The just-keep-paying lease end option? = lowest $/mile

The price drops on the 2013's are interesting, but by my math the lowest cost per mile is to just keep paying my $239 lease payment.

Even with the low buy out price, my break even vs. the monthly lease is 33 months out (well beyond the battery warranty).

I am many months past the end of the lease extensions, but haven't heard anything from NMAC about them requiring the car back (just the polite "it's time to make a choice" mailings).

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of what happens if we just keep paying the lease?

ObiQuiet said:

The price drops on the 2013's are interesting, but by my math the lowest cost per mile is to just keep paying my $239 lease payment.

Even with the low buy out price, my break even vs. the monthly lease is 33 months out (well beyond the battery warranty).

I am many months past the end of the lease extensions, but haven't heard anything from NMAC about them requiring the car back (just the polite "it's time to make a choice" mailings).

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of what happens if we just keep paying the lease?

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Interesting that you've gotten this far. I'm guessing it's because they don't want 2013 Leafs back. Still, I wouldn't count on this situation continuing indefinitely...

Yes, I have to expect that the situation could change at any time. Am curious to know if anyone has insight into the process or ramifications or NMAC's point of view...

Read your lease contract, it is surely stipulated there what happens if you are late turning in your lease.
Depending on the lease terms, you are playing with fire by acting deaf and dumb.

Well, that is why I am asking... the penalties that are explictly mentioned are just the monthly payments, any excess wear and tear, and excess pro-rated mileage. As far as I can tell.

There is a mention of "other costs" which could include coming to get it, but I wouldn't refuse to deliver it back to them after all.

ObiQuiet said:

Well, that is why I am asking... the penalties that are explictly mentioned are just the monthly payments, any excess wear and tear, and excess pro-rated mileage. As far as I can tell.

There is a mention of "other costs" which could include coming to get it, but I wouldn't refuse to deliver it back to them after all.

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First, Nissan may charge you for ALL their costs in dealing with you. Your willingness to deliver the car to them is irrelevant. Expect Nissan to be very generous (to Nissan!) in calculating those costs. You are not the first person to breach a lease contract, and you can bet the leasing company has covered the contingency nicely, thank you very much.

Second, you have given away any leverage you might of had in turning the lease in on time. Now every possible charge is going to be levied.

Third, you are asking the wrong people and at the wrong time. But sure, keep on delaying. :lol:

It will be interesting to hear how this plays out. My guess is that you will end up begging to buy the car at the full rate of the contract and all the months of extra payments will be icing on the cake for Nissan.

How are you doing your cost comparison? With the monthly payments vs the contract residual? Or versus the current free market retail price of about $9,000. Which they would gladly sell you the car for.

The math goes like this:

A. It's a commuter car, so the miles/month is a constant no matter which car I drive

B. On the 2013, I am paying $239/month. Factor in $500/year for post-warranty maintenance.

C. Leases on new LEAFs (whether there's a down payment or not) the monthly works out to the $400 range. A new lease also locks me in for another set of years, excepting for the LEAF2.

D. Buying my 2013 for $8200 (OTD) and with an expected useful life of 2.2 more years, gives $341 month. Of course, if it has more life or a resale value, that monthly cost comes down. In any case, it's 33 months until that price breaks even with continuing to pay $239/month.

Please point out any errors or bad assumptions!

It has much more useful life than you are predicating depending on how much range you require on a daily basis for your commute. The batteries never suddenly fail. They slowly continue to lose range at whatever rate you are seeing now and possibly slow their rate of loss. And when it finally gets to a point where you don't trust the remaining range, Nissan has offered a very generous price of $6,000 installed for a new pack which minus any wear to the interior of the vehicle, gives you a more or less new car. And if you own the car you can save over half your insurance costs buy discontinuing the collision insurance.

sendler2112 said:

And when it finally gets to a point where you don't trust the remaining range, Nissan has offered a very generous price of $6,000 installed for a new pack.

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Those 24 kWh packs may have sat on a hot warehouse shelf for years by the time you buy one, and its a fair guess that Nissan will stand behind them with the same *cough* *cough* customer support they are showing LEAF owners today.

So while the option really does sound good on paper, I'm not going to consider it a viable one unless I can document the Ah capacity prior to purchase and I know the chance of that. As a new owner of a used LEAF, I am delighted with my car but I hold no misconceptