But at the end of the day, whether I’m leasing a car or finance the car, until I pay off the car, AudiFS owns it either way🤷♀️
All the dealer is doing is switching my payment method from A to B. I am still the person who has had this car internally, hence I’m even staying with same plates…
It’s nothing like that.
Audi owns the car and you are a lessee. You are trying to purchase the car so that you own the car and they are the lien holder. These are two very different scenarios.
3 Likes
This is not true. When you finance it, you own the car. They hold the lien.
2 Likes
Then why does MD law say when car goes to leesee after lease, it does not need inspection if IN state
https://mva.maryland.gov/about-mva/Pages/info/27300/27300-30T.aspx
That is unrelated to the ownership and is a question you should be asking the dealer as to why they’re requiring it.
Don’t conflate two unrelated matters.
1 Like
You shouldn’t need to, per the law, but Audi dealers don’t have to handle your transaction from AFS either. Their stance will be, if you want them to handle the transaction, you will need to pay their doc fee and inspection fee.
But here is the gray zone, the inspection doesn’t have to be through them… it can be any 3rd party inspection and it qualifies through their words. They won’t make money off of it. I am fine with paying dealer fees. Just not inspection b.s.
What grey zone? If there isn’t a legal requirement to get an inspection, then the dealer is just levying it as a requirement to make the transaction worth their time. I’m sure if you show up with a 3rd party inspection report, they’ll just laugh at you and say “ya, no.”
If you want around this, either call other audi dealers and ask who will do it without or call audi fs and ask them to tell you where you can buy out your lease for the contractually specified amount.
1 Like
This is an odd place to draw a line. At least an inspection has some opportunity to offer you some value.
Only reason why I don’t want the “inspection” is because of my ceramic tint I paid $400 for. It’s 30%, right near the legal limit so no one would pull me over for it, but it would technically fail the inspection if being picky. I would have to pay $80 for MD inspection, $50 for tint removal, and $400 for new tint + dealer fees. I’m okay paying the processing/doc fees and calling it a day…
The 3rd party inspection would be an official MD inspection they want to supposedly “perform”.
That’s the point though… they want to get paid for it
what do you see in your AudiFS account when you request for a payoff quote through your online account? Do see any button/option about proceed with payoff?
1 Like
Let me check!
You need to go through an Audi dealer. You cannot complete the transaction without one. This was already posted multiple times in this thread.
OP: call other Audi dealers in MD and see what they say. Silver Spring, Frederick, etc.
Is there a good reason to buy out the lease early instead of waiting til the end?
The dealer may be trying to sell the inspection because you may have one due after 11 months. You can just do it yourself now before buying the car, if it is coming up soon.
I will side with the dealer, you weren’t at the end of your lease.