End of lease approaching.....

[Aliboy]

Hi guys,
my lease is ending in May of 2021. I'm seriously considering buying at that time (not an early buy out). Is that amount (buy out) at the end of the lease set in stone or can that amount be negotiated? And.......do you purchase from the dealer or directly from KMF?
Any help is greatly appreciated...

 

[adam1991]

The leasing company owns the car and specifies the residual. Your contract says that to satisfy the lease, you give them either the car back in suitable condition, or the residual amount in cash.

They really don't want the car. Everything's negotiable. You can call them and ask if they will take less money to satisfy the contract. They might. You won't know if you don't ask. You might even ask now; who knows, they may give you a great deal to buy it out now.

They may also have promotions to try to get you into a new lease on a new car. That might be more attractive.

Read your lease contract. I think in Florida you're stuck dealing with the dealer, but overall there's no dealer involved. KMF owns the car; deal with them. Your contract spells all this out.

 

[OhioStateStinger]

I am pretty sure that you will want to wait until your lease is closer to ended before having the negotiation conversation.

Here is a quick generic article to get the thought process started. If you are seeing Stingers selling significantly lower than your buyout amount you may have some leverage.

Tricks for a Lease End Buyout

Tricks for a Lease End Buyout. Purchasing your leased vehicle at the end of the contract term by paying the residual value listed in your lease contract may cost you extra money. Financing the purchase at a dealership will likely cost you even more. Consi

smallbusiness.chron.com

 

[MerlintheMad]

I keep getting (monthly) letters from "my" dealership, offering to take my car and get me into a new lease on a 2020; been getting these letters since my lease was two years old. They are silly offers, however, since 12K miles per year and c. $670/month hardly compares to 15K per year and $627/month. They also say that my car is in high demand and they want it. I reckon that if I were still leasing (bought it out at three months, but the dealership doesn't know that), I'd be negotiating miles up and monthly down, based on their hype about, "We have a buyer interested in a car exactly like yours". It seems that for a while now used Stingers sell really close to what brand new sell for after the discounts/incentives. In other words, the market is unnaturally high, which is good for any of us with one, ready to get into a brand new one.

 

[adam1991]

They are silly offers, however, since 12K miles per year and c. $670/month hardly compares to 15K per year and $627/month.

eh, that's boilerplate. There's no intelligence built into the mechanism that sends out those letters.

But you can always use that as an opportunity to go in and ask.

They also say that my car is in high demand and they want it.

they say that about everything. It's just marketing. Can they get you in the door.

 

[MerlintheMad]

eh, that's boilerplate. There's no intelligence built into the mechanism that sends out those letters.

But you can always use that as an opportunity to go in and ask.


they say that about everything. It's just marketing. Can they get you in the door.

The communications to me are a combo of some generated mail and actual hand-written letters from the dealership. The last one was not spit out by a machine. And used Stingers ARE in demand, or the prices asked would be closer to the depreciated residual.

 

[stasek]

Hi guys,
my lease is ending in May of 2021. I'm seriously considering buying at that time (not an early buy out). Is that amount (buy out) at the end of the lease set in stone or can that amount be negotiated? And.......do you purchase from the dealer or directly from KMF?
Any help is greatly appreciated...

What’s your buyout amount? Pretty good chance it’s quite a bit lower than the current market value, in which case it’s a no brainer to buy it ( as long as you still like the car). As far as negotiating lower price - I’d be shocked if KMF did that. I’ve heard of BMW doing it once in a while, but BMWs RVs are inflated and the cars are almost never worth what the RV is.

 

[Aliboy]

What’s your buyout amount? Pretty good chance it’s quite a bit lower than the current market value, in which case it’s a no brainer to buy it ( as long as you still like the car). As far as negotiating lower price - I’d be shocked if KMF did that. I’ve heard of BMW doing it once in a while, but BMWs RVs are inflated and the cars are almost never worth what the RV is.

My residual is $20,000 and I do still like the car so it's almost a no brainer......

 

[stasek]

My residual is $20,000 and I do still like the car so it's almost a no brainer......

In that case, either buy it out or sell it to the likes of Carvana, Vroom, etc.... Unless you have a mark on carfax, you’d probably make some money by selling it to one of the above.

 

[OhioStateStinger]

In that case, either buy it out or sell it to the likes of Carvana, Vroom, etc.... Unless you have a mark on carfax, you’d probably make some money by selling it to one of the above.

Don't do Vroom. I just did a quick check on offers from Carvana and Vroom last night. Carvana was $5k higher for my GT1 than Vroom is offering. I shouldn't have looked, because now I know I could profit by selling my Stinger to Carvana.

 

[stasek]

Don't do Vroom. I just did a quick check on offers from Carvana and Vroom last night. Carvana was $5k higher for my GT1 than Vroom is offering. I shouldn't have looked, because now I know I could profit by selling my Stinger to Carvana.

It’s such a shoot though who’ll give the better offer. It’s best to try all of them all, especially the online ones, where it takes only couple minutes.