Hi all, think I have an interesting one for you all regarding my wife’s lease on her 2020 Tiguan which is ending soon. Want to make sure I’m thinking about this the correct way. Back in 2020 we were living in LA we leased a Tiguan SEL for my wife and get a pretty good deal($400 per month payment, $0 down) on it since we had a connection in the dealership. Fast forward two months, pandemic hits and the car has been used, but is extremely low mileage for a 3 year old car, like around 12K or so miles. We moved from LA to NJ to be closer to family and now my wife’s lease is coming up and we’re trying to decide if we should buy it our or if she wants a new VW. Her buyout price from VW is $20,XXX and got a quote from Carvana to buy the car for $28,XXX.
My question is, does it make sense to visit NJ VW dealers and try and shop around to see who will give the best discount for the lease return to try and get a better price on a new VW? My thinking is there is still a huge car shortage here in the north east so it would be good for the dealership to get a low mileage used they can sell. Thinking they would have to at least give around $5K off the price to make it worthwhile.
Sorry if this is a bit confusing just trying to sort it out in my mind and could use a sounding board.
Have you priced new Tiguans? With only 12K miles, I’d say she already has a ‘new’ Tiguan. I’ve got 300K miles on my 2015 Jetta facelift, and have only done usual maintenance and tires.
Have you done the research yet? Lease vs. purchase? Times are tough and there are no lease deals to speak of. Many are extending or buying out. Also, before deciding value on Tiggy, go to more sources…there is a post about online sellers here, if I can find it…
Literally woke up today and started thinking about it. I used Carvana just as an example (plus sold my JLU to them and it was easy) to see if it is even worth the ask, which for like $8K, seems worth it. CarMax was similar and I’ll check the others you sent.
The big thing is that we don’t have any relationships with NJ dealers so my thinking is there is a mutual benefit to be had - they get a used car they can sell that is basically new and we can get a better lease on a brand new model. Moreso, just trying not too seem like a fool when I walk into the dealership with this idea.
Also, just did a quick search and per their site, the closest VW dealership to us has a 22 Tiguan SE R-Line Black on the lot for $36,XXX…UPDATE: never mind, that was MSRP not price. Prb marked up to heck.
This seems unlikely…you def. got in on the Tiggy at a great time, but it is among the worst times ever to lease presently…I’d be looking to purchase if you need to make a move.
Sell to VW/Audi dealer (get quotes from multiple), and if you dont have to pay sales tax then buy and sell (get quotes from multiple source).
Other option is to extend your lease, keep the car and keep the payment. We were able to extend our VW and Audi lease 12 months (6 months first, then 6 months again).
If you are trying to capture equity, best to sell now… if you need another car at a lower payment extend the lease.
I went through a similar thought process when my Hyundai Ioniq lease ended earlier this year, and after spending a few months trying this out, eventually just ended up buying my lease out.
A few factors to consider, and your choice I believe will depend on whether you want the “most value for money” or have a specific “car configuration” you desire to own and are looking for the best/easiest way to achieve that. If “value for money” is what you are looking for than buying out your lease and keeping the car is very likely going to be the best option.
If you want to acquire a new vehicle, the next best thing would be to treat it as two separate transactions - sell your existing lease equity to the highest bidder and separately buy/lease the new car from a dealer who has the car and can offer it at a price that works for you. I thought (like you) that doing this as one transaction may be better as it provides the dealer an opportunity to make money on both transactions and thus may offer an overall better deal to me too. But at least in my case that did not work out - dealers that had the car I would like were willing to offer very little money towards my “lease return/trade-in.” Now if you are looking for the most convenient/least work for you solution than doing a trade-in with a VW dealer that has the car you want is it, but you will most likely spend the most money by taking this route. Of course your mileage may vary here and you may have a difference experience with a different car and different state (I am in N. CA).
If you want to sell your car to a third party (as opposed to VW dealer) you may need to buy the car yourself first and then sell it (most auto leasing arms are not allowing 3rd party sale these days). And that whole process may take 2-4 weeks, and your purchase quote may vary over that time. Also need to be mindful that you structure the process so that you don’t pay sales tax (or get reimbursed).
Yeah, this sounds exactly like what I was thinking. After spending the day on it, I’m starting to agree with your advice. If we do end up wanting the bigger car, I think we’ll just do separate transactions. In my mind it sounded like a win-win, but seems like it would be a bit complicated to pull off. Thanks for sharing!
NJ is around 7-8% tax right? So a 20k buyout is about 1.6k tax?
So… 1.6k tax deducted from your 8k equity check at Carvana gives you 6.4k in cash
If you only take 5k from a dealer ‘discount’ for your equity from a dealer, you’re missing out on 1.4k cash.
I’d shop the car to a bunch of dealers (without saying you want to buy anything), and a few of the online guys, and see if you can get more than 28k. Then if you’ve got more than 28k, you can ask the VW guys if they’ll increase to match the highest offer, or go beyond their current offer if you buy a car from them directly.
If i was you in this situation though, as others have said. I’d buy out the Tiguan, and drive it for a couple more years. Sounds like A. you drive very few miles, you’d be paying a lot per mile in the new car, B. the market is not great right now for getting into something new, C. upgrade once you actually need it, vs. now when you might need it in the future…
Or just go through a broker. Sounds like the ~$x00 fee might be worth it for you to avoid the headache.
Not sure exactly on VW, but I am fairly confident it’s one price for you, one price for a VW/Audi dealer, and another price for 3rd party such as Carvana/Carmax etc. Just something to verify when quote shopping.
