Hi all,
Unfortunately, my mother recently lost her job last week and while it’s bad news, it only gave her every reason to jump start her retirement 2 years earlier. With that said, she entered into a new 36 month/12k VW Lease last June 2024 on a black on black 2024 Tiguan SE 4Motion with the Pano roof option. Her monthly payments are $399 including NJ Tax. The car is like brand new with only 8k miles. Her current payoff is 32,527. She has 26 payments remaining. Residual value is $21,603 with a turn in date of June 28, 2027. My retired father purchased a brand new Taos 2 months ago and they want to retain that car for the both of them moving forward as they will be both retired.
What are my options to get out of this lease?
I understand VW does allow a transfer but my mom could still be liable for default? Is this true? anyone have a workaround? I have experience transferring BMW leases.
Dealer offered to take it back but at a $6500 loss. Recommended i wait a week or 2 and see whether the used car market increases due to upcoming vehicle tariffs. Do we believe this will happen immediately?
We don’t want to entertain purchasing and trying to sell ourselves, even if we had positive equity.
We are located in North Jersey. Thanks
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You can sometimes find an outlier — someone who needs inventory and overpays for trades. There’s almost no labor involved in getting these quotes or updating them if used car values actually do rise.
No personal experience, but, from what I’ve read here, yes, she is still liable for the car (not just in terms of defaulting on payments). And, no, there is no workaround.
It is completely different from a BMW lease transfer, which is a “true” transfer (in terms of who is responsible for the lease).
I don’t think anyone knows. If your parents can easily make the car payments for now, perhaps wait 1–2 mos to see what happens?
Have they really analyzed their retirement budget…income/expenses…and checked to see if it is truly financially feasible…especially in the ability to pay for bumps in the road that will come? Kind of shaky if it can’t withstand 400/mo.
I would plan to wait until mid-May to see what happens with Used Car prices before doing anything. It will take that long for dealers to work through existing inventory and see if new car prices rise, making used cars more valuable.
I believe the Tiguan is made in the US, so it may not be hit as hard with tariffs.
