This is the first time I’ve ever negotiated a lease buy-out. Ally and GM Financial won’t accept less than the agreed residual buy-out but US Bank is both aggressive and willing to do so, albeit they do drag the process out for weeks. They finally agreed to my offer today. The car was due to be returned tomorrow.
2014 Volt Original MSRP $35,595
0 Down, 35 payments of $144.92 = $5072.20 for 36k miles. Maturity date Feb 1, 2017
My residual was $21,9XX
In Nov US Bank called and offered to sell me the car outright for $16,847. Too soon, but at least I know they will sell for less than residual.
Dec 1: I call, they offer to sell for $15,486
Dec 28: They offer to sell for $14,236
Jan 4: They offer to sell for $13,651, I counter with $11k. Offer has to be before taxes. Their # is all in.
Jan 10: They offer to sell for $13,663. It went up slightly after my offer which was "yet to be reviewed"
Jan 18: They offer to sell for $13,619. Offer remains “yet to be reviewed”
I called every other business day with my offer remaining “yet to be reviewed” until, today(day before turn-in), they FINALLY accept my offer of $11,000, $12,060 with all taxes and fees added for a 36k miles Volt that I leased brand new.
My total lease payments + buyout including all taxes, fees, plates, etc is $17132, less than half of MSRP($7500 tax credit was shared in full). US Bank accepted over $10k less than residual!!
Im not surprised you got such a solid deal on a PHEV. The banks know they are going to get screwed on RV on most PHEV and electric vehicles and lease residuals are garbage on several new cars now. We just sealed the deal on our second new car, 2016 Focus Electric. $11.5k not including sales tax after state and federal credits. Even at that price I was kicking around what the value of the car in 5 years will be. I think the first round of PHEV leasing will be a lot like subprime lending and the banks are going to be desperate to not have to try and sell on the open market.
1)I did have the lease end inspection. They intended to charge me $138 for “Excessive” wear & tear due to tiny paint chips in front bumper cover due to anti-skid abrasion. It was a bogus claim that I would have fought against paying.
2)Every time they called(or I did) they asked to confirm current mileage. I was just barely below my max of 36K miles.
3)Last mileage check was 35,900.
4)No. I must pay 6% PA sales tax + other process fees. I’ll drive it for the remainder of winter then may attempt to flip it if I can clear a reasonable profit. If not, I’ll use it again for another winter then trade it in on something new. While it may further depreciate, I doubt it will be meaningful enough to matter to me since it has such a low market value currently.
If you look at RV on PHEV and EV over the past couple years the drops are dramatic. They figured out pretty fast they were in trouble. The sustained dramatically low oil prices came on the heels of the extremely high prices that accelerated development of the vehicles. Bought high and sold low. The fuel economy incentives will remain marginal with the massive reserves of shale oil. If Trump takes a shit on EV incentives the drop will be even more severe.
Trump or not, GM will likely hit the 200,000 PHEV/EV sold mark by the very end of this year or shortly afterwards. I doubt the tax credits will be extended.
The likelihood that gas rises dramatically in the next 20 years is extremely low. Shale oil reserves basically doubled known/proven reserves. Thats assuming a very low effeciency production from shale.
