Could he sell it to a 3rd party to cut his losses already? Vroom, Carvana, ALGo etc? 42 months of sleepless nights will take its toll.
Worth getting a quote, at least?
I give the OP credit for posting this and taking his lumps. Real anecdotal stories like this will help new members see how many ways these deals can go bad if you don’t have your ducks in a row before contacting a dealer. Maybe it will give a few of them pause and motivate them to study more.
Unless you found this site before you ever did your first lease deal, I’m sure a lot of us (myself included) cringe at the money we’ve left on the table or wasted in previous leases.
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Op do you know the actual fair value of your trade when you did the deal?
Doesn’t really matter. They could have given him thousands more than his trade-in was worth by selling the car over MSRP and make a great profit.
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Been there OP. I’ve been hosed a few times, currently paying way too much for my wife’s car, and was paying too much for mine.
Just recently upgraded my Mazda CX-5 to a vehicle $11,000 more than my last and am only paying $35 more per month. When the sales person pointed out when she was giving me the first deal that this is way more expensive so it’s gonna be way higher, I said “no the last one was a crappy deal and I overpaid, that won’t be happening again”
Live and learn and absolutely kill them on the next one.
Don’t worry, we have all made similar mistakes for our first lease (or at least I have done that.) 
For a 25,000 Toyota Camry LE, I paid $2,000 down and $210 a month 3yr/12k lease in NJ.
Don’t bother much and enjoy the car to the fullest…
And now you’re here … I’m sure you would absolutely hack the next one when you are in market!
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It does matter. If they gave the OP thousands more that it was worth then this deal is less bad. If they have OP fair value then the deal is very bad.
I don’t think it really matters that much in this case because whatever “extra” they may have paid on the trade (if any) was negated by the marked up selling price.
I don’t think that’s particularly bad. I don’t think Camrys lease well, no?
Why ? You willing signed documents? No one made you. Did it occur to you that you are paying 30K to rent a 48k car? Does that make sense? Remember roughly speaking, leasing means you are paying somewhere close to half the value of the car (good deals are quarter value of the car, excellent deals are even less). You are paying more than that.
You definitely helped the dealer take his or her extended family plus extras to a vacation to Bahamas or someplace.
Its done. Don’t fret. READ THIS FORUM. Read the leasing 101. Look at similar deals. Learn how to structure the numbers and what they mean. And never be afraid to walk away from something you dont ike
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Per benchmarks which I figured out later, I paid around $2000 more over the tenure of the lease.
It was bad. How bad you could compare to others but it’s water under the bridge. The great thing is now you won’t make this mistake again because you know about leasehackr. So, chin up. Enjoy the car because it is nice and next time come here first.
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Put on some magic underwear and start praying to Joey Smith.
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Spooky Mormon Hell Dream
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You would lose your down payment and trade equity, and hopefully you have GAP insurance to cover the negative equity.
If you started digging a hole to bury the negative equity, you’d hit the molten magma core of the Earth before it was deep enough.
Max makes a good point: don’t waste your time writing a letter to the dealership - you got a car you wanted and a lesson in personal finance. Your sales person hasn’t forgotten that deal, a letter is just going to hang in the break room. The best revenge is to move on and get a great deal next time.
Spend the next 3+ years here educating yourself on the mechanics of leasing – my sense from this thread is there is lots to learn (join the club - all the brands and banks have differences, and the programs change every single month). Nobody is an expert, but every one should understand the basics and get a second opinion before signing.
In the mean time, w/r/t this deal – Turn It Off and enjoy your A4!
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Ouch… did you negotiate at alll…??
@audiporschefan Hey OP, you mentioned to me that your car was giving you nothing but mechanical troubles. Utah has a lemon law buyback. You may want to look into it. Forget the price you paid, if the car is giving you mechanical troubles then you can return the car under the Utah Lemon Law. You may have to seek legal counsel.
is that equivalent to the dealer offers or better? do you get access to the car deal as soon as you sign up for a new account ?
There are whole threads:
For some brands (Volvo, Audi, GM) there are certain times of year Costco members get extra trunk money that stacks with everything. Right now the bonus money is with GM and Chevy, which is why people are getting free bolts in California and New Jersey (Chevy + Costco + state rebates).
Typically you have to be a Costco member the day before the program starts to be eligible, or sign up inside a new Costco location while the program is running.
OP traded in a 2019 Civic sedan for $18k. Unless it was an LX, he got hosed on that, too, I’m sorry to say.
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