End of Lease Strategies?

[Dooglas]

All these different numbers at end-of-lease are hard to understand. My local dealer is taking back a number of end-of-lease Leafs right now. The dealer keeps an occasional one so he always has a couple of nice used ones on his lot. The rest go immediately to auction. I see Leafs being offered at local resellers in the 6-8K range. I talked to a fellow last week who just purchased a 2013 Leaf SL with 30,000 miles (and 12 bars) for $6,500 from a used car dealer. He seemed pleased. Now, I don't know what those returned Leafs are actually fetching at auction, but it is easy enough to guess what they are NOT fetching. Seems like Nissan would want to do damned near anything to get owners to buy their vehicle at end-of-lease.

 

[sendler2112]

$6,500 is really low. Even at the more common $8000 retail I have to believe the used car guys are making 20-30%. They will be even cheaper in April and May.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

$6,500 is really low. Even at the more common $8000 retail I have to believe the used car guys are making 20-30%. They will be even cheaper in April and May.

well what they make depends on a lot of things. I turned my car in and a few days later a "payment" of $5400 showed up on my lease. So guessing the car was bought by the dealership to resell. But they would have had to put at least a grand into it first so yeah, $7-8000 is a good day for them but nothing is free these days.... 50% off? oh yeah, plenty of that going around right now!

 

[OceanBlue14]

My 36-month lease for a 2014 S is up in May 2017. My local dealer says Nissan is only offering buyout discount for 24-month lease not 36 month. Has anyone had any luck with 36-month lease for a MY2014?

It seems that Nissan is now offering 5k off 36-month lease of MY2014. I took the offer. With 4 lease payments I don't have to make, it actually is like getting 6k off. With 12.4k (residual) - 5k (discount) + taxes and my OTD price was 8175. Considering used market price for similar cars in my area is 8.5-9k and not having to worry about excess wear charge + disposition fee and so on, I'm fairly happy with the deal. Hopefully it will be a reliable 2nd car for years to come.

 

[pasadenaleaf]

My 36-month lease for a 2014 S is up in May 2017. My local dealer says Nissan is only offering buyout discount for 24-month lease not 36 month. Has anyone had any luck with 36-month lease for a MY2014?

It seems that Nissan is now offering 5k off 36-month lease of MY2014. I took the offer. With 4 lease payments I don't have to make, it actually is like getting 6k off. With 12.4k (residual) - 5k (discount) + taxes and my OTD price was 8175. Considering used market price for similar cars in my area is 8.5-9k and not having to worry about excess wear charge + disposition fee and so on, I'm fairly happy with the deal. Hopefully it will be a reliable 2nd car for years to come.

That's really good. My 36 month lease for the same car is ending in April 2017. My residual is $14500. Not sure why it's so much higher than yours. I have 28000 miles, maybe that has something to do with it?

Locally, someone just offered me their 2012 Leaf SV with 13,000 miles for $7000 today. I am tempted but wanted to wait a bit to try to get a lease buyout deal instead.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The residual is fixed when the lease is signed, and has nothing to do with mileage. Basically, if you have lower payments you have a higher residual, and vice versa. It's the part of the value of the car (also fixed when the lease is signed) that you don't pay off with the lease. Nissan started to set the residuals at 33% (?) sometime in 2014 or 2015. I got a rock-bottom lease payment ($149 a month) with an astronomical residual ($22k, IIRC).

 

[OceanBlue14]

My 36-month lease for a 2014 S is up in May 2017. My local dealer says Nissan is only offering buyout discount for 24-month lease not 36 month. Has anyone had any luck with 36-month lease for a MY2014?

It seems that Nissan is now offering 5k off 36-month lease of MY2014. I took the offer. With 4 lease payments I don't have to make, it actually is like getting 6k off. With 12.4k (residual) - 5k (discount) + taxes and my OTD price was 8175. Considering used market price for similar cars in my area is 8.5-9k and not having to worry about excess wear charge + disposition fee and so on, I'm fairly happy with the deal. Hopefully it will be a reliable 2nd car for years to come.

That's really good. My 36 month lease for the same car is ending in April 2017. My residual is $14500. Not sure why it's so much higher than yours. I have 28000 miles, maybe that has something to do with it?

Locally, someone just offered me their 2012 Leaf SV with 13,000 miles for $7000 today. I am tempted but wanted to wait a bit to try to get a lease buyout deal instead.

The residual for my LEAF is 40% of MSRP. May be that changed between April and May of 2014. If you residual is high, it probably means your monthly payment is lower than mine.

 

[Dooglas]

The residual for my LEAF is 40% of MSRP. May be that changed between April and May of 2014. If you residual is high, it probably means your monthly payment is lower than mine.

The residual is a calculated number that you can read right off of your lease agreement. It is basically (MSRP plus add-ons) - (discounts /rebates) - (any down payment or trade-in) - ( your lease payments). A better discount at initiation of the lease, a down payment, or higher monthly lease payments will reduce the calculated residual.

