Turning in a Chevy OnePay lease early

I did a OnePay on a 2018 Volt and my lease was originally going to end in May. I decided to end it a few months early and received a letter from GM Financial stating the gross early termination amount total to to be $20,071.94 (including the disposition fee, taxes, and “credits (paid ahead)”

The residual value/purchase option on my lease contract was listed at $19,663. GM adjusted the capitalized cost to $20,918.76. Is this basically the same as the residual value? They also state they will sell the vehicle at a private sale no less than 10 days after the date of the letter. Private sale doesn’t mean wholesale auction right?

The letter states “the amount you owe for early termination will be no more than the difference between the Gross Early Termination amount and price received for the vehicle upon disposition or a greater amount established by the lessor or the lease contract”

So if I’m reading this right the absolute lowest price they could value the car at is $19,663 right? That means at most I’d only have to pay $408.94 for turning the car in early. If it sells for more than $20,071.94 then I would get a refund right?

I didn’t really want to bother with purchasing the vehicle and trying to sell it since kbb PP value is only $20,280. kbb shows around $21,318 fair/$22,618 typical dealer price, and another $600 for CPO so pretty good chance it’s gonna sell for more than the gross early term amount I would think, as long as they don’t sell it at auction.

Didn’t GM tell you this would happen if you return over 3 months early?

Wth… This makes no sense. Why would the payoff amount be more. Is this really how a onepay lease work? I really hope not.

Btw, you should try Carvana, they will buy your lease vehicle directly from GMF. They quoted me $400 more than my Volt payoff.

No they didn’t mention anything like that to me. This was my first time leasing a car, and it will definitely be my last, at least as far as a OnePay is concerned.

As for Carvana, they offered me $1000 under the original RV, so no go there

This has NOTHING to do with one pay.

There is specific wording that says ‘If you turn in this car over 3 months early we will give you the current wholesale value at Auction’.

So OP returned it early, and this clause kicked in. So what’s the value at Auction you never know until it sells.

That’s why you ‘sell’ it to Carmax (I know there are five but I got a carmax like 2 miles away so I’ll say carmax) and avoid all that stuff.

I guess OP didn’t call for a preinspection and just turned in the car ‘as is’ because they would always mention that clause if you ask ‘can I turn it in early’ to scare you.

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You didn’t read the early termination clause of your agreement before you terminated early?

My move here would be to find out MMR on the Volt. I fear for you on a car like a Volt.

So before I turned the car in, I did call GM Financial and asked about potential charges of turning the car in early. All I was told was that I would be subject to the disposition fee and any excessive wear and tear charges. Since the lease was paid upfront, there would be no additional charges from that.

I did have a pre-inspection done at my house and the inspector from AutoVIN didn’t give a value for the car, but did let me know that he didn’t see anything that was considered beyond normal wear on the car.

I just looked at my lease agreement and the fine print on the back says under “Definition of Fair Market Wholesale value” …the higher of either the price we receive for the vehicle at disposition or the amount you and we agree in writing" I really hope they can’t claim the vehicle is worth less than the residual value on my lease agreement. If so, that is shady as hell that no one explained that to me from the dealership or GM!

That’s pretty messed up that I can turn the car in early when it’s worth more and has less miles, and somehow that gives them the right to change how much the car is worth and make the lessee pay more, especially on a OnePay when the car was technically paid up through May!

The only other interesting thing is my GM account online is closed and it does show a balance of $554 even though it doesn’t give me any statement or anything to explain that, so maybe that’s my final amount owed?

The issue is that if you got it in May then April is the time to turn it in.
when did you turn it in?
When did you get that letter?
When did they close your account with a bill of $554

Search your VIN on Google and see if the car is for sale or recently sold.

Relax… you owe the lesser of the negative equity OR the sum of remaining payments + disposition fee + any excess wear and tear

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Thank you for this!!! That makes a lot more sense, and puts me more at ease :relieved:

Yeah…this happened to me on a Volt a number of years ago. I had not planned for any extra $ coming back, but in fact GM sent me a check for the difference between my few months remaining payments and what they sold it for at auction. I was obviously pleasantly surprised.

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We turned in a Traverse 6 months early and ended up getting a refund check for 1500 due to this.

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In case anyone is wondering, I got my final invoice from GM…max_g was right

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Great. So it looks like you’re only on the hook for disposition. This is what I would’ve assumed as it was a 1 pay lease. On a normal lease, you would be on the hook for remaining payments + dispo + wear&tear.

OP already paid the remaining payments, turned in the lease so wear and tear would have been charged when it was turned in.

No. Wear & Tear is typically charged on the final invoice. The inspection would’ve been done when the car was turned in.

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