Closest dealer refused to accept the return, told me to bring it to where I bought it and they don’t have space for it - pretty sure they just didn’t want to spend any time on me - even though could be a good opportunity to at least try a sale. I called Volvo financial and they didn’t help - asked to try 2 other dealerships. That’s a minor inconvenience, but I’ll probably end up driving 2-3 more hours as a result.
I dropped cars at other dealers before without issues. The dealer where I purchased it didn’t even ask where I bought - just said - come whever.
All depends on franchise agreement and whether it is required. If a dealer does not accept a car I don’t know how you could return a lease. Volvo financial doesn’t want to have to contract to have someone pick up the car and deliver the car to an auction/other facility.
If you call Volvo and they say the dealer is required to accept the lease that seems worth a negative review on Google. This just makes the lease return process so much harder than it needs to be.
Also, everyone’s time has different value but if it was me I’d offer the dealership $100 bucks or $200. I bet they ground your lease if you are willing to slip them some cash. How much time/gas/mileage on chase car will you spend driving an extra 2-3 hours.
If my next closest Volvo dealer is 100 miles away - how am I supposed to return my car to Volvo
p.s. I wouldn’t want to return my car to the dealership that was forced to accept it by VCFS lol
Dealers can also just ghost you if they don’t want a lease return. My local GM dealer gave me a number to call to schedule a lease grounding. No one ever answered, so I called and left a message like every day for a week, sometimes multiple times per day. I just ended up returning it to another dealer about 30 minutes away and had my wife pick me up.
If this happened to me, and I leased from my local dealership, I would send a certified letter to the Volvo financial registered agent in my state saying that Volvo’s failure to provide reasonable instructions and availability to return their rental property constitutes an abandonment of their property. In most states there is a presumption that you can return rental property to where you rented it/a similarly convenient location absent clear contractual language.
If I did this, I suspect the day Volvo received the letter I would get a call from the GM of the local dealership offering their personal assistance in grounding my lease. I would then return my car and thank the dealership for their time.
