Who here leased their 3rd gen?

You guys have a lot of nice options in USA as far as selling trucks to 3rd parties. I would take the truck to Carmax or Carvana or whatever other outfits exist down there and get them to make you an offer on your truck. Since you're low miles, I bet they offer you something like 32K for it. At that point you can either have them pay your lease company 25k plus whatever fees/taxes and rest goes in your pocket. Or if you have the 25k in your bank, pay out the lease company yourself and take the 32k from Carmax or whereever...

 

I've never leased a Toyota, but have have leased multiple Audis, so here is my experience which should be pretty much universal among all car manufacturers. When you lease a vehicle the requirement is you return the vehicle in at least the same state you received it. Prior to the lease end date, you'll schedule an inspection with a third party inspector that is hired by Toyota. In your lease agreement you'll see the lease trade-in requirements; tire tread depth, brake pad life, allowable scratches/dings and dents. The inspectors will go off a list from Toyota to ensure the tires/brakes are within acceptable specs., there'e no major body damage, the wheels aren't curb rashed and the vehicle runs/operates as required. You can return a vehicle with cosmetic mods, the inspectors won't notice/care if your windows are tinted, you plasti-dipped the emblems. They won't notice if you have a leveling kit. They probably won't notice the after market wheels. The smart thing to do is remove the aftermarket wheels and put the stock back on. Then sell your aftermarket wheels separately.

You don't need to buy it to trade it if leasing. You just need to know the buyout amount and make sure you get at least that amount for the trade.
Out of 5 Audi leases, I have only done 1 lease return. If your buyout is equal to or close to market trade-in value, or you have positive equity never do a lease return. Always do a trade in as if you purchased the vehicle. Then the vehicle will be appraised just like any other vehicle. You won't have to pay lease ending fees and they won't ding you for scratches/dents or excess mileage.

 

Leased a 4Runner years ago. Glad I learned that lesson when I was young and stupid. What a huge financial mistake that was.

 

Sounds like they saw you coming. . For comparison, I had one dealer ask $550 per month for the same vehicle I was able to get at $358 per month. Same truck, same $0 down, same miles, same term. They just play games and make their margins where they can, unfortunately it’s at the customers expense.

 

Lease is like rent he’ll no .

 

Lease is actually financing of portion of truck's depreciation you get to use. If you change trucks every 3-4 years and get same finance rates on both there really won't be much difference in cost of ownership.

 

Doesn't work as well on trucks that don't depreciate much. If you're going to lease a vehicle I don't know why you would pick the most reliable brand known for longevity/resale and then completely disregard that by trading every couple years. Might as well go lease a Jeep at that point so you get the worry-free benefit at least. I don't care how you crunch the numbers my 2016 is paid for, and you can't beat $0 a month for a truck that still runs & drives like brand new, and has a resale that is ridiculously high.

 

So basically it sounds like I need to sell it to Carmax or Carvana and then lease a new one

 

A month or two before your lease ends, take it to Carmax or Carvana, etc. and see what they offer. If worthy, make a deal. Optionally, a month or two before the lease ends, see if you can trade it in on another vehicle, just like you bought it. If you’re leasing again, dealers are usually very good at soaking up the last payment. If in the end, you’re negative on trade-in equity, return it to the lender and go start at $0 with a new vehicle.

 

FWIW, with long term issues vehicles have today, especially Toyota with rust, they’re all the same. Toyota does a great job at sustaining market value because they don’t discount as much at the initial sale like say a Ford or Ram. They’re easy to get 20% or more off when buying new so trade in values are skewed when you compare original MSRP and say a 3 year old trade in to a Toyota.

Leasing isn’t for everyone but for some, it’s a great deal. Unless you’re in the situation where leasing becomes attractive, it is hard to understand. And I don’t mean the situation where a cheaper monthly payment makes it affordable.....

 

The high resale value and thus high residuals are exactly why I leased the Tacoma and the Wrangler. The Wrangler actually had a higher residual and was cheaper for me to lease. I know that I like to change every few years so leasing makes sense. I was just stating that leasing is a form of financing and that if you change often there shouldn't be much difference in cost of ownership.

Of course paying a truck off and keeping it long term is a completely different decision (and cheaper) vs having a something new every few years.

 

To play devil's advocate; your basic 36 month warranty is over, depending on mileage, your 60 month powertrain and rust-Through coverage will be over soon as well. So you may have a truck that you have paid off in 60 months or sooner, but you're on the hook for any repairs. Compared to a lease, you're within warranty period the entire time of the lease.

 

I had an 03 Tacoma with over 500k on the odometer. The A/C finally went out so I got rid of it but I think I'll take my odds with life after the warranty period. Shit my current truck has been out of warranty for 50k miles. Besides when people are throwing down monthly payments of AT LEAST $350 and up, those repairs that'll happen way down the line will be easy to stomach, but I don't plan on keeping the truck that long before I go electric. I don't live up north so I don't give two shits about rust coverage as that is not a concern.

For many southern states rust is not a concern so no, they're not all the same. Toyota build quality has been, and still is superior, that's why they maintain their value. The 2nd and 3rd owner don't give a shit about a discount that Ford gave 10 years back. Toyotas have less problems so people confidently pay more. Particularly with trucks, do you think the 3rd owner cares about the initial value and is working out the depreciation? I think they're just looking for a damn truck.

 

Values are different for 2nd and 3rd owners so you can’t really compare as there are no discounts going in. Market states a value and it is what it is.

The new market however is really inflated and significant discounts can be had. For example, I bought a 2011 Ford F-150, it stickered at $41k, I paid 31k for it, out the door. Traded it in 2014, got $29k for it, replicated a very similar deal on a new Ram. So after 3 years, I lost $2k in bought / trade value. The person who bought my 2011 Ford probably paid for it 3 years used what I paid for it new. I suppose you could call that the real value. This is where Toyota does a good job with the market, minimal discounts means not a lot of wiggle room on secondary sales.

I’m a Tacoma fan, this is my 3rd one but I won’t put them head and shoulders above the rest. Admittedly, they have a big jump on others with initial quality which is why I came back and that quality does last but they have their problems too, just like every other truck. Reading this forum alone will reveal some long time nagging problems that still haunt buyers like fuel pumps, alignment, hood vibration, shifting, Entune, etc. etc.

 

Except it doesn’t work that way. If it did Toyotas would be cheap to lease and Chrysler vehicles would be very expensive.

 

Market Value = Supply and Demand from 2nd and 3rd buyers. Bottom line is what they are willing to pay, dealership or privately, so tell me again where the discount comes into play? You are taking something very simple and convoluting it for no reason. Trading in a truck does not equate to actual value, tons of people get hosed on the sale price of the next vehicle, in the finance department, fees, or any number of ways.
Fact of the matter is that dealerships keep their doors open by people coming in and making deals, the more often you go in, the more money they will make off of you. Every 'nagging problem' you listed there pales in comparison to the litany of issues most domestic trucks have, thus why their resale is less.

You were able to swing only taking a 2k hit over 3 years? So why then are you leasing for $358 a month? By my calculation, that's nearly $13k over the course of your lease.

 

$358 x 27 = $9666

I leased this time around as I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go back into a mid-sized truck as I’ve been driving full sized for close to 20 years. If I didn’t like it, a one year turn around would have been brutal on equity but let’s be honest, declining equity in any instance. I am almost a year into it now and I do not regret making the change and will remain mid-size going forward.

Not sure if I’ll lease or buy next time around. I would say what is making me lean to leasing again is that it’s easy. All I have to do is put gas in it and if I get a lemon, I know it is time limited that I have to deal with the headaches.

 

Sorry I meant to put 13k over the course of 3 years, for comparison.

 

It works like that though. Chrysler vehicles are very expensive to lease except for the ones that have very high residual, the Wrangler/Gladiator.