Hi, Experts.
I’m thirteen months into a 36 month lease on a Honda Odyssey minivan. Will Honda Financial allow me to sell my car to CARMAX and have them buy me out of my lease? I’ve researched on KBB.com and Edmunds.com and what I could theoretically sell it for to CARMAX is equal to my current payout amount.
Thanks
Yes, you should be able to.
Thank you. There was some question in my mind since I know from research that Honda Leasing does not allow things like lease takeovers or lease assumptions. I was wondering if they WOULD allow selling the car to third-party dealer such as CARMAX. Thanks again.
Call Honda and get a “dealer payoff quote”. This will give you the beak even point. If you offered more you can pocket the difference, less you will have to contribute.
Oooohhh…are you still there? Thanks for your comment. I take it that the “dealer payoff quote” is not the same number as my payoff quote that I see on my hondafinancialservices.com page? Right now that number sits at $35204, good until the end of the month.
Dealer payoff is different than personal payoff amount due to taxes.
Just go to carmax and tell them you want to sell your van and get no obligation quote. If their quote is same or higher than dealer payoff amount, tell them it’s lease and they will buy from Honda FS. depending upon the quote you will get check of difference if they quoted you higher value than payoff.
Good to know. Thanks so much. Had forgotten about how the sales tax needs to be handled.
LFS doesn’t include tax in their payout quote. They list the same amount for personal buyout or selling to a dealer.
If I am not wrong your monthly statement does list the payoff amount, unless HONDA has changed that. Carmax will still call to get the payoff quote and HONDA fortunately does not differentiate between personal and dealer payoff quotes while some premium brands like Audi would provide a different third party dealer payoff quote which is normally higher than personal. A payoff quote by default never includes taxes, it is always plus taxes. If you are selling the car to carmax you do not have to pay taxes but if you buy and re-register you have to pay taxes on the purchase price.
Would this apply to Mazda Financial, as well? Does the payoff amount listed on my Mazda Capital Services account include taxes or not? I have a lease on a Mazda3 and can see the payoff amount in my account but wasn’t sure if it include tax or not… Thanks!
If you login into Hondafinancialservices.com it will give you the payoff with tax. If you call Honda Financial you select the option for dealer payoff. I have used the automated system to fax the dealer payoff before to my fax machine. You can also get it from a representative.
I just did exactly this calling HFS at their toll free number. Whether it was myself paying off the car, or a dealer payoff, the amount given over the automated system was the same - $35204.64.
I just called on my account and selected Honda Dealer purchasing the car the amounts were different. Are you in a state that you paid all the taxes upfront. I know this is the case in Texas. That is the only explanation I can think of. Does your payment breakdown consist of a base payment and tax? If not, you probably paid the tax upfront.
For Mazda, the number definitely does not include tax.
I’m in California, and now that I’m thinking about it, we do pay sales tax with each monthly lease payment. That would explain why I got the same figure.
Thanks for your input. Very helpful.
You may have to talk to a rep. If they do not give you different #'s as what part of the payoff is sales tax and just subtract it from the payoff amount given. Or have CarMax call for the dealer payoff while your getting you appraisal.
Hi, @buster11xx. Still waiting to get to the office to see if the dealer payoff I requested over the phone came through via FAX. Are you saying that I could just subtract our percentage sales tax rate from the payoff amount I see, and that would be the dealer payoff? Thanks.
With the payoff near $35k, do you still think it’s current value is still close to the payoff amount? $35k for a used last-gen Odyssey sounds high.
Well, some admittedly amateurish research on my part. I shopped the car to Vroom and Shift.com and they offered me 33500 and 33900 respectively. Going on Edmunds.com and one or two other used car websites, I see there are very few cars of my vintage, trim level and mileage for sale at dealer lots within 100 miles of my area, and the ones that are, are priced at 37,000 to 39000.
I’m willing to take a $1000 or so loss just to get out of the Odyssey. On the other hand, if the “dealer payoff quote” that I have yet to receive comes in lower than the payoff number I see on my account, I may not have to take a hit at all.
Okay, for everyone wondering, I just spoke to “Casey” at Honda Financial Services. My payoff quote and the dealer payoff quote are exactly the same. Were I to sell my car to CARMAX, CARMAX would pay the payoff amount, receive the title to my vehicle from Honda, then add the CA sales tax to whomever buys the vehicle next, or pay it to the DMV themselves if they want the title.
I’m sure many already know this, but I was very unclear myself about how all this is supposed to work here in California.