Nissan end of lease car purchase - which payoff option to chose (dealer assisted or financial institute)?

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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1

Hi,

Since this is the first time for me that I like to purchase a car when my lease ends (in 6 weeks from now):

Which payoff option is better - dealer assisted or financial institute?

Obviously I cannot just pay with my credit card :-/

Thanks for any advise!

2

Dealer assisted is likely to cost you a lot more money

3

Why does dealer assisted cost more money?

If I chose financial institute (I read the payoff quote provided to by Nissan for it, but did not understand it): How does that work?

  • Do I need to send them a check my mail?
  • Or is a money transfer from my bank to their bank possible?

Also, the payoff quote provided to by Nissan stated an amount without tax. How to calculate the final amount then?

I am really confused how that works… It seems to me that Nissan makes it intentionally complicated :frowning:
Please help.

4
1 Like
5

I get depressed every time I read that. :frowning:

There are brands that will cause me to throw a caution flag when I hear friends considering them.

Until the past several weeks here on LH, Nissan was on my neutral list (no personal experience or obvious trends from third parties I routinely encounter), but the more I read, the more it looks like they belong in the column with Chevrolet, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai.

In my experience you really need to screen dealers in those networks.

2 Likes
6

Also, Nissan states: “As a captive finance company, Nissan-Infiniti LT cannot sell leased vehicles directly to our customers. Instead, you may arrange to complete the purchase of your vehicle with your financial institution. When your payoff has been processed, we will issue a bill of sale to your financial institution.
Please have your financial institution write the lease account number, on the check and make payable to”.

What ?!? Nissan cannot sell the leased car to me?!?

So they want my bank to send them a check?
Then my bank owns it, right?
But I want to own that car.

So what do you recommend to me now?
A admit I’m lost here… :frowning:

7

They want to force you to go to the stealership.
You may get a loan from a bank, send payoff to Nissan and then payoff banks loan.

8

No, you’ll own it.

Whoever lends you the money will have a lien on the title which is just another way of saying they have a right to have the loan balance paid off whenever you sell the car (if you decide to sell before the loan is paid off).

But it will be titled in your name, you will be the owner and you’ll have all the equity.

9

Hmm, I neither want my dealership to charge me for whatever, nor I want or need a loan from my bank.

I can purchase the car in cash, since I have that money in my bank account. No loan at all needed.

I just want to buy the car from Nissan.
As it looks, Nissan won’t or can’t sell me the car I leased from them? WTF?

1 Like
10

Yeah, some brands can’t get out of their own way and then wonder why their sales numbers suck.

11

Just get a loan to pay off then pay off your loan immediately. You may incur some interest charge, but the other option will send you to the butcher. You will not be charged for the purchase option fee via financial institution option. At least you have the financial institution option, some states only have dealer-butchered option. Lol

12

Or Nissan could just operate like a normal brand that doesn’t make its customers jump through hoops.

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13

Call the Attorney General or Consumer Affairs office in your state. They can put Nissan’s balls in a vice if they want to.

You have a contractual right to purchase the car from NMAC. They cannot dictate how you pay for it.

14

Nissan writes to me that they cannot do that. Can you point me where to look for that right?

15

That sounds like the best way to do.

What is weird: I don’t even know exactly how much my bank needs to pay them - as Nissan states excluding taxes. How to get the EXACT amount INCLUDING taxes then?

Also, Nissan wants my financial institution to send Nissan the money by mail via check (!!!). WTF?

16

You have to understand (which appears you don’t)

  • NMAC doesn’t have the staff to handle payouts
  • NMAC is going to put many obstacles to FORCE you to use a Dealer
  • Dealers processing a lease buyout can take time (hours even), that time the dealer/employee is making no money off this sale, so they are baking in junk fees to make money. If you don’t like the fees, you don’t have to go to that dealer, and they don’t lose money either way.
  • Some states (it appears WA is one of them) force NMAC to allow a non dealer buyout.
  • NMAC still doesn’t have the staff, so they force you to get a loan from a bank and have the bank send them the check (Note : You can’t send them a check it appears even if you have money), this slows down the buyouts and buys NMAC time to process previous lease purchases.

So basically NMAC doesn’t have the staff (Covid or Cheap, no idea) and needs to divert the flood of buyouts.

17

Thank you for all these useful explanations, forbs.

Getting a loan, even if it is only for a few days, will impact my credit score, I believe. Not sure how bad is that.

18

Question: If I get a loan from my bank for that lease closure & car purchase from Nissan, what about the tax?
Nissan, in it’s financial institution letter, only lists the price excluding tax.

19

When you get the new title, they ask you for the tax

20

Hmm, I don’t understand. Who is getting s title and asking for tax? My loan bank?