Question for anyone who's sold a car that's a lease, before lease was over

[CobraJohn01]

Okay, here's my question: My girlfriend and I have a car that we signed a 3-year lease on. The lease is up in August. We've discovered that the difference in what the recording at Toyota Financial says the payoff is is quite a bit less than we've seen our Scion tC (car in question) selling for through private owners and used car dealers. So if we wanted to sell the car to someone privately so we can profit several thousand dollars, how would we go about doing that? My concerns are the issues with the title and everything. I doubt someone is going to say "Here's $XX,XXX, I'll trust you to pay off the car and then send me the title and not just run off with my money".

So, for anyone who's done something like this or knows how it works, what's the process?

 

[wvmystichrome]

As I understand thru our local Ford dealer when we inquired about a lease a few years ago, I do not know if you can do that. You lease a car for a period of time. The title is in the dealerships name not yours. They own the car they are just renting it to you. Or whomever you leased it thru. GMAC, Ford Motor Credit, Toyota Credit or so on. I don't think you have the right to sell the car because it is not yours it is theirs. At the end of the lease you have the right to purchase the car from them or just turn it over to them to allow them to sell their car. I would call the dealer you leased the car from and ask (without giving your name) how a lease works and ask a few "what ifs" and this being one. Just MHO. I know after learning a lot about the fine print details I found out about leases, there is just NO WAY I would lease unless that is the only way you could afford a car. The major reason why is you are paying interest on the full value of the car during your lease just as if you had financed it to own. Well if I am only going to use a car for 2 - 3 years then why should I pay the interest on the full amount of the car when I am only going to lease/use it for the 2 - 3 years. Also all the hidden fees are ridiculous.

 

[CobraJohn01]

What you're saying makes sense. But when we call to make an over the phone payment, when she listens to the option to find out the payoff, it says the current pay off is $10,XXX. In our lease agreement, I remember that we had the option to buy the car after the lease is up for like $8500 or so. So it seems to me that the payoff would be the remaining 6 payments plus the price stated to buy it at the end put together. And if that's the case, that would seem to me like you could buy out the car earlier than the scheduled end of the lease. Am I wrong?

By the way, not that we've had any problems or complaints with our first lease experience, but I agree that we probably won't do another lease in the future.

 

[wvmystichrome]

It kinda sounds like you purchased the car not leased with them giving you a payoff amount of the full price. I would definitely call the dealer tomorrow and find out what the deal is. Everyone I have ever known that leased a vehicle went full term so I am not for sure about if you want out early. I do remember one of the ladies I work with leased a car and tried to trade it in at a different dealer and they told her there was no way. She was told she had to take the car into the dealership she leased it thru. That may be what you have to do is take it back to them and go from there. As they explained to me if the car is worth less than what is owed on it when you take it back you owe NO difference. Now if the car is worth more (which to me would rarely happen) then you get the difference. Case in point when we want to lease an Expedition. $35,000 vehicle price. $15,000.00 2 years lease cost. After 2 years walk away and owe nothing. If the vehicle would value more than $22,000.00 after the 2 years then the dealership wrote us a check for anything over the $22k. I looked at them and told them their calculators knew the very close value of that vehicle after 2 years and they probably would never have to write a check to anyone.

 

[CobraJohn01]

No, it's definately a lease. With a payment of $260 a month and only $1000 down, there's no way we'd be able to buy a $16,500 car in three years. When we bought our Explorer last month, the dealership really wanted us to trade that car in on the deal. They said they'd give us like $12,000 for it. That was about $3,000 less than what they are selling for in some areas, plus we needed the Explorer we were buying because our old one's engine died and left us with one car. So we needed to keep the Scion until we could replace it and have 2 cars still.

So there must be a way that a lease can be ended early or traded in on another car purchase because they really wanted us to trade in our leased Scion. Another local dealer has one on their lot for $15,999. I don't know if it's an '05 like ours or an '06, but it isn't new, and brand new they're under $17k unless certain options are added. So with them offering us $12k, they stood to make about $3k+ on reselling ours. I figured why not do it ourselves and make ourselves a few grand?

 

[DAVESVT2000]

You can buy out a lease at any time if you really like the vehicle.
You can also sell a lease at any time, for the payoff according to the Lessor. If you sell it for more than the payoff, you get the profit. A few years ago I sold a Ford Escape before the lease was up, casue I no longer needed the vehicle, but did not want to turn it in early and pay a penalty. The Ford dealer took care of all the paperwork between me and the buyer, I never even had to bring the car to the dealer. When we finished the paperwork, the buyer went to the DMV, and then came to my house and put the plates on and drove away. BTW in this case I sold the car for the payoff, made no profit on it, but that was fine with me, I just wanted out of the lease.

 

[stangd1909]

Go to swapalease.com and see if someone wants your car. I had a lease that I put on there and someone took it over.

 

[CobraJohn01]

DaveSVT2000: Thanks for that info. That's really interesting on how your situation went down with the dealership doing everything. Are there any other details you can give me on the whole process?

stangd1909: That link is a good site, but I'm not looking to just get out of the lease because of financial issues or not wanting the car itself anymore. We just want to look into selling the car and ending the lease early because we would be able to make a few thousand dollars profit. Having someone just assume the lease or just buying it for it's payoff wouldn't accomplish what we're trying to make happen. I do appreciate the information though.

 

[CobraJohn01]

Does anyone else have any information they can add to my inquiry?

 

[Destro03]

LOL. just make sure that all the paper work is done by the dealer.
The ford dealer did not complete the paperwork on the title of my lease,
and a year later the car was in a hit and run.
I bet you can't guess who the police contacted. Yes sir.
Me.
It took forever to get it figured out.

 

[RDJ]

Does anyone else have any information they can add to my inquiry?

Read your lease agreement and talk to your leasing agent. Whether or not you can sell the car depends on how your lease is written and is brand, if not dealer, specific. In MOST cases you CAN sell the car .. as long as you pay the lease off and as has been stated, you keep the difference between what you get and what the lease paperwork says the vehicle is worth. If you sell it early you will also have to pay the monthlies until the end of the lease.

I have leased a number of cars and you are better off in MOST cases to sell the car at the end of the lease rather than let the dealer take it back. the exception being that if you intend to lease another vehicle from the same company .. in that case they won't care much and will just write you a new lease. (been there done that with Ford)