Returning a lease to another dealer - any red flags here?

Ask the Hackrs
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1

Hi all,

Looking at getting a Jeep (my Honda lease is maturing). The dealer of Jeep said I can just bring the Honda to them and fill out some paperwork and that’s it. If there are any damages or anything then Honda Financial will send me a bill (plus any miles I owe).

He advised I take pictures of odometer, the car, and fill out paperwork and that’s it.

Honda financial said I should leave the car at Honda instead, fill out official Honda paperwork, and that’s the only way it works.

The dealer replied and said that’s not true, that Honda wants me to drop it off so they can convince me to get a new car.

Somewhat confused - the only risk I can think of is by dropping it off at another dealer, I can somehow be liable for any damages or anything like that. Is there any major red flags here or is this common? The dealer said this happens all the time he does this hundreds of times for people with leases on other vehicles.

2

I would never trust a dealer with doing a drop-off for me. Turn it into a Honda dealership.

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I have done this several times without issue. Volvo dealer paid off my Mazda lease and I just left the car with them and they returned it. I got confirmation letter from Mazda everything was good. Of course there can be issues if the dealer is untrustworthy but if that’s the case you shouldn’t be buying a car there.

4

I think what the OP explains is different. The Jeep dealer will not purchase the OP’s current Honda lease, they’ll just return it by him, which does sound a bit funky to me.

If they were to just buy out the lease then that’s not a problem of course.

5

Good point. I missed that in his original post, that does changes things.

6

Ya I’d make sure to get a grounding receipt… which I believe you can only get at Honda

7

Why trust an organization with no skin in the game to assign their lowest-paid individual to do something you can do yourself?

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8

This. And a CJDR dealer at that. What could possibly go wrong :rofl:

Spend the 30 mins and bring it to a Honda dealer.

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9

I think he said they give me $500 (not sure how) for dropping the car off to them but they are not buying it. They will call Honda afterwards. Seems odd?

10

Too many things can go wrong.

Drop it off yourself.

risk outweighs reward.

Please check: Carvana, Vroom, Shift, Carmax before turning it in on the off chance you have equity.

Let us know

11

Check the value on vroom/carvana/KBB. You may have a bunch of positive equity.

Also FYI Honda is running lease loyalty rebates for the first time in forever.

This seems shady AF - totally normal for a Jeep dealer.

12

If they’re “giving” you anything, they’re making that money off of you somehow. Be skeptical about them and whatever deal they put on your hands, no matter how good it looks.

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That’s what I figured. thanks. My conclusion is to leave it with honda.

14

Thanks a lot. If the dealer says “Well if you don’t return It to us then we have to increase by $500” or some nonsense then Is that bullshit and I should keep the $500 “deduction” ?

15

Did you check the value as I suggested?

16

Never heard of getting a discount by dropping your car there but when I picked up my current car I left my Toyota with them and didn’t have any issues

17

As everyone has suggested you have to see if you have equity in your car, in which case maybe you have more than $500

18

My GMC dealer handled paying off the remainder of my Honda lease for me, as well as returning it to a Honda dealership for me without any issues, but everyone’s experience could obviously vary. They made it seem fairly commonplace too.

19

Again,

Why haven’t you checked Vroom, Shift, Carvana?

They give very fast quotes and it’s all online.

Tell us your payoff as of today, and the offer they gave you.