Looking for some advice on my situation. Selling Lease to a Dealership Other than Honda

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
, ,
1

Hello everyone, I hope this is the correct place to ask about this.

So I have a leased 2020 Honda Civic Hatchback Sport and I’m 14 payments away from the end of the lease with currently 12,700/36,000 miles on it. The payoff amount is $18,500.
I literally went to more than 5 dealerships last summer (they all wasted my time) plus places like Car Max and the other online services. I wanted to get out of it (sale it and walk free).
This week I got an email from a Volkswagen dealership in Brooklyn, I put the car’s VIN and got a trade in value certificate of $25-27k and they called me later that they were interested in the vehicle. I just left the dealership, they didn’t even look at the car much lol, and they were going to have me sign to take the car and I walk away clean.

I guess my question is, at this point can I negotiate? Say I ask for $21-23k, they pay the payoff amount and I keep the rest? I kinda of asked about the actual value of the car but the guy said that since it’s a lease they just pay the payoff and " I’m good ".
I know that if I want to make the most profit, I would need to pay that off myself and then go to Car Max, Carvana, etc… but honestly I want to do this hassle free. I’m also not interested in another car for now which maybe if that was the case they would be more than happy to roll the equity into something else.

Any thoughts on this situation? What would you do? Thanks in advance.

I’ll include some pictures since the car got somewhat vandalized while parked but its ok beside those scratches that would be considered
more than regular wear and tear. (the front grill is cracked as well not my fault lol)

IMG_3622
IMG_36221574×2100 328 KB

IMG_3625
IMG_36251574×2100 519 KB

3
31920×1440 251 KB

4
41920×1440 202 KB

2

Honda doesn’t allow 3rd party buyouts, so none of them can buy the lease without you buying it first.

A honda dealer (or dealer associated with a honda dealer) can buy it or you can buy it and sell it to whomever.

3

Right that’s what I thought and I communicated that but they said that I would be good… :upside_down_face:

4

You need to check the KBB value and then shop it around to the Car Max, Carvana, dealers, etc. I would personally buy out the current lease and then flip it to the highest buyer. There is no better time than now to buy the car post-lease and sell it.

1 Like
5

They may be able to process it through a honda dealer. That said, if they’re trying to take it off your hands for the $18500 payoff and you’re seeing numbers in the $25k range, you’d be crazy to let them do it. As mentioned above, get some more purchase prices. You’ll need to factor in taxes and such on if you bought it yourself, but it’ll give you a good comparison point.

1 Like
6

I’m thinking of buyout by myself and sell it to thrid-party or just sold it dealership, but I’m not sure about the sale tax thru dealership.

1 Like
7

If you buy it, you have to pay sales tax when you buy it. If a dealership buys it, there is no sales tax paid.

1 Like
8

Cool, so I guess they can lowball the price.

1 Like
9

Yah, this is why it’s always a good plan to get lots of offers. Sometimes the low ball price still means more money in your pocket though because you don’t have to pay the tax man.

1 Like
10

Note: California has an exception to this rule. If you buy for the purpose of selling, you have ten days to sell and get a refund.

Any other state with this rule?