I’m looking for some expert advice, please. I have leased 6 vehicles during the last 5 or so years and have always returned the car at the end of the lease. A friend called me yesterday and said he went to two Honda dealers in FL to buy his 2015 Honda Accord Coupe because the lease is ending in a week.
He left the first dealer after his residual value of $13,900 turned into a $19,000 buyout which included 2k for an inspection, $900 for a dealer fee, taxes, tags, BS fees, etc.
The second dealer came in at $18,000 for the buyout.
Are these excessive fees typical to buy the vehicle at lease-end?
Boat/Yacht payments are typically due in Florida at the end of March, hence the markup…
You would not want the dealer to have his boat repo-ed would you?
Don’t deal with the dealership they have nothing to do with this transaction. It is between the lease holder and the captive lender. Call the finance company tell them you want to buy the car and ask where to send the check, they will then send you the title. Done deal, no dealer required.
Mail the full payoff amount (including state sales tax, if any) to the address below. If there is no outstanding balance on your account, the title will be mailed upon verification of final payment clearance. It is important to verify HFS has your current address on file to ensure you receive your title.
Florida law requires a dealer to be involved if you want to purchase a car at the end of your lease term.
Your friend is free to shop around to try and find dealers with the lowest all in price. The captive will tell the customer to go to the originating dealer.
Ally recently was sued successfully for not disclosing all the end of term fees in FL. Your friend should read his lease contract line by line to look at all the end of term language. I’m guessing that several captives aren’t compliant after seeing what Ally went through. They thought their lease agreement was compliant until someone challenged them.
Can you please show me where this law is written? I cannot find any reference to this online. How is the dealer involved when they do not own the car? I am trying to understand how this would work. You write a check to the dealer and they then pay the captive lender? What reason is there to involve the dealer?
I don’t think it’s listed on any website. We spent several thousands of dollars on attorneys fees to ensure our lease agreement is compliant in FL and that was the deal.
The lessor must obtain their own dealers license in FL (which involves actually leasing property and staffing it with signage) or coordinate the title transfer via a FL registered dealer. Honda does not have a captive-owned dealership there so your friend must find a dealer that is willing to process the paperwork correctly. Their fee for this can range from a couple hundred up to about $900 but don’t quote me on the top end cap.
Let us forgive him - he only joined Sep 2018
At least he knows how to use google search
beginner level - knows how to use google search
expert level - knows google search doesn’t always give the right answer
rvguy level - there is only one
Sorry I’m late on this thread, but this issue is live for me. I live in Florida and my Toyota lease is up, but it was originated by a Toyota leasing subsidiary that does not do its business in Florida. My understanding is that the seller must be registered as a dealer under FS Section 320.27, but that should be the seller’s problem, not mine.
My sense is that I have a contract that requires them to sell to me at a stated price. Their options are to either register as a dealer or pay the third party dealer fees themselves or try to get away with an unregistered sale. Anybody have any experience with this argument?
The lender told you this? So if you leased at a Toyota dealer in FL and they used this lender, then the lender obviously does business in FL. Are you looking at their mailing address and trying to use that as an out? Because, no, that doesn’t hold water.
Actually, I leased through a dealer in Ohio, though I lived in Florida the entire time. Ohio dealers use a different financing company (Toyota Financial Services) than Florida dealers (Toyota Southeast or something like that). As a result, Toyota Financial probably doesn’t have a huge amount of lessees in Florida, but they probably have a good number.
In any event, the point I’m trying to get at is that the dealer registration rules are meant to protect the public and these leasing companies are basically using someone else’s registration (the dealer’s) to evade the registration requirements AND TO BOOT they are requiring their customers to foot the bill.
