Buying your Leaf after Lease is up

[booper]

Just wondering if people are buying (or planning to buy) their Leafs out after their Lease is up.

I've never had a lease before and didn't pay much attention to their buyout price, but I assume everything is still negotiable. I'm about a year away from the end of the lease on my 2013, but wanted to see what others have been doing.

What are the considerations when doing the buyout?

 

[LeftieBiker]

With the Leaf, the biggest consideration is battery degradation. Unless you live in a cool climate and lose no significant capacity, the buyout probably isn't worth it - unless you only need half or less of that capacity. Someone leasing, say, a Prius or Prius PHEV would do well enough buying it after lease end, but with the Leaf it usually isn't a great idea.

 

[TomT]

All other considerations aside, the buyout price is generally much more than the car is worth making it a non-starter for most...

Just wondering if people are buying (or planning to buy) their Leafs out after their Lease is up.

 

[davewill]

Unfortunately, the buyout is NOT negotiable. If you could follow the car to whatever dealer buys it, I suppose you could THEN make an offer, but otherwise no. The math is pretty simple. Assuming you want to buy the car, you compare the market value to the residual. If the residual is less than the value (or close enough so that you're willing to pay that much over market value to get YOUR car), then go ahead and buy it. Otherwise, don't.

 

[LeftieBiker]

All other considerations aside, the buyout price is generally much more than the car is worth making it a non-starter for most...

That depends as well on where you are. Dealers in cool climates will be asking - and getting - more than the residual. Mine is $18k and change. I doubt I'd see one for less than $20k after haggling.

 

[booper]

I'm in Seattle, so we are in a pretty good climate for the battery life.

I think with the reduction in the residual value, most Leaf's coming off lease in the near-term will have buyouts above market value. Who's going to buy all these used Leaf's hitting the market through the next few years?

Sounds like many people here are just turning their leases in, and re-leasing a new Leaf. I'll probably end up doing that too, but if the price is right, I wouldn't mind picking up another Leaf.