Someone posted here recently that in NJ, NMAC will allow the leasee to buy out the car themselves. There should be an online option in the portal. I believe its just for NJ residents tho.
I agree tho, this is absolutely awful to force leasees to go thru a dealer and get them involved. I remember a few co-workers that went thru hell when they were trying to buyout their Nissans.
I sold my Leaf 10 months into my 24-month term, I sold it $4380 over my current payoff at the time. The portal said my buyout was $20,920, the dealer said they need to pay some fee of $75 making my payoff $20,995, and I sold it for $25,375. They told me NMAC might chase me for that $300 purchase fee but they didnât because I technically never finished the lease.
You can literally g to any dealer to buy it out. If you wait until the end of your lease youâll pay that $300 but you might be able to skip it if you buy out the car early, but Iâm not certain. Even if, you probably have a lot of equity in it anyways.
Yeah, its not going through dealer that is the problem, it is the buy out price. The contract has a fixed buy out price - not a buy out price plus whatever the dealer wants to charge you. Forcing you through a dealer is fine but if Nissan want to do that it has to force the dealer to honor the buy out price or indicate on the lease contract that the buyout price does not include potential dealer mark-up.
The article linked above notes that Nissanâs response is due to BBB, CFPB and AG complaints. I would bet dollars to donuts that the NJ AGâs office called Nissan and told them to stop doing this. With arbitration clauses and the demise of this type of class action, individual consumers have almost no recourse. But State AGs can still drop the hammer.
Iâd guess Nissan finance has this policy because it is easier for them since they donât have to deal with all the paperwork involved with financing and it gives the dealers a shot at making money by giving them ability to provide financing. But when an AG calls and says they need to stop, much better to let someone buyout lease directly then fight with the State AG
Unfortunately, with the language Iâve seen on recent NMAC contracts, it doesnât really have a fixed price. It basically states âmust go through a dealer and the price is $xxx plus dealer fees, inspection fees, etcâ. Itâs fairly open ended as far as that goes.
Interesting. That raises a whole new set of concerns re some federal lending laws but I dont know enough about them to even guess how they would apply.
The only reason I think that maybe this is not ok legally/contractually is that Nissan seems to knows this is a problem and in places like NJ they seem genuinely concerned about stopping this practice. Whereas, on things like dealership markups where it is again about franchised dealer behavior, the car makers do not seem quite as concerned.
I wish every stateâs AG would fight for this.
I am continuing my conversation with the dealer, it sounds like there is a bit more leeway if I choose to finance the purchase and I can then pay it off immediately.
Other than that, they are charging:
This seems reasonable, but I am not sure what the $395 lic fee is for. I already paid for license and registration which does not expire until the end of 2022. Do I have to pay the $395 lic fee again?
When you get your paper work make sure it says âLICENSEâ on the line, then you can ask for a refund of overpayment.
Why are you still talking to this dealer though? Iâd be wary of any âsolutionsâ they might be offering you, most likely with usurious interest rates attached and possibly some kind of significant penalty for paying the loan off early.
Your buyout price from Nissan/Infiniti should include taxes. The dealer buyout would not. It sounds like they are trying to buy the car from Infiniti and then sell it back to you with their own financing? I dunno about anyone else but that sounds shady to me.
Thanks @ElectricEliminator, the buyout letter from NMAC states:
If you wish to purchase your vehicle, please contact your Nissan dealer and set an appointment to facilitate your payoff. At that
time, your dealer will calculate and collect applicable sales tax, and official fees, that are not included in your payoff amount.
So, it does not seem that the amount from NMAC includes taxes.
Canât believe this is the new Gold Standard.
Try Volvo, wanna sell your car to the DEALER? Gotta buy another Volvo.
I donât think his point was to make this the ânew gold standardâ I think what he means is that with whatâs happening in the market, toxic dealerships are really showing their true colors right now while the more straight up and honest dealerships are starting to get more recognition. From my experience itâs always the larger dealerships that really watch their reputation with customers while the smaller never do and donât really care to.
Not sure I agree with this.
Why should a dealership Finance department basically do as much work as selling a new car without any of the benefits. Doesnât Nissan really reap all the normal fees and the dealership is doing this for free?
Multiple points being made here. What I commented one wasnât pertaining to anything you just said right now.
That language is pretty clear and does NOT contemplate dealer markup. Dealer fees are not âofficialâ. Legally, it depends on the language in your lease agreement, not this NMAC letter. But from a customer service perspective, I would call NMAC and tell them that you want to do what their letter indicated but the dealer wonât let you. See if they will come up with a resolution for you.
Thank you to everyone who responded. You have helped me navigate the mess that plagues the automotive dealerships.
To the honest âdealersâ or âsalespeopleâ, I wish you all the best. Please keep up the good fight. Keep doing the right thing, and the rewards will follow. For dealerships that continue to scam people, your ratings will catch up with you.
Manufacturers work so hard to excite people about new automobile options. Unfortunately, many customers walk out of the dealership much dampened and disappointed. My experience with dealerships has been marred with constant haggling, lying, and avoiding truths just to close the deal. The recent incident was no different. This experience is why I like the Tesla direct-to-consumer model, although I am not a big fan of their cars and have not personally gone through their buying process.
Unfortunately, NMAC requires that Nissan buyers work with the dealership for a simple transaction of paying off the lease. It is bad enough that I had to visit the dealership to buy the car first, and itâs double wrong that I had to spend 3 hours getting it paid off and of course, more haggling.
For context, here is the full story of my experience.
My lease expires in a few months, so I decided to keep my car and buy the lease out. I have driven only 8K miles in the 3 years and the car looked brand new. I called a few dealerships, but no one would give me quotes or prices over the phone. My expectations were simple, and I was prepared to pay $300 (NMAC buy-out option), plus tax, license transfer, and doc fees, and walk out a lease-free person.
I stopped by the closest dealership, where I got a âmarket-conditionsâ extra charge quote of $1595. The salesperson explained that market conditions are challenging and cars are in high demand so they will be adding this fee to buy-outs. When I objected, he seemed to indicate that this number is negotiable, which made the whole experience sleazy from the start.
I called NMAC and explained my frustration. NMAC created a ticket/complaint, but overall, their advice was to call other dealers whose names and phone numbers they gave me. None of those dealers would give me a quote over the phone, setting me up for quite a laborious process of having to set up in-person appointments and driving all over town. I was not looking forward to this hassle.
Then, Brandon (who I donât think exists as I never saw him later) texted me from the first dealership I went to and offered to make things right. Brandon, who I later figured out to be the dealershipâs sales manager, offered to remove the $1595 fee if I agreed to take a loan. Of course, he assured me that there would be no penalty for paying off the loan early, which was a lie, as I learned while signing the contract.
The numbers I got over the phone were $300 for the NMAC buy-out option, $395 for license and registration, and $85 for document fees. I questioned why I had to pay so much for license and registration fees as I already had a license, to which he quickly corrected the number to $50 (which I later learned was also a lie; official DMV documents showed $30 fee).
In the end, the dealership bought out the car from NMAC and turned around, and sold it back to me, taking an opportunity to put me in a 72 month 4+% interest loan.
My final fees were:
â $payoff amount from NMAC + $300 - since the dealer was paying off the car, I donât think I should have been responsible for paying this amount. But it said so on the contract, which they quickly pointed out. I did not feel I had a good argument against this fee.
â Sales tax - which, based on my calculations, was about $50 over what it should have been. Ugg, I like my calculations to add up. I also think I was charged sales tax on the $300 buy-out options as it was bundled into the price of the payoff.
â License transfer fee $45 - which I felt better about than the original $50 only later to see that DMV charges $30 for such transfer
â Doc fee $85
â 3 hours of my life waiting at the dealership
I walked out of the dealership with a 72-month loan at a little over 4% and fine print that would require me to pay a minimum of $75 interest if I choose to pay off the loan early. So, now, I also have to deal with paying off the loan.
Of course, all these numbers rolled into the carâs final price, and I had to specifically request a sales manager to itemize the $300 NMAC buy-out fee on the back of his business card with his signature.
Brandon, who texted me back and set up an appointment with me, never showed up. However, the sales manager knew my name and the âexactâ deal I agreed to with Brandon.
In the end, I was overcharged, but the amount was not enough for me to stop the whole transaction and begin the dealership driving experience to try to save a few hundred bucks.
All in all, this was a disappointing experience. I have had great experiences at this dealershipâs service department who I felt were more honest and direct. The sales group turned out to be sleazy.
I cannot say that I will never lease or buy Nissan again, and in the end, I will buy the best car for my value. Nissan, however, no longer holds a âspecialâ significance to me, and after nine years of leasing Nissan cars, I will likely not return.
Letâs Go âBrandonâ? 
You need to blast that story on Nissan FB page and tag consumer reports and every news outlet.