I still haven’t received my check since they closed it out in Nov of last year. Don’t plan on seeing it. They lost a customer forever though over $400…
I’m in a similar situation as the @matrix44, even same car and similar values. however, Carvana gave me an offer that is 4k higher than carmax and Voom. Seems the only way to deal with Carvana is to acquire the car by muself and then sell it to carvana. I know that california has a 10 day lease buyout tax exempt policy where no sales tax is needed if " the lessee transfers title and registration to a third party within 10 days from the date the lessee acquired title from the lessor at the expiration or termination of a lease." My question is:
- When does the 10 day start to count? the moment when i receive the title from mail or the moment when i pay off my lease?
- If 10 days starts from the moment when i receive the title in hand. Then I can sell the car to Carvana when i got the title. The problem is that i’m not sure if the car will apprised the same amount at that time and I’m not sure if i can get the car picked up in 10 days.
Whats your guys thoughts and recommendations? Thanks so much!
This process is complicated and unpleasant in CA. Read this and decide if you want to try it or not.
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Carvana will not buy your paid off car unless you obtain a fresh title with only your name on it. Most of the time, the title you’ll get when you pay off your lease is the original title that’s signed off with the lienholder name on it. They will not take this. If you’re in socal, company called Carstub will take it and will give you a semi competitive offer. I ended up going with Vroom because it seems like Vroom will now take cars with lienholder name on the title as long as you have the lien-release letter and they confirm the account is satisfied.
Good to know,. How difficult is it to get a fresh title with just your name on it after buying out a lease in California? Is it a straight forward (and inexpensive) process, or do you need to jump through a lot of hoops to get it?
I have a second qx60 that I may purchase at the end of the lease. Will get a fresh title so I am able to sell it in the future without any issues.
You can do the online transfer of title. You fill out the online DMV form and they will contact you and ask you to upload signed title. I did not proceed with it because Vroom took my car. If your plan is to avoid CA sales tax within the 10 day period, forget about it because it will take longer than 10 days for you to complete the transaction. Decide if selling to CarStub is better than Vroom or Carvana - CA Tax. I would first try Vroom, then Carstub. If it doesn’t work, buy it out, pay the tax and sell it to Carvana .
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How long from pick up to account closing?
I used ALGO as well, Nissan received my check last Thursday and it was closed on the following Wednesday.
I also talked to NMAC and they said there is a 2 week grace period so as long as the check is sent out, don’t worry about the payment if it’s due.
Reached out to ALGO - they’re not operating in California 
Just so everyone knows as a Honda client advisor here NILT no longer allows third party buyouts and they will cash anything dated from 5/3 and before but as of that date they’re no longer allowing it just like a lot of the domestic brands doing it as well (Ford, GM etc…)
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Thank you for the hard cut off date confirmation. However, GM still (for the time being) is definitely allowing 3rd party buy outs.
My understanding is that unless lessee or dealer is buying it they’re adjusting the payoffs to market value!
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That’s the first I’ve heard of other brands than Audi,Vw, etc and now Nissan. The market seems to be leaning that way of not allowing 3rd party buy outs, most people I would think would not buy the car out themselves and then flip it. All this no more 3rd party buy outs is probably for the lien holder to get the car back for dealer inventory.
Audi/vw allows 3rd party buy outs, they just charge market price… which is an incredibly reasonable thing for a bank to do. The fact that anyone will sell to a 3rd party for under market price is amazing.
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Yes- you are correct, my mistake. Audi/vw do allow for 3rd party buyouts, but at market rate (read:whatever they want to charge). Seems other companies are heading this way, if even allowing 3rd party buyouts at all, as Nissan and Volvo have done recently.
Perhaps it’s because, at least based on my 15+ leases the past 20 years, virtually no leases have had substantial positive equity.
The only one of mine that did was a 2008 (?) E350. It was the last year of the model, and MB was taking 20K+ off sticker. Two years later my car was worth just a couple thousand less than my cap cost.
This would be my guess. Previously, it probably wasn’t worth the hassle of setting different prices, but now that things have equity, they’re catching on.
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Yeah, they are trying to capitalize on rising used car prices. The QX60 I sold to the dealer was on their lot only for a week or so before selling for $2.5k over what they paid me.
I just sold my 2019 Infiniti Q50 lease to Carmax. I was rejected by Carvana last month and its a good thing because this month Carmax offered $2K more. Had no issues, one hiccup when we called Infiniti financial services, they wouldn’t give Carmax the payoff and said I have to go to a Infiniti or Nissan dealer for them to give me the payoff. The carmax rep called a Nissan dealer a mile down the street and they gave him the payoff amount. 20 minutes later signed all the papers and they gave me my positive equity check.
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Are you aware that Carmax had to give any cut to the dealer for this transaction?