I currently have 3 vehicles and only need 2. I’m looking for thoughts/ideas/opinions on the predicament I have. All input is appreciated!
Situation: Have a Civic (owned, valued at approximately $11.5k) and a 2016 Honda HRV (leased, with 6 months remaining). I would like to get rid of either one in the most cost effective way. However, the problem with getting rid of the leased HRV is that the leasing company only gives me 3 options:
Buy out the car now: $15961 + tax
Pay up the remainder of the payments $1679 + $450 disposition fee (+ possible excess wear and tear, which is likely based on what I’m reading in reviews of this leasing company)
Sell it to a dealer (car had an accident with structural damage previously, so seems no dealer wants it. dealer also refused to assist in a “third party transfer” to avoid double taxation when selling to another individual)
They will not allow me to have an individual buyer purchase it directly from them to avoid double taxation and they do not negotiate lease-end buyout prices.
Insurance on either of these is costing me between $600-800 over the remainder of the lease as well.
I know selling the Civic would solve a lot of problems, but wifey likes the civic and:
we still have to deal with excess wear and tear charges at lease end on the HRV (which is very likely)
puts us at a bad spot in 6 months when I am forced to look for a new car again, which limits my ability to wait and hunt for a good deal
Whats the cost effective way solution for this predicament?
Your only real option considering the structural damage is paying the rest of the payments and the disposition fee. You signed a contract and now you have to fulfill it.
I feel like you’re missing some info. What is the 3rd car, and why will you need a 3rd car again in only 6 months? You could potentially convert the Civic into a lease on a new Civic so that wife still has a Civic to drive…
the 3rd car is a BMW that i just started leasing. So thus, only 2 options are the other vehicles.
Your idea about converting the civic to a lease… that might work… return the HRV and get new lease at the same time (but I still doubt the dealership would buy out the HRV without just rolling in the payments into my new lease) and sell the old civic
Is the HR-V leased from Honda Financial Services or some other lender?
Assuming the car has been repaired properly, it’s unlikely they’ll ding you for excess wear and tear, even if there was previous structural damage. Honda leases also include a $500 excess wear and tear waiver upon return.
I would sell/trade the Civic for hopefully $11.5K use that to pay $2129 in remaining lease payments and disposition (I thought Honda was $350?) Even if there is excess ware you still have $9k hopefully to play with.
Seeing you have so many cars I thinking you like to have one car where you can pile on millage? I would take the remaining money for the Civic and put it down on a 0% APR or low as possible car for X amount of months.
@jrasero hann charges $450 =[ as long as the wife is okay with selling her civic i don’t mind… (but then i’m here getting a bmw for myself and selling the car she likes in return…asking for trouble)
Why did you lease with a 3rd party to begin with? Better terms than through HFS? Personally, I’ve heard too many horror stories about leasing through 3rd party, it doesn’t seem worth it to me. JMO though…that doesn’t really help you at this point
@apex25 with the projections for used car prices i would consider selling the Civic (when you say owned you mean you have no payments left? if its worth 11.5K is it a 2014ish model?) and converting the HRV into a new lease of a civic, which apparently your wife prefers (personally i would get ANOTHER i3, surely you agree!)****
From what ive learned here by converting the HRV into a new lease you may roll the payments, avoid the disposition fee and NOT have to fork over 6months of payments all at once.
fwiw, i own a '11 Rogue fully paid, i am the type of buyer that keeps cars for 8-10yrs and recently took over a lease for a camry and then i got the i3 (all since joining this site ~2months ago), i think i can appreciate how you are thinking about this from a ownvslease; total payments, cash upfront and insurance pov.
****total side note/rant: one of the biggest reasons for me to switch to leasing (2nd only to finding this site) is that safety features in 2018 are a LOT better than in 2014/15 models, particularly for foreign vehicles, consider this when replacing your existing civic for a lease (or equivalent camry etc). I read a detailed research report that insurance companies will adjust their pricing models to incorporate these factors to the extent manufacturers/industry can “prove” that these safety features reduce accidents (or the severity) by x%… its happened before, remember when airbags NOT were not standard?
I totally agree with the 2nd i3 thought! Only issue with that is I’m in NY and need an AWD car to get around when the winter is bad. If I knew the future and in that future I’d be keeping an i3 for 4+ years I would get snow tires for it and drive around all winter also
I only took over the lease on the HRV A few months ago to save my brother from early termination. So we’re in the same situation probably.
The Civic was bought used. 2012 with low miles.
I agree completely with the newer cars having more safety features. I was one of the ppl who never leased a car before either. The i3 is my first lease ever (besides taking over my brother’s lease)
Hopefully I’ll be able to find a way out while minimizing losses
Yeah that was my initial thought. Maybe if it was a Si or a EX-L in perfect condition with 20K miles or less. Hard to say without knowing more, but as a former owner of a 2016 Acura ILX Premium there is no way his wife can love that Civic that much. My wife hated our ILX even with the faster 200HP and 8 Speed DCT. We both found it way too loud and road harsh. Also compared to the current gen Civic it lacks a significant amount of space. I found the 1.8 liter in the previous gen almost as soul sucking as a Corolla.
My guess the car is worth more like $7K-5K max. If you could get $7k for it I would still sue that to pay off the remaining payments on the HRV. $5k would be best towards a AWD car like Buick Envsion 0% 72 months $2000 back, Subaru Outback 0% 63 months, Ford Escape 0% 60 months $2550 back, Kia Sportage 0% 75 months.
I never had AWD, and got around just fine in the fine Pittsburgh winters with the standard all seasons and FWD. With that said, now that I have one, AWD sure is nice having.
I live in NY and I would say maybe 2-3 times a year it’s actually need it, but depending on what part of NY or the Tri-State area you will need it more often. For example my aunt near Yorktown gets more snow than I do in NYC and my other aunt in Buffalo without gets more snow than both of us.
Either way AWD is nice to have especially when I visit my parents in Maine since a lot of times when it’s raining here it’s snowing there and snow there remains on the ground for a lot longer. In NYC the streets are clean after 2-3 days max.
AWD isn’t a 100% necessity, but in my line of work, it doesn’t matter if there is 3ft of snow on the ground, they expect me to be at work. Most people can stay at home and wait it out until it’s plowed, I don’t have that luxury.
I know RWD in the snow is fine with some snow tires, but for a lease… and the # of times a year i would truly need the snow tires/rims it’s not worth the investment unless i knew for sure I would keep the car for years to come.
