems to be, unless you are trading the car back into the dealer that originated the Ford lease, it has the potential to be a debacle. I certainly wouldn’t try it again, it simply wasn’t worth the effort.
And as far as equity goes, as has been discussed in some other threads, the leasing company really is under no obligation to allow us to capture equity during the lease for the sale of something we dont actually own. It just works out that some of them do and we can take advantage of it when it’s convenient.
Just spoke to ford and they told me 3rd party buyouts are allowed, talked to vroom,Carvana and a few others and they all stated they can’t buyout from ford.
Looks like I gotta deal with a ford dealership.
Autonation will buy it, request the appraisal online, and then if you are happy with that, take it to an autonation ford dealer.
here is someone who has done it
Sold one to AUTONATION!
No autonation ford dealers near me. I’m in mid Atlantic region
Nope, if that were possible it would have been done. My ONLY options right this second are to purchase the car from Ford or give it back.
As a side note, I just spoke to a Ford supervisor. She was super sketchy and talked in circles. She told me the 120 day thing is Ford policy and when I asked why it wasn’t in my contract she stated it was just their policy. Then I asked why I could trade it in on day 121 (she confirmed I could) but not on day 120 and all she could say was it was their policy. When I mentioned she wasn’t actually answering my questions she got super sketchy. I asked her if I extend my lease, would that put me outside the 120 day window (which a previous Ford employee said it wouldn’t) she simply told me I could do whatever I wanted with the vehicle at that point. I asked if she could send me that in writing because I know damn well as soon as I hang up with her and extend my lease, someone will tell me I can’t trade it in, she said she couldn’t provide that in writing.
So basically I’ll just wait for an executive to respond to my BBB complaint because clearly Ford is not being straight with their customers and refuses to give their own policy, that isn’t in the contract I signed, in writing.
As mllcb42 has stated, the supervisor mentioned it was their car so I had no right to any equity in the vehicle, but then turned right around and stated if I was outside 121 days, I could trade it in and thus have the ability to cash in my equity. So to summarize, it’s Ford’s vehicle so I can’t keep the equity BUT if I were outside the 120 day window I CAN keep the equity. They CANNOT give this to me in writing and it is NOT in my contract. Nothing but fuckery.
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As has been repeatedly pointed out, your contract does not give you the right to trade in your Ford. It gives you the right to buy it. It does not give anyone else the right to buy it. I suspect their BBB response will simply mention the 120 day policy.
Moral of the story is if you are going to lease a Ford and want more options at the end of term, don’t go through Ford Credit.
Request the dealer do the lease through a CULA credit union and you can trade out whenever you want. 3rd parties can buy it out early/end of term for the same payoff amount the customer can or you can turn it in at the end and have a $1k wear and tear waiver.
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Why don’t you just follow the contract you agreed to and be done with the frustration?
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This thread is also just going in circles.
Not sure how many times you need to be told the same thing. You have no rights beyond what’s in the contract. Everything else belongs to the owner, including but not limited to: They can set any policy they want unless it’s explicitly disallowed in the contract. They can turn on and turn off any courtesies at will, at any time and with no notice, including the ability to transfer a lease or trade it in, etc etc.
At this point you are just trolling the forum as well as the lessor by ignoring and willfully refusing to understand or even acknowledge basic concepts that have been explained to you by multiple people multiple times.
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