I am currently nearing the end of my lease on my car, for whatever reason is going on in the market I have a good amount of positive equity built into my car. I wanted to see what is the best steps to take, this is a family car, only 1 we have in the household right now, so we’d need a car immediately.
Ideally, if I can seal the deal with the new car before giving the old one back would be best.
So I did a quote on Carvana and they’re giving me the best price. How would the pros proceed in this case? I am already doing my dealership inquiries with the type of car I’d like as my replacement.
Also, is it possible that a dealer would take my car as a trade-in for what Carvana is offering or do they not play the price match game, cause then I can switch those keys the same day. Else, I am thinking sign the new deal and as long as Carvana will honor their price, I am ok with waiting a few days for them to pay me out, hopefully that doesn’t mess with my lease financing options too much?
*Sorry if these questions aren’t as well thought out as I hope they would be. I am on my 2nd lease and still have plenty to learn. 1st lease I just sold it to Carvana and didn’t need a replacement, but now we’re down to the only car in the house to shuffle the kids to school, etc.
Thank you all who take the time to answer this. I appreciate the help this forum has offered for me to learn.
Most likely a dealer won’t be able to match what Carvana offered. Those online wholesalers like Carvana, Vroom, AlGo etc are offering considerably more than any dealership will offer.
The only way a dealership would be able to match what Carvana would give you is if you got tax credit for trading in your current lease (depends on state laws) and then could apply those tax savings to a new purchase/lease (again, depending on state laws).
Folks get dealers to match all the time, and this will especially be true now when inventory is tight. Is it guaranteed? Of course not.
But you are better off separating the trade from the deal anyway to give them fewer places to trick you.
Also remember to look at the trade “value” as a whole, not just the price for the vehicle itself. For example, here you receive a tax waiver where you only pay the taxes on the difference between the new purchase and the trade. So if I’m getting $40k for trade on my car (and assuming the new car is over $40K), I’m actually receiving $42,200 after adding the tax savings in. I’m not certain on how California works, though.
I think that I’ll keep the two transactions separate as well, the online buying portals seem to be offering a ridiculous sum that would be hard for me to expect a dealership to match at this point. All 4 sites (Carvana, Shift, Vroom, Carmax) basically 1-up’d each other with a higher offer.
Question for anyone who choose to sell to Shift, is it straight forward as with Carvana?
For Carvana I gave them the 10-day buyout letter from my finance company, they set up a pick up date, someone came in the morning to inspect the car and handed me the difference check, I gave them the key, by afternoon the car was towed off. Should I expect the same with Shift?
At the current market, focus on finding a replacement if that’s your only car in your household. ICYMI your used car value skyrocketed because there is a shortage on new cars. If you can’t find an ideal replacement then you may consider extending your lease instead of picking a buyer for your car.
Does anyone know if Shift needs to call Subaru Motor Finance to get the buyout, I’m having SMF overnight me a lease payoff letter, is that letter acceptable?
Shift appointment is set for Sunday so SMF offices wouldn’t be open if they needed to call it in.
I sold my car to Shift, it has been about 12 days since the date of sale, I believe they picked up the car on May 15. I have been checking my Chase Subaru Motor Finance account and it looks like the car is still under my responsibility, I see a payment that is due in about 13 days.
From Shift they already paid me a check for the positive equity difference, I would assume they would have taken care of the Chase finance end by now, am I wrong to be worried here?
