Hi all - I was reading an article on Jalopnik about how manufacturers are trying to restrict consumers from making money on their lease in the current market (used cars are hot). It got me thinking about my current situation with my 2018 Jeep JLU MOAB lease through Chrysler Capital. I’m wondering how I’d get screwed if I tried to but-out my lease and sell the car. I’m in CA (Los Angeles) by the way.
Right now, I have about 20 payments left at $556 ($11,XXX) and the residual value on the lease is $30,XXX. I called Chrysler Capital and they told me my buyout is just over $38,XXX. I went online and got a buyout offer from Vroom for $46,XXX (seems a bit high, but okay). I have the cash on hand to handle the $42,XXX buy-out (remaining payments + residual). Is this an easy way to make like $4K (less taxes, right?) and jump into a lower priced vehicle?
Right now, this is purely a thought exercise - I don’t need the cash and I can continue happily with my Jeep though I would like something that is more efficient, like a hybrid. What am I missing besides I’d have to get a good deal on a new car?
So the thing to consider now is how long it takes to get your title relative to how long your purchase offers are good for, if you want to try to take advantage of cars 10 day grace period for sales tax, and what you want to replace this with.
If you have the time, you could order a wrangler 4xe.
Thank you so much for the help, really appreciate it.
Just to confirm I understand what you’re saying…now it is a timing thing between when I can payoff Chrysler and get the title and how long my Vroom/Carmax offer is good for. For example (using extremely made up times), if the offer from Vroom/Carmax is good for a month and I can do my lease buyout and get the title within the say two weeks, I’d be good to go. If my offer is only good for say a week and it will take two weeks to get title, I could be screwed. (sorry for the questions, it just helps me figure it out if I use examples).
In terms of next car, I’m not sure what I’d want, but prb. would steer away from another Jeep. It was a bit overkill for my needs.
Ha, thank you. One last one. How do taxes play into this? I’m assuming I have to add tax on to my buyout so it would be roughly $38K + 9.5% so around $42,5XX. Is that a correct assumption?
Thanks again for all of this help and information. I really really appreciate the guidance. I’m going to keep reading up on it and see if it makes sense.
Generally the buyout is residual value plus the remaining base payments (where the base payments is the amortized depreciation before rent charge) plus applicable taxes and fees.
You don’t generally pay rent charge on the remaining payments.
Your lease contract should spell out exactly how this is calculated, but the language is a bit verbose when talking about the actuarial method.
its possible the 38k includes your tax as its your personal buyout price, right now ccap isn’t stopping other dealers from buying out so you can do it that way that vroom pays them directly (vroom payoff will be less as they don’t pay taxes), you save the tax and vroom send your equity balance
Thanks for the tip. I just checked Vroom’s site and they indeed are still buying right from Chrysler Capital. I’m going to call them tomorrow to get the exact information.
Call Vroom and check the payoff. If what they see from their end is same as your personal payoff, you can deal directly with them. If the numbers are different (meaning much higher) and you want to buy it yourself to sell it, note that Vroom won’t take lessor released title as per latest info from the thread linked below
CarStub, My Car Auction, Shift - These are the dealers confirmed to take these titles. Somewhere else I heard givemethevin and driveway also do; but not sure.
So funny this thread exists about stumbling over 12k+ equity in a Wrangler. While there’s a 2k+ comment thread on people ordering the hybrid JUST TO FLIP.
