Please let me know if I should post this elsewhere.
I have a 2018 Pacifica Limited with a residual of $28,000. I made all lease payments so my account balance is $0. I received an online offer at CarMax for $33,000 so I went in and had them inspect the car. Everything was as described so I decided to move forward and was looking to pocket $5000. Instead, I was asked for a $10,000 check. When I questioned why the payoff was $38,000 they explained that Ally is charging them market value and not my residual. Has this ever happened to anyone else or is this some new shady business practice that Ally has come up with? Do I have any recourse or do I just need to write the $28,000 check and buy the vehicle and then turn around 30 days later and sell it for a profit?
More of the Banks are finally realizing they can make some money and started the whole process at the beginning of the year (roughly)…sometime in March it started happening, and now it’s a crapshow.
Wow…horrible. The worst part is that if I just buy it out myself I have to pay sales tax. Then in 30 days when I get the title I have to wait even more for the title to clear. Between the 2k in sales tax and the time, the van might not be worth 33k anymore.
Some buyers are accepting the ‘Bank Release’ as a valid title. But that depends on each bank. Gotta call and ask. But at least you can buy it (because it’s in the contract) and lose ~10% to taxes.
Don’t forget that some will accept you going to their captive dealers to sell as well. You might want to try that route.
Just called my local dealer and they are a captive dealer for Ally and he was shocked by my story. Hes going to check with his manager and will call me back.