 

[cmrandyh2014]

I just bought out my lease on a 2014 Leaf S with Quick Charge Port.
Details-
Original Cost 29,228
Residual 13,512.75
$500 Down
36 month lease 278.68/mo including tax
$2500 Rebate Check from CA

Car due back April 30th 2017
Remaining payments $836.04 plus lease return fees.

Payoff as of today was 14,239

They offered it to me for 9239 ($5,000 discount from NMAC)

I countered with $7,000

Settled on $7439.27
Total with Tax,Title, etc was $8,296.01

Unless i am doing the math wrong my all in cost for the car was

$500 Down
33 payments 278.68 = $9196.44
Purchase total = $8296.01
Total $17,992.45
less $2500 CA rebate

Total cost = $15,492.45

I did it at Orange Coast Nissan in Costa Mesa.
They said they can work out a deal regardless of where you purchased but discount is determined by the VIN number.
I worked with Gabriel Lara 714-444-4220 x 8303 or [email protected]

Bottom line is EV's are going to keep getting better range, but if the 90 mile range works for you, there are deals to be had

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Nice! Well done. Discounts on both ends.

 

[Bufordleaf]

Nissan is telling us to check with our dealers. Mine is selling 2015 LEAF's exactly like my own for $9,999. Same, Very Low mileage...8k.

Without the $5k rebate offered by the State of Georgia (which made leasing this car essentially $50/mo) getting a newer model isn't likely.

Are you aware of the Clean Cities Georgia Leaf rebate deal going on right now? CCGA has partnered with Nissan to offer $10,000 off MSRP off any new, in stock Leaf now through March 31, 2017. This includes the standard factory incentive, but if you qualify for the federal tax rebate you get another $7,500 which means you can get a new Leaf in GA right now for $17,500 off MSRP. I am tempted to go to my dealer and ask if they will take back my current lease on a 2015 and waive further payments in combo with this deal to get me to buy a new 2017. My current lease runs through December so I doubt they will bite, but if you only have a few months left they might.

The CCGA fleet code is B62590.

 

[mcreston]

I'm confused. My dealer is telling me that nissan controls the buyout discounts and the buyout price is the same at all dealerships. They are saying nissan is giving $8k off of the original payoff amount of $16874 on our 2014 Leaf SL and said the final price would be $8874 if we wanted to buy it. Here in the bay area and in typical fashion feeling like i'm getting jerked around by the dealership.

 

[cmrandyh2014]

That sounds about right. 8k discount is more than I got. I was told that any dealer can call in and they just supply the vin to Nissan who then decides what the discount is.
It should be able to be done anywhere though.

 

[mcreston]

ok. makes me feel better. for some reason i thought this was something that was negotiated. are there any things/kindnesses that you get shown for buying the car out? reduced fees, etc? or anything to watch out for that I might get added on fee wise as the buyout price they gave me didn't have a lot of details with it and i'm just waiting for the "there's the $875 fee for this, and then the $375, fee, etc". have never bought out a lease before as i've always moved on to another car. thanks a million

 

[cmrandyh2014]

There was sales tax and registration and a couple junk fees like a lease purchase fee if 150 and a 29 EV state fee. I assume the 150 is pr9bably negotiable but I wasn't too worried about it. But to answer your question there were no huge hidden fees.
Also buy buying out early I avoided my last 3 payments and also the lease return and wear and tear fees.

 

[mcreston]

interesting on the buying out early and not having the last few payments. I'll ask if I can do that as well

b

 

[lorenfb]

ok. makes me feel better. for some reason i thought this was something that was negotiated.

Yes, that's the case since Nissan Finance owns the lease and they set the price. A post upthread implied that one can
"shop" dealers to obtain a better price. This is not true. Besides, Nissan usually limits the time period to a few days
after they set the price formally thru an acknowledged (signed) email by you. At least that's how my buyout was setup.

 

[cmrandyh2014]

This is all true. However I do suspect Nissan gives the dealer a price and the dealer likely tries to squeeze a little bit extra if they can. So if Nissan says 8500 for instance. The dealer may offer 8700 or something to see if you bite

 

[mykalt45]

Hi guys,

I've been stalking this thread for a while. I have a 2015 Nissan Leaf. Did 36mo/36,000mi lease. Will be up in September. Residual is ~12,500. I've got 18,000 miles, so I'm sure I'll come in with decent mileage. My question is when would be the right time to contact my dealer and how best to think about getting a good deal i.e., walkout price or at least saving on payments while buying? Thoughts?

 

[cmrandyh2014]

I really think that as the Bolt and Tesla model 3 start rolling out, our 80 mile range leafs will continue to drop in value. I would think the longer you can wait the better. Especially since the landscape could change quite a bit by summer/fall. Tough to say for sure though.