Well, I wouldn’t travel. Make the dealer come to you. The lease I just did and the other I did a week ago the dealer both times came to my house, I signed papers in my kitchen in 10 papers, and they drove off in my trade. I never went to the dealer.
The dealer for the EV I leased drove over 200 miles to me, it took him about 4 hours to get here. The other one I did a week ago he drove 40 minutes. I did 3 leases last year from one dealer and they drove 1.5 hours to me.
To start you need to get the Truecar average selling price of your car. Next you get the Kelly Blue Book trade in value of your Bolt. I take the middle number Kelly Blue Book shows in the range. To get your equity you take the trade in value and subtract your buyout. In this market you probably have positive equity.
Now you should have all the numbers you need to know what money you are working with. For me I use any positive equity as a down payment. I never take money out of my bank account for a down payment on a lease.
I would next go to cars.com and search for the car you want and set the search radius to 200-250 miles. There are dealers willing to travel that far. One I just got my EV is in TN and said he traveled in the past to deliver a car to Washington DC, Georgia, and even Florida. The 4 hour 205 mile drive for me cost nothing, it was free.
When you contact a dealer let them know what you want, what you have to trade, the condition of trade, and be willing to email pictures. I also only talk to dealers over text/email during negotiations so I have written records to go back on. Car.com will start email or text communications.
After you get the first offer reply with your print out from truecar and Kelly Blue Book and ask for similar numbers. When you show where you are getting your numbers it makes negotiations generally go in your favor I have found.
I have leased 5 cars since the end of 2019 and have used this exact blueprint. It weeds out the bad dealers. I have traded in 4 cars done completely off pictures. I never once went to the dealer. You can also go to carmax to get an appraisal. The dealers generally match or exceed their appraisal. Also used this method to get a deal for my parents in PA where they are trading in two leases early, getting down to one car, the new payment is only $260 for a Niro LXS and they are walking away with $6,550 in their pocket.
Do you want specific dealers and salespeople I talked with? There might be a referral system where we get a kickback or something.