I bought out directly from NMAC in August. I’m based in VA and tried two local dealers first, who both wanted ~$1000 in fees.
my local infiniti dealer wanted $700 and inspection fee which total came up to over $1k. found dealer an hour away who only charged couple of hundred.
I am also in VA and bought out my NMAC lease directly “through a financial institution”. I originally had my personal payoff check returned from NMAC. I was told that the payoff had to be from a financial institution, essentially through a secured collateral bank loan. Not all credit unions and banks will offer secured collateral loans on lease buyouts, and may try to steer you to unsecured loans which will be returned by NMAC.
In Virginia, sales tax is paid upfront, and for lease buyouts, there is a sales tax exemption that only applies to a lease buyout from the finance company or the “originating dealer”. My originating dealer wanted at whopping $1800 in total fees to do the transaction. If I had gone to a different nissan or infinity dealer offering to do the lease buyout for $1000 in fees, I would have been on the hook for $1500 in sales tax.
In the end everything worked out and I saved almost 2k in fees, but it was not an easy process by any means.
my local FORD dealer charges 500$ dealer mark-up on top of customer pay-off plus sales tax and doc,DMV
You have say the state, Ford does that in CA and FL but not all states.
Ohio state
Did you have to go to a Ford Dealer or you did it to facilitate the financing?
You Have to go to a Ford dealer
@michael Can you update this list? I’ve seen cases where NMAC allows it, but very few states, and cases where Ford forces it, so far 3 states, CA, FL, OH
I had a lease on a 2019 Chevy Traverse in Florida. At the end of the lease, GMAC Leasing forced me to go to a dealer to do a lease buyout. The dealer (Jack Hanania Chevrolet in St Augustine) initially wanted to charge me an $899 document fee, a $440 inspection fee, and several other fees totaling $409 (filing, registration, doc stamp) in order to process the buyout. While they eventually agreed to waive the inspection fee, I felt that the remaining fees were excessive. I’ll never lease a car from GMAC again and certainly will never do business with any Jack Hanania dealership.
Never say never.
That’s because you didn’t buy the car from them.
Don’t blame the dealer blame your local politicians. The dealers are just ‘taking advantage of it’ just like you would on a good lease deal.
The politicians in FL were heavily lobbied and influenced by the Auto dealers who have now required you to go through a dealer to buy out your vehicle along with additional “fees”…it applies to all manufacturers.
The one exception we have seen is if the captive also has a dealers license in the state (which most do not), then in theory they could facilitate your buyout though I’d imagine some fees would still be involved.
Following is what I learned after contacting Florida legislators and the office of DMV at the Florida state capital about buying my leased auto:
In FL, once a person or company sells more than 3 vehicles in a given year, they are considered to be acting as a dealership and must obtain a dealer license. This is per Florida Statute section 320.27 (1) (c ). Many auto leasing companies do not have a Florida dealer license. Consequently, I am unable to purchase my leased Lexus directly from Lexus Financial Services. When I’m ready to purchase my leased Lexus, I will shop different dealers for the lowest dealer fees.
I asked the Florida legislators to make an exception to the state statute for auto lessors. Floridians should be able to purchase their leased vehicle directly from the lessor or choose to purchase from an auto dealer. Give Floridians the freedom to choose.
Updating the wiki to reflect this
2 Likes
Just bought out my nissan lease in Illinois. The “direct” option did not show up on nmac lease website, only “dealer assisted”.
Doc fee 375, and they charged extra 75 on top of 300 “purchase option” that is in the contract, explaining that is a “new requirement from Nissan”
You shouldve called