Lease Exit Plan

[rcyoder]

I actually bought mine back in 2011. The current folding of the whole credit into the lease + really good lease rate deal happened after I picked it up.

I've only lost one bar and intend to drive it 'till the first of:

1) My daughter needs a car
2) The $40K Tesla with 200 mile range is available
3) It dies

happens. My wife has a RAV4-EV and my commute is only 10 miles round trip (15 if I take the kids to school), so I have no need to upgrade.

 

[Epi117]

Thinking of:

Getting a volt or
back to Prius, or
mitsubishi meiv
Or the new mitsubishi suv ev

have 7 months left on my two year lease.

 

[Jim]

I have 10 months remaining on my 2 year lease. I was hoping the Esflow would be in production soon after my lease was up, but since that is not going to happen I am planning on turning in the Leaf, going back to driving my 2001 Tacoma. Then I'll probably trade in my 2005 Honda CBR1000RR and buy a 2014/2015 Aprilia RSV4. While the Leaf meets most of my needs, it's the times when I want to drive further than it's current range allows that irritates me. I'm going to wait until vehicles like the Leaf have at least 150 real world miles before I get into another one.

I'd preferably like to get a small electric truck if any manufacturers would build one. It could replace my Tacoma and I would only need the one vehicle. Someday, maybe.

 

[kubel]

I have 10 months remaining on my 2 year lease. I was hoping the Esflow would be in production soon after my lease was up, but since that is not going to happen I am planning on turning in the Leaf, going back to driving my 2001 Tacoma. Then I'll probably trade in my 2005 Honda CBR1000RR and buy a 2014/2015 Aprilia RSV4. While the Leaf meets most of my needs, it's the times when I want to drive further than it's current range allows that irritates me. I'm going to wait until vehicles like the Leaf have at least 150 real world miles before I get into another one.

I'd preferably like to get a small electric truck if any manufacturers would build one. It could replace my Tacoma and I would only need the one vehicle. Someday, maybe.

I'm torn myself. My 39 month lease is up in another year. On one hand, I would hate to take a step backwards to a gas car. On the other hand, I'm totally with you on not wanting to buy another < 100 mile EV, even though my current LEAF fits 99% of my needs. I like having the freedom that gas has to offer.

Just before I turn in my LEAF, I think I might fix my gas car up and drive that for a while, then trade it in towards the purchase of a next generation Volt. It should make for a nice compromise.

 

[ObjetDart]

If, like me, your Leaf is meeting the vast majority of your needs, why not just keep extending your current lease until such time as a longer range option becomes available? That's what I plan to do. Assuming Nissan lets me.

 

[Larry]

I am not favorably disposed to paying the same rather large monthly charge for a 3-year old car as I have been paying for nearly 3 years. Is there any evidence that Nissan Leasing will extend a lease at a lower payment rate? I am certainly interested in what possible deals one can expect. If I jump to a Volt I can at least sell my Prius. Certainly the new battery replacement data does give a new twist on the whole question.

 

[tailgate1234]

I am not favorably disposed to paying the same rather large monthly charge for a 3-year old car as I have been paying for nearly 3 years. Is there any evidence that Nissan Leasing will extend a lease at a lower payment rate? I am certainly interested in what possible deals one can expect. If I jump to a Volt I can at least sell my Prius. Certainly the new battery replacement data does give a new twist on the whole question.

They won't extend the lease for a lower payment, just the same payment.

 

[RonDawg]

I am not favorably disposed to paying the same rather large monthly charge for a 3-year old car as I have been paying for nearly 3 years.

Keep in mind that unless you were really aggressive (and the dealer rather desperate), if you got a low monthly payment on your existing lease, you likely put down some money up front to make those numbers happen. And depending on your state, you may have to pay sales tax at minimum on the down payment (like in California) if not on the entire Capitalized Cost. So for someone who has a low lease payment, it's advantageous to extend the term as long as the car works for their needs and doesn't show signs of needing especially off-warranty repairs soon.

If something were to happen to my car, while I likely could get the same payment amount on a lease of a new 2014 or even 2015 model, I likely would be stepping down to a Leaf S from my SV. When I got my car, the SV was the entry-level model.

Extending my lease also makes it more likely that I can wait until the "new and improved" model comes out before signing another multi-year contract, and that is unlikely to happen before my lease is up in January 2016.

 

[ObjetDart]

Keep in mind that unless you were really aggressive (and the dealer rather desperate), if you got a low monthly payment on your existing lease, you likely put down some money up front to make those numbers happen.

Yes, that's exactly what happened in my case, which as you say makes extending the lease even more appealing, since it lets me amortize that initial down payment across many more months.

 

[Larry]

I'd love to extend a lease at under $200. Unfortunately, my monthly payment is $316, which I do not consider at all attractive. The specified residual is nearly $17,000, which I suspect is much higher than its market value will be. I don't see much hope for keeping this 2012 Leaf, though I would prefer that choice in order to hold place until the longer-range Leaf becomes available. A super deal on a 2015 seems to be my only hope for staying in a Leaf, though that would probably preclude trading up in only two years. I'm glad I kept my old Prius.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

316 doesn't sound bad to me. Try 480.

 

[bps88]

What are you planning on doing when your lease is up? Getting another....what will you negotiate for? Trying a PHEV or other alternative fuel vehicle? Just turning it in? Keeping the car.......what will you negoatiate for?

new lower priced tesla hopefully or bmw i3 ....

 

[kikbuti]

I have 9 months left on my lease. I plan to turn my Leaf in and not get another vehicle. I just sold my Land Rover to Carmax. I am leaning toward buying a Fiat 500L and having only one car in the family. Wife and I are both retired and neither of us drive much.

 

[Larry]

316 doesn't sound bad to me. Try 480.

Ouch!

I admit I have little analytical ability in this issue. I guess I shouldn't worry about this at all until December or so. My basic issue is that I don't drive enough to justify this vehicle - only about 6500 miles a year.

 

[Jim]

I am not favorably disposed to paying the same rather large monthly charge for a 3-year old car as I have been paying for nearly 3 years. Is there any evidence that Nissan Leasing will extend a lease at a lower payment rate? I am certainly interested in what possible deals one can expect. If I jump to a Volt I can at least sell my Prius. Certainly the new battery replacement data does give a new twist on the whole question.

They won't extend the lease for a lower payment, just the same payment.

I was originally thinking of extending my lease, hoping for the Esflow to be produced or another EV with more range than the Leaf. However, my current payment includes a portion of the tax/title/license fee that I did not pay for up front. That amount was rolled into the amount I financed. No way would I continue to pay that extra money for another 6 months to a year. NMAC would have to drop my payment to the $199/mo price I qualified for.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Maybe they would change the payment in a case where the tax was rolled in. If not, they'd have to reduce the residual by that amount.

 

[tailgate1234]

They keep the payment exactly the same and adjust the residual as needed to get the taxes right.

 

[Larry]

This discussion raises a question I have had for a while - If you extend your lease, do they recompute the capitalized cost amount and the residual value? If these are not restated, it seems like you'd be throwing money away.

I may be all wet here, but it seems to me like the only way to pretend that you have purchased some capital in your vehicle is to purchase it at end of lease. That sort of makes the lease seem like a loan, so if you extend the lease you are spreading out the purchase cost - if the residual purchase amount is reduced.

I suppose you could go out and purchase an equivalent vehicle if you lived in an area where many used Leaf were available - I don't. If I purchase my own (overpriced) Leaf, at least I will get a very low-mileage car (under 20,000) which will probably have lost no more than one bar of capacity.

Just a sounding board for all the questions that are driving me crazy.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I may be all wet here, but it seems to me like the only way to pretend that you have purchased some capital in your vehicle is to purchase it at end of lease. That sort of makes the lease seem like a loan, so if you extend the lease you are spreading out the purchase cost - if the residual purchase amount is reduced.

Exactly, although I haven't seen anyone who wasn't planning on buying the car 'pretending' that they were purchasing capital in it. For example, my housemate's last car was a 2010 Prius II that she leased for 3 years. I calculated that, after factoring in down payment, incentives, and payments, plus the residual to purchase, she would have paid exactly the same leasing the car and then buying it, that she would have paid buying it up front, with a much higher monthly payment over a shorter period. In fact she was going to buy it, but when I saw that the Prius PHEV Base was being offered for lease for $179 a month, I was able to convince her to go that route instead. Now we still have our savings, and pay a modest amount per month for a great car.

My Leaf lease is also working out well, so far. I paid $3k down ($1k in tax) for a $149, 24 month lease, and will now be able to extend it for 6 or 12 or 18 months, getting extra mileage from that substantial down payment that I would have otherwise lost. I just have to hope the car doesn't get totaled...

 

[cgaydos]

This discussion raises a question I have had for a while - If you extend your lease, do they recompute the capitalized cost amount and the residual value? If these are not restated, it seems like you'd be throwing money away.

I may be all wet here, but it seems to me like the only way to pretend that you have purchased some capital in your vehicle is to purchase it at end of lease. That sort of makes the lease seem like a loan, so if you extend the lease you are spreading out the purchase cost - if the residual purchase amount is reduced.

I suppose you could go out and purchase an equivalent vehicle if you lived in an area where many used Leaf were available - I don't. If I purchase my own (overpriced) Leaf, at least I will get a very low-mileage car (under 20,000) which will probably have lost no more than one bar of capacity.

Just a sounding board for all the questions that are driving me crazy.

Good question - I didn't ask about the residual or capitalized costs. In my situation purchasing the car makes no sense - it will be a used 2012 SL with 30k miles and a residual+purchase fee of about $22k. Obviously I would do better to buy an equivalent used LEAF on the market.

I don't see it as throwing money away to extend the $200/month payment indefinitely, when you consider what it would cost to acquire an equivalent car for the same period of time. In addition to the payments to buy/lease the car you have to consider registration costs, any costs I'd have to pay as part of the lease turn in (we have quite a few minor nicks and dents), and then the inherent risk of taking on a used car near the end of warranty without knowing how the car was treated or its maintenance history.