shabadoo25

This is the line they are trying to sell me with at my local dealer. I mentioned it because I trade cars in often.

Is there any truth to that title statement at all? What is the typical lease buyout?

Itchytoe

Typical lease buyout is the remaining value of the lease (whatever you still owe if you added up all the payments remaining) plus the residual value of the vehicle (typically something you can find in your paperwork).

Leases are extremely easy to get out of. You pay it off, and they take the car back and make more money off of it. It's not cheap, but it is easy.

mico

Getting out of a lease is the same as getting out of a loan.

When you have a loan and you want to trade a car - the dealer will check the pay-off and the actual value of the car, and they will deal with the difference, whether it is positive or negative. If it is positive - it goes towards your down payment on the new car. If it is negative - it is added to the new loan/lease/price.

Same with a lease. If your car is in good shape, and the market for the car is good - there is a good chance you will get out of it without negative equity, and sometimes you can even get paid.

My first lease was a Miata, and I got bored with it after one year. I could not get enough at a dealer, so I sold it privately, and I made $500.

A couple of months ago, just as I was leaving Audi - I decided to update my wife's 2009 A4. I actually got a trade-in value $1,500 higher than the payoff, so that went towards the new lease, and we were able to get out of the lease a year early, get equity and get a brand new A4 with more equipment at the same monthly payment.

Of course, it will not happen always, not even a lot, but the worst case scenario, if the car is a complete dud - you will have to suffer through the lease, and it will cost you nothing to get out.

DaCePtak0n

Have a better chance of giving up your first born than getting rid of an Infiniti early. You're still tied to the payments/responsibility of the car even if you do something like LeaseTrader or Swapalease.

sm008

you can even try to sell your car locally, basically 3rd party, someone else pays the buy out price, taxes direct to bank. If the resale is good for the year/make you have, you can even make some money when selling to 3rd party.

or try local carmax

good luck!

Beer Magazine

I learned from my last lease end that the "buy out" isn't the same for every case. I'll use my Tiguan SEL for example.

My purchase price at lease end....$19870
Carmax's buy out....26,000
VW dealers buy out ....24,500

Since the model year was a 2009, and inventory was low they adjusted the values (not on my end but on anybody else end)...which seems dumb because the dealer just sent it to auction and I couldn't sell it to make some money because it was worth way more than the buy out.

So it's easy to get out...but easy might me expensive. Sometimes you can roll the money into a cheaper car.

Itchytoe

Carmax's and the VW dealer's "buy out" isn't a buy out. It's what they're offering you for the car. Buyout is a function of your lease contract, not what someone will pay you for it.