Hey Hackrs! I started my lease in January with 33mo/12K-a-year. I’ll be relocating from Miami to Ft. Myers in September but will be commuting to Miami once a week, which will send my mileage through the roof.
What would be the best plan here? Return the lease and absorb the early termination fee or try to switch it to Finance?
The car is Mazda CX-70 S Premium Plus with 8600 miles on the odometer (I’m already over the miles for the period). Lease payment is $767/mo.
First three things I would calculate and then compare the relative damage:
- Cost of paying for the extra miles at the end.
- Using the early termination formula in the lease contract, the cost of ending the lease now.
- Estimated additional cost of renting a car one day a week using a neighborhood rental agency location (vs an airport location), or Turo.
Not sure if Mazda allows this, but if they do I would also look at the cost of selling to a third party (Carmax, etc) and paying the difference out of pocket.
For all but #3 you still need to acquire something new to drive.
You could get as many as 3 or more cheap EV leases for the same payment, but there are obv range requirements and insurance implications, and you’d have to have somewhere to park your commuter fleet.
You could also buy a CPO Lexus with an unlimited mileage warranty.
Others will have additional thoughts.
Thank you so much! The option with selling to a 3rd party could be interesting but depends on the lease policy. Will need to look into that.
And I’ll have to the numbers on all the scenarios you mentioned.
Thanks again!
First you need to get the buyout price from Mazda. You run the risk of owing a large amount on an early lease turn in.
Option #4 - keep driving it till you move and evaluate your situation again.