Lease Buyout Scenario Puzzle (Mazda CX-5)

[adamirl]

OK. Hello hackers!! Bit of complexity to this one so would love your thoughts!

I’m at the end of a 36month lease of 2018 Mazda CX-5 AWD GT . (Actually extended it out 6 months because we were relocating and needed some time to figure some stuff out).

Pros for this car: only 21000 miles, good condition. Worth more than residual.

Cons for this car: It had to have the front side panel replaced after someone shunted me in year one. So has been in an accident. (Listed as minor accident on Carfax).

Scenario:
We like the car and are considering buying it. In an ordinary circumstance we would just return it because of the accident and do another lease. But we need a car now and we do have “equity” in it since the Residual was around $18,500 and it’s currently worth upwards of $21,000 today (even with disclosing the accident) acc to carvana etc.

We do like the car, know the cars history and low mileage, we have equity in it and given the lack of options out there at the moment in the market - do those things outweigh the worry that it might not be smart to be buying a car with an accident listed on it’s Carfax??

Worth noting I have a good rate lined up for the purchase if I go with that option. I think it was 2.7% or something.

Someone on Reddit (!) told me I was insane for considering buying out a damaged car but that was before this market. Should I pay notice to that or feel comfortable that buying this car is totally a fine thing to do?

Additional puzzle piece. We leased the car in Oregon (no sales tax) and now live in California. Does anyone know if I will pay sales tax on the residual price I buy it for, or the original MSRP price since I never paid sales tax on that?

Thanks for your help.

[justsharing]

@adamirl

So has been in an accident.

I was in a similar situation on a financed CX-5.

After the accident i lost a lot of the value in the car. I used this market to get most of my equity back & sold it & got out of the “underwater” situation.

The car was also coming up on changing of brakes & other maintenance requirements.

Leased another CX-5 for little bit higher than i would have normally but reduced my monthly payment by $100 & saved $ on upcoming maintenance.

My advice, better to pay little bit more in a short term on a new lease, instead of being stuck with negative equity once the market dies down (some have seen offers dropped already).

@adamirl

Residual was around $18,500 and it’s currently worth upwards of $21,000 today

$2,500 is not enough equity, this can evaporate tomorrow in this crazy market.

@adamirl

Does anyone know if I will pay sales tax on the residual price I buy it for, or the original MSRP price since I never paid sales tax on that?

California 10 day tax exempt For lease buyout

Hi I have looked thoroughly here and this topic has not been discussed. In CA, you are allowed to payoff your leased car in order to resell it without paying taxes on the payoff IF you can sell it back and to a third party which would need to register the car within ten days of the original leasee recieving the title form the lessor company. BUT YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THE CAR IS TRANSFERED TO THE NEW ONWER WITHIN 10 days. Now is the tricky part. What if I payoff the car and sell it to s deal…

This thread may have useful information.

[winfieml1]

Where did you line up the 2.7% rate? Can you provide more details because I am currently looking to buy my mazda cx-5 out of my lease.