What Should I Expect When I Buy My Lease?

Any experience out there with this? My residual is $15k on a 4 year lease. This is my 4th lease but I've never wanted to buy one until now. I think I can sell it for at least $22k.

Anyway, I'd love to hear about some personal experience with this process negotiating with the dealer on buying your lease. Did any mods have to be reversed?

Thanks!

 

I'm sure any mod would have to be removed. I do not know about the negotiation as I would never lease a vehicle.

 

I leased my truck then bought it out right at the end. By the time the lease was up it looked nearly like it did today. Leased it from a dealer in Southern California, did the rest at Reno Toyota -- fwiw.

 

They are not concerned about mods and damage if you buy it out, but they will be if you simply return it, and will bill you accordingly, just like excess miles. They don't even look at it if you buy it out.

 

If your residual is $15k but the truck is now worth $22k, that means you overpaid on your monthly lease payment. Should be a no-brainer to buy it out.

 

after my lease was up the buyout was 17,500 add in taxes and ext warrenty @ someting like 20,000+.....
im sure the book value is more on a well kept truck....
leasing was great to me.....

 

I love the lease. My cars are always under warranty and I never have to worry about losing value. In this case I'm gaining value. I've only had the truck since February but I like to plan ahead.

 

Get a loan for the residual and buy it out. It's pretty easy. I just did it on my Matrix last month. There is no negotiating when it comes to buying out. The dealer does not own the lease, it's the bank.

 

If you are buying it out, mods and body damage don't need to be removed/repaired.
It's only an issue if you are turning it in... they'll deduct the cost of repairs from the residual value and you'd need to pay the difference.


Normally, I would also be one to say "never lease a vehicle"... and that still holds true for me because I can't survive on 12,000 miles a year, but if I owned a beater for the commute to work and only used the Taco for weekend/vacation, they hold their value so well that I would actually consider a 48mo lease.

It's not like you're leasing a Chevy where you're left with a $15k residual on a vehicle that you can't sell for $10k and can't finance for $8k...

Though I do think it's pretty dumb to pay for a lease for 36 months and then take out a loan for the residual. You end up paying a lot more than just buying outright brand new once you factor in the interest on the loan, which will be a used-car loan and likely 1-2% higher than for a new car.

 

Ask BGR about that.


Granted, his situation was somewhat unique.

 

Please explain? Don't you always have a payment if you continually lease? It sounds like renting, continual payment and no ownership. That sounds like a loss in value.

 

I think he's saying that if you're going to plan on having a payment anyway, leasing makes more sense because you're going to pay less and always have new vehicles. If you buy every three years, you're going to have to worry about 'how much is this worth' on a trade or private party. With the taco, the LEV is often less than its current market value so you gain the value of the equity. So, if the LEV is 18k, and you can sell it for 25....put that 7k back towards whatever you paid over the last 3-4 years. Besides, I don't care who's name is on my title. If I am making a payment... I dont own it either way so who cares?

 

If you lease a vehicle for 3 or 4 years, then purchase the vehicle at the end of the lease, you're going to pay more than you would have if you would have just purchased the vehicle new (instead of leasing it) 100% of the time. Car dealers love it when people lease cars, then turn around and buy them at the end...it's double profit for the dealer. Actually, car dealers love it when people lease cars because the car will ultimately come back to them (or another dealer of same type) and they'll be able to "sell" it again for another nice profit. I don't care what anyone says, you never win (from a financial standpoint) with a lease in the long run.

 

This is the faulty logic with people who think they make money off a vehicle they purchase at the end of the lease. Factor in what you paid monthly over the course of that 36-48 month period and subtract that from from that so called $7K "profit" you don't come out ahead and you have no equity.

I would venture to bet even when leasing a Tacoma you would still come out behind than purchasing. As one of the other posters noted, there is a reason dealers like to push leasing as an option onto a buyer. When I bought my truck in December 2006, the dealer tried to push leasing on me when I was adamant I wanted to purchase the truck outright in cash. A dealer and his staff are well trained to make sure you leave as much money as possible in that building when you walk out the door. Anyone who thinks leasing is beneficial is foolish. Leases are only good for companies who replace a fleet of vehicles every 2-3 years like a rental comapny, or business.

 

Leasing never makes sense financially. Drive a beater for a few years, save your money and buy a new one outright with cash. After you buy it with cash, pretend you are making payments each month and put that money in the bank. In less time you would have financed a new one you will once again have cash to buy another new one plus you will have the first truck you bought with cash.

 

Exactly. I'm not buying the truck at the end to keep it. I'm going to sell it within the month. 4 year double cab with roughly 48k miles on it should pull in a pretty decent resale. Factor in the $50+ I'm saving a month from leasing vs financing, I think it will be good. Why just turn it in after 48 months and get nothing! Buy it, sell it, have enough cash with profit for a new down payment and pay off some bills with the rest. If it holds value this is the plan. One option, do nothing get nothing. Second option, get money for doing just a little more than the first option.

And I have NEVER had a dealership push the lease, ever. They always push the purchase because they make more commission. That's always the first hurdle.

 

How much is your lease payment a month if you don't mind me asking?

 

The $50 that you claim you are saving on the lease is going toweards the equity for the person who purchased the truck, again this is faulty logic. What if the dealer is not willing to negotiate on the buyout of your truck? Tacoma's hold their value, if the dealer knows the used market demands a premium for a used truck, much like now, you're at the disadvantage of the dealer and they'll hold you hostage on the buyout unless you renogotiated that when you leased initially. Any financial expert will tell you unless you own a business tha requires a replacement of your fleet, leasing is a bad deal.

 

Driving a car never pays financially. I don't really want to get into a lease vs finance debate. Leasing works for me for a number of reasons and in this case, I have a vehicle with tremendous resale value. even if I came out with $1000 profit in the end, I'm still up.

If I didn't lease, I would be trading or selling my car every 4 years anyway.

Thanks for the posts on buying a lease at the end of term.

 

If you lease, you pay sales tax on the monthly payment during the lease, and pay sales tax on the LEV when you buy it out. If you finance, the sales tax for the full price of the vehicle is included in the principal, so you are paying interest on the tax too. In a high-tax state like Calif, the difference amounts to $200-300 on vehicle in the Tacoma's price range.

Leasing also protects you in case something catastrophic happens during the lease period that would diminish the market value below the LEV. Hypothetical example: your truck got into a rollover but the insurance co. refused to total it. The collision shop pulled out the cab and repainted half the body panels on the truck. If you tried to sell the truck yourself, it would ring up all kind of alarm bells on Carfax. If you leased it, you can walk away at the end of the lease.