I leased a vehicle in early 2021 from an out-of-state dealer and put down an MSD. My lease maturity is here and i returned the vehicle to a local Mazda dealership. They showed me a net payoff amount and a higher gross payoff amount the difference being the MSD ($2000). Told me they have never seen that before as they have never done MSD’s. They informed me the car is valued at the net payoff amount and that’s all they will pay for the vehicle. I signed some paperwork including odometer statement and left.
Weekend passes and they call me this morning telling me I owe the $2000. I told them that’s not going to happen. Long story short, we got MFS on the phone with them and basically the dealership would need to eat the cost as they must pay the gross payoff. They don’t want that so they’ve offered to return the vehicle to me or split the difference and I would need to pay half the deposit back to them so effectively i would only receive half of my deposit back.
I’ve gotten other payoff quotes form Carmax, Vroom, etc that match the gross payoff amount. And i was wondering how solid those are? I’m also trying to understand what happened here. Is it because I didn’t return it to the originating dealer that this is happening?
I’m confused. Your lease matured? So the local mazda dealer doesn’t need to buy it. You returned the lease. End of story. Mazda Financial needs to return your MSDs to you.
Right. I returned my lease 5 days before lease maturity date. The Mazda dealership claims that regardless if they “ground” the lease (standard return) which means they would send it to auction, or whether they “buy it” and turn it around they would be losing money on it. I’ve returned 5 leases in the last 10 years and have never had this happen to me before. The car is in excellent condition btw.
Yeah I’m super confused as well. The Mazda dealership is somehow acting as if it’s their responsibility to return the residual value to MFS. That makes no sense… since MFS owns the vehicle and the dealership is just collecting the vehicle for MFS.
Every dealership I know in the USA would revolt if they were responsible to pay the difference between MMR and the residual value to the captive financing arm. If this were the case, the dealerships would just refuse taking any lease return haha.
This is why I’m baffled. They’re acting like a used car dealership. I guess I’m going to pick it up and try the other Mazda dealer that’s a little further away.
What’s confusing is that someone at MFS told the dealership that the dealership is on the hook to eat the costs for a residual value estimated 2 years ago … which is insane.
Maybe you need to make your own call to MFS and figure out what is going on before you visit another dealer and waste your time?
I did, with the dealership manager. At the end the MFS rep told me I’m probably better off taking my car to another dealership.
Here’s the strange thing - MFS is not accepting the net payoff amount from the dealer. They are requiring the amount that includes the MsD. This dealer isn’t the one who originally sold me the vehicle. So I’m not understanding the disconnect there.
If you just grounded your lease then the dealer does not have to pay off the car. The payoff amount is irrelevant, the dealer just accepts the car on behalf of MFS and does whatever MFS directs them to do with it (typically send it to auction).
It sounds like the dealer actually agreed to buy it from you rather than ground it.
If all you ever agreed to do was ground your lease, turn it in and walk away, then you need to ask the dealer why they are treating this like they’re buying it from you.
That’s exactly what happened. They bought it. But they don’t want to move forward with the transaction because MFs is expecting an additional $2000 than what they net payout showed. Instead they want me to pay that difference or they want me to take the car back.
When I tried to ask him to ground it instead he told me they would still lose money on doing that. Mimi just called the other Mazda dealership in town and they don’t ground vehicles either. They buy it as a though it’s a trade-in and turn it around in their lot.
Did you specifically request that the dealer purchase the vehicle outright? Maybe I’m beating a dead horse here, but it seems like they tried to purchase the vehicle for Mazda Financial and are not happy with their decision.
The lease contract usually spells out which lease-end options you have available.
No. I took no money from them. In fact I pointed out to the manager they had me sign a document that stated I owe them nothing and they owe me nothing when I returned it. When he called me this morning asking for me $2K he got exasperated when I said that. It seems like they made a mistake and are trying to undo it. I just don’t understand why this is happening.
The dealer paid a lower buyout, likely inclusive of MSDs and Mazda FN won’t accept that for some reason.
If the dealer signed you to an agreement and took possession of the car… they basically own it.
However, lets say they don’t ground it, do not buy it at the higher price… Mazda is going to come looking at you bc it’s your car and your responsibility to ground it with an agreeing dealer.
read your contract for your responsibilities here. This all sounds like not your problem, but the contract will specify. If, for example, the contract directs me to take it to a dealer, and I have a receipt in my hand from a dealer for the car I handed in, I’m done with the transaction.
Random question, but in this case it also seems as if the dealer thought the MSDs were to be refunded to the dealership instead of to the original lessor.
Does MFS do something wonky where MSDs in their entirety pass through the dealership? And the dealership is supposed to return the un-used portion of the MSDs (less disposition fee or damage above normal wear and tear) back to the leasor? I’m thinking the dealership isn’t used to handling MSDs and thought the MSDs were theirs to keep lol.
This is what I suspect is happening. They agreed to split the deposit in half, but I feel like I might have better recourse at another dealership. Like I said the car is in excellent condition and I don’t feel like I should lose out on my deposit. What would you do in this situation?
