Looking to lease a car in the near future. However, my future holds a bit of uncertainity (maybe only like 10%) and I just want to cover my bases in case of a worst case event.
If i lease a car and have to move out of the country in a year or so, how is the market for selling leases on swap a lease? Is it almost guaranteed you’ll get an offer like selling a car (even if you lose a little bit)? Is selling a lease to vroom always an option as well?
Can I decide to purchase the car before the 3 years are up (i.e. pay the buyout 1.5 years in)?
In order to end your lease early, you would either a) have someone else assume your lease or b) have someone buyout the lease.
Lease Assumption:
Many brands will allow you to transfer out of your lease and assign it to someone else after paying a lease transfer fee and submitting required documentation. Those brands include BMW, Lexus etc.
Some brands will not allow lease transfers at all such as Honda, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Hyundai etc.
A select few brands, such as Audi or Infiniti, allow lease transfers, but keep the original leasee liable. It is generally not recommended to do a transfer as you would remain liable for the car after transfer.
There are some other restrictions that can affect your ability to do a transfer such as remaining months on the lease and regional restrictions. It is best to check with your leasing company by calling them directly.
Once you decide you want to transfer out of your lease, you can post your car for free under LH’s private transfer section:
Alternatively, you can list your car for a fee with www.swapalease.com or www.leasetrader.com which are two large lease transfer marketplaces that have a large user base of people actively looking to assume leases.
Lease Buyout:
You can have a third party buyout the car from most lease companies. In order to do that, you would call your leasing company and get the current “dealer payoff quote” which is the amount of money needed right now to payoff your car which will satisfy your lease agreement. Some banks charge market rate for the vehicle, which will be more than your personal pay off… Once you have that number you can take your car to your local Carmax and see what they would offer to buy your car. If the amount is near or above your dealer payoff quote, then you can sell it to them and you would be out of the lease. Alternatively, you can get an online quote from vroom.com or carvana.com who will give you an instant online offer. If you accept the offer, they would come and pick up the car from you and pay you on the spot. Ideally you would get a quote from all sources as they may vary significantly. For more information, please see forum discussions:
For additional information, make sure to check out Leasehacking 101: How to End Your Lease Early
The only brands currently at the cross-section of allowing lease transfers + holding values well for selling purposes, thus leaving two exit strategies open: Toyota and maybe Lexus (their entry level models up to RX)
Ofc a 24m lease would take any of that risk away.
Where did you get this notion from? Sometimes selling a car involves losing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
Agreed you could lose a bit, but assuming a worst case scenario where you have to move overseas, you can almost always sell to carmax, carvana or vroom.
Wanted to better understand what is the cost of returning car early. I want to lease a car for 24 months (as I’ll be leaving the country in 2 years). The cost for that is much higher than the regular 36 period. When talking with a dealer they said it is better to get the 36 months deal and just return the car after 24 months (they will buy it from me).
That sounds a bit fishy to me. Is that true? Or will I still have to pay (or deduct from sale price) the remaining 12 months of lease?
They’ll buy it but there’s no guarantee for how much. You’ll be on the hook for the lesser amount of either your negative equity or the sum of remaining payments, disp and excess wear.
