Sold my lease to AutoNation

3 years ago I came to this forum for some help on an Audi S4 lease, and I received plenty. Today I sold that lease to AutoNation and I want to give back and share my experience here!

My lease is ending in ~2 weeks and I basically went around and checked every online platform that buys cars. (That’s basically Rodo, Autonation, Algo, Carmax, Carvana, Vroom, Shift, CarbuyerUSA, Driveway, GMTV, Sonic, BidLane, EquityHackr). Some don’t take leases straight up. Vroom has the highest offer, but it doesn’t accept lease transfer. AutoNation came second but it accepts lease transfer. This means I don’t have to pay tax on the residual myself. So I decided to go with AutoNation.

A month ago I first connected with a sales person, then I went on to do something else. They seemed genuinely interested in my car, and they called me back later, told me they may pay more. And indeed they offered $250 more. All in all I’m ~$10k positive equity on the lease end.

I went in the store today, somehow the sales person, even though he made an appointment with me, was not in. Another sales person very kindly helped me and set me up. It took 4 hours from start to end, I was originally quoted 40-80 minutes, but I think the problem is that the local sales person has to email AutoNation headquarters for payoff quotes and procedures. I also had MSD in my lease, which they were not familiar with and didn’t think of at first. I pointed out that it should lower my payoff, and I printed out the AudiFS payoff webpage. They seemed genuinely confused, and went back to chatting with the headquarters person again. Note that they communicate with headquarters through email, so every conversation takes ages.

They finally got confirmation that AudiFS will send me the MSD directly, and it’ll not be included in the payoff. I wasn’t convinced at first and asked them to print out the conversation/confirmation for the record, and they did. Then I signed the lease transfer documents, and left the dealership with a check in hand.

Their final payoff is my residual + $495 disposition fee + $100 some random fee. They told that they are able to get the dealer payoff through another Audi dealer in the AutoNation network. Otherwise Audi doesn’t really sell leases to third party.

At the end it’s a very enjoyable experience. It was longer than I anticipated, but I got extra money so what’s there not to like. It remains to be seen when my AudiFS lease account will actually close (I have only 2 weeks till the turn-in date and I don’t want Audi come asking me where the car is), and when Audi sends me the MSD check.

Why not post in the main topic

Did you receive the offer using the Sell My Car link on their website or did you go into an Audi Autonation dealer? From their website it seems like you can bring it to an Autonation dealer of a different make.

Sorry I didn’t know it’s grouped that way. Can a moderator help me merge the threads?

I used the website. Yes I did bring it to a non-Audi dealer

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Can you share autonation location because they definitely know how to do business and aren’t shady at all, will help alot of people sell their leases

A post was merged into an existing topic: Sold one to AUTONATION!