Took our leased car to CarMax

Ask the Hackrs
21

Anybody do this with Cadillac?
Have 9 months left on my ATS coupe and would love to get into something sooner.

22

Would like to know the same on Chevy vehicles as well.

23

Yes you can sell your leased GM car to Carmax. Tons of people have done it in the past. Will you have positive equity? 99% chance you will not

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24

thanks.

Yeah based on my payoff and trade in value ā€¦ probably worth it to just hold on until the lease is up but will head on over some time this week just to humor myself and who knows.

My lease is up on Christmas, so figure if not Iā€™ll be hopefully able to get a sweet end of year deal.

25

Ok, hopefully this is a bit more definitive of an answer. After talking with carmax corporate and going in, they said they were able to buy the lease out. The guy I was working with did say, however, that Ford is known to mess with them and he has seen buy outs not move ahead. Stuff like they wonā€™t tell Carmax what the buy out actually is, so they canā€™t process it, etc. Definitely seems to be more of an issue right near the end of the lease. I heard back from Ford Credit who promptly ignored my question regarding this policy and just reiterated what my buy out is. No help there. I didnā€™t end up selling my vehicle to carmax, as their offer was 10% under kbb trade in, so I didnā€™t get actual first hand experience with them buying out the lease.

26

I remember others reporting that ford wonā€™t let carmax buy out the car.

27

Carmax confirmed that they buy ford leases all the time. It sounds like the real answer is ā€œdoes Ford feel like being an ass today?ā€

28

Quick side question for the experts - Will carmax buy a 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, or at least give an accurate appraisal? I read something that suggested they only work with current generation cars.

29

They will buy almost anything working afaik. I recently bought my 1998 car to them and they gave me an offer.

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30

They will make offers on all cars, but if itā€™s something they donā€™t really want on their lot, they will make a lowball offer.

31

Hi, my friends lease is with Honda Financial. Does anyone know if he can sell to CarMax, and if so, will Honda release the title to CarMax? I do know Honda will not allow lease transfers. Below writing is from the contract.

(I agree to not transfer, sublease, rent, or assign this lease, the vehicle, or my right to use the vehicle)

Heā€™s only 4 months into a 36 month lease and needs to get out. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks :slight_smile:

32

Ford is obviously take care of its dealer.

33

CarMax will buy it. The question would be how much they would offer vs how much the car is worth. Heā€™s more than likely going to take a bath 4 months into a 36 month lease if he wants out.

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34

Thanks for your response. You think he would probably be a ton out of pocket to get out of it?
At what point during the 3-year lease when he start building equity if he could somehow stick with it for a little while?
Pilot currently has just over 4k on the odometer. Kelly currently values it at 34k or so. The pay off is $36,198. His statement is showing that the payoff is good through August 24th.
What does that mean?

35

As I just found out, while Honda let me sell my leased 2015 Odyssey (with 1 month payment left on the lease) to a used car dealer, the payoff amount they charged the dealer was the sum of

  1. the residual stated in the contract,
  2. the remaining monthly payment, and
  3. the $350 turn-in fee plus PA tax on that fee.

Not sure why they charged the disposition fee since I wasnā€™t turning it back in to them, but whatever, I still made out with a check instead of owing them $350+tax!
Justin

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36

That means heā€™s already underwater. Best case scenario, CarMax buys it for 34k, he still owes a couple thousand to get out. With that said, just because KBB says itā€™s worth 34k doesnā€™t mean itā€™s a guarantee to get that amount from the dealership when selling it. He might get a bit more selling it on his own, however, which would reduce the amount in the red he is currently in.

37

Luckily for your friend, he has a Pilot. Most cars will never hit positive equity during any duration of the lease. If he absolutely has to get out, 2-3k to get out of a lease isnā€™t horrible, assuming he can get 34k for it.

However, if he can hold onto it for longer it COULD get better, considering the model - im sure there is a huge market for lightly used Pilots. But again, this is speculating unless you guys can get actual examples of people selling to carmax with the same make/model in your area.

38

So based on what I learned the other day, 3rd party dealers wont know the exact dollar amount of the payoff for Ford vehicles. This is because there is something called ā€œNegotiable Residual Valueā€. Only a Ford dealer can buy the vehicle and when you return the vehicle. It is a weird policy for Ford because you can basically buy out any other car as long as you have the RV and whatever you owe left on the lease.

39

The $350 dollar is a disposition fee which is that you arent doing business with Honda Financial again you are accessed this fee. You are still responsible for the $350 so I would check if you acute any late charges

40

Thanks for getting back with me. Hopefully he can hold on to it on to it for a year and then see what happens. He has a 2018 E-XL RES model. Can he sell it to any dealer including CarMax?