I don’t have anyone to ask this stuff to so I apologize if I sound like a complete idiot. I’m not sure I trust or will even comprehend what a dealer would tell me.
I’m in MA and lease through HFS.
I have a leased 2018 MDX and the payments are $349/month because I put $8500 down. I did this to make my monthly payments lower.
Lease was up this past August and I didn’t know what to do so I extended the lease until next August.
My residual value is $24k.
If my car is on KBB for 28k-30k, I have a feeling I should not have extended my lease and just bought it. Because I would get that equity?
I tried to turn it in and get a new lease for a 2022 in August, but they told me the MDX is 10k more than when I got mine in 2018. I got overwhelmed and just chose to extend the lease. But I was under the miles (I got 20k/year because I drive a lot), I have good credit, and apparently I had some equity.
Am I understanding all that correctly?
What should I do now?
I’m wondering if I should either buy it so I’m not wasting money, or go back to the dealer to have them go over it with me again. I can’t really go higher than $400/month for payments and they were telling me I had to put 12k down in order to get my payments around that.
I appreciate any insight from anyone that has experience with this or understands it better than I do!
first step is to see the value of your MDX. Run the VIN through Carvana, Vroom, Autonation, Carmax, etc to determine its value. Next, obtain a payoff quote to see what you owe to determine your equity…
Considering you put $8500 down on a lease and went with 20k miles/year, i’m assuming you got fleeced. Keep asking questions and read here for a bit and you’ll do much better on your next lease.
without knowing anything about your situation, i’d guess that you have equity in your MDX. I would work with a broker here to find you a new lease deal and get a check back for your current vehicle. to get under $400, you’re going to probably need to put your equity down because leasing something comparable isn’t going to be that cheap.
Unless a big chunk is security deposits, that isn’t how leasing is supposed to work.
We can get into the details of your current lease if you want a more thorough analysis, but I would probably buy out the 2018 now and keep driving it, at least until things settle down. One of the few vehicles I wouldn’t even worry about an extended warranty. In Massachusetts I think you can just get the payoff from AFS and mail it, don’t need to go through a dealer (but likely will still owe a disposition fee). Also in Massachusetts you’re personal property tax has past the worst tiers, one more reason to keep it for now.
Please don’t sign another lease until you read through Leasing 101 here and understand all the numbers. Tell that dealer “no thanks” and block their number.
I will read through the 101 but I really have trouble with understanding it all.
If I had to do it all over again back in 2018, how would I have gotten my payments to only be 350-400/month without putting that much down?
Be lucky that you didn’t get into an accident near lease inception. Otherwise, your down payment would have went poof.
Use total lease cost as a better way to shop. You’ll find that a heavy downpayment vs higher monthly payment will be very close (depending on MF charge).
