End of lease buyout offer

[w6vms]

For the 2013 SV that I'm leasing, which currently has 35,500 miles, the dealer is offering me a "deal" of $13,375 buy-out (plus state taxes, etc).

The residual on the lease was $19,875, so it's a $6,500 discount on that. But it still seems like not a very good price.

Feedback on this will be appreciated.

 

[Valdemar]

For the 2013 SV that I'm leasing, which currently has 35,500 miles, the dealer is offering me a "deal" of $13,375 buy-out (plus state taxes, etc).

The residual on the lease was $19,875, so it's a $6,500 discount on that. But it still seems like not a very good price.

Feedback on this will be appreciated.

Seems about $2-3k above the FMV for this car. Still may be worth it as you are the original owner and if the battery is in a good shape, or it is not in a good shape but you're on track to get a replacement pack under the 60k/5year capacity warranty (unlikely for your location).

 

[w6vms]

The battery seems to be in excellent shape, I still have all the bars, and get about 80 miles per charge of largely city driving.

 

[Valdemar]

The battery seems to be in excellent shape, I still have all the bars, and get about 80 miles per charge of largely city driving.

All bars can mean up to 15% capacity loss. Get LeafSpy working to see how low it really is. Regardless, with 12 bars still I don't think you will qualify for a capacity warranty replacement.

 

[billg]

For the 2013 SV that I'm leasing, which currently has 35,500 miles, the dealer is offering me a "deal" of $13,375 buy-out (plus state taxes, etc).

The residual on the lease was $19,875, so it's a $6,500 discount on that. But it still seems like not a very good price.

Feedback on this will be appreciated.

When is your lease up, and how many miles were included? Will you owe for extra miles if you turn it in?

 

[w6vms]

For the 2013 SV that I'm leasing, which currently has 35,500 miles, the dealer is offering me a "deal" of $13,375 buy-out (plus state taxes, etc).

The residual on the lease was $19,875, so it's a $6,500 discount on that. But it still seems like not a very good price.

Feedback on this will be appreciated.

When is your lease up, and how many miles were included? Will you owe for extra miles if you turn it in?

Lease is already up since March of this year, I extended it for 12 months until this coming March. 45,000 miles are included, I don't expect to go over that. I could turn it in any time now, until late March.

 

[EVforRobert]

For the 2013 SV that I'm leasing, which currently has 35,500 miles, the dealer is offering me a "deal" of $13,375 buy-out (plus state taxes, etc).

The residual on the lease was $19,875, so it's a $6,500 discount on that. But it still seems like not a very good price.

Feedback on this will be appreciated.

$6500 is $6500. Used cars are a pig in a poke. You know all about your car first as the lessee, now the buyer. Go for it.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

For what it's worth, I was offered a similar deal and went for it for the reasons others had mentioned. I know this car, I have treated it well. Also I had a little bit of cosmetic damage (paint scraped off the bumper) which doesn't bother me, but I would have to repair it before ending the lease. Although it's a minor thing, the costs can be quite high to repair it correctly. In my case, one would have to either remove the battery or more likely the bumper in order to bake the new paint without damaging the battery.

For me, I never want to go back to a gasser (yes, my wife's car is a PHEV - but mine doesn't have to be as well). So my options for EVs were basically:
1) buy out my old Leaf
2) lease a new EV for 2-3 years
3) buy a new EV
4) return the Leaf and look to buy one used

Option (3) was out immediately - with the Leaf 2.0, Bolt, Model III just around the corner, no way would I buy a new first-gen EV. It would just depreciate too quickly.

Option (4) was out as well due to the high risk. Not knowing the background of the car, or really where it spent much of its life, I didn't feel comfortable with this option. I did look around, and there were really no used Leafs nearby at the time. So I would have to drive and/or fly out of state just to find a used Leaf. I would never buy a used car sight-unseen. And then I would have to ship it back, or take a long tedious drive. This may be an option for you, though, if you find used Leafs nearby.

So my options were down to (1) or (2). I ran the numbers and if my car depreciates to $0 (it won't), buying out my lease was only slightly more costly than leasing a 2015 SV for 3 years. But I have the benefit of owning it outright. If I really want to upgrade to a new EV in 1.5 years, I can easily do so. On the flip side, if I want to wait for another 5 years to upgrade, I can do that too. With another lease, I was forcing myself to make another decision in 3 years from now.

So if your car works for you, and will continue to work for you as the battery ages, run the numbers. You may find that you are offered a much better deal than you realize, especially if you are comparing to used prices.

 

[Firetruck41]

I'd have a hard time paying $3-4k more than market price for a car, just because I had leased it. There is very little to go wrong with these cars, other than battery issues. If you buy one from the same area/year/similar miles, there is likely not going to be much difference. You can see where it is from with a carfax, you can see how many bars it has for "coarse" health, and then use Leafspy when you test drive it. That seems worth $3-4k, IMHO. As a data point, I bought a 2013 SV for $9500 last month, it seemed there were quite a few 2013 SV in the 11k range, with some costing more $ and some less $.

 

[w6vms]

So... what's the scoop on battery replacement costs?

To muddle the waters a bit, the 2016 has, besides added range, a longer warranty period on the traction battery.

I'll keep thinking about this, I don't have to pull the trigger any time soon. Thanks for the input so far.

 

[Gearscout]

Make them an offer. With new models coming out with 30KwH battery capacity, everything before 2016 will be discounted.

 

[EVforRobert]

So... what's the scoop on battery replacement costs?

To muddle the waters a bit, the 2016 has, besides added range, a longer warranty period on the traction battery.

I'll keep thinking about this, I don't have to pull the trigger any time soon. Thanks for the input so far.

Quite muddled! I was getting out of one lease which could not be extended so I got the 2015.
I made sure it would be an easy call on the end of lease purchase. My residual is very low. I will still ask for another few thousand at the end, though.

 

[Publius]

I'm going through the same decision making process right now because my lease is set to end soon. I think I'm going to buy it. I live in an area that doesn't have a lot of used EVs floating around, so the price is in line with other similar cars I could choose from-- only this one is mine and I like the color, etc.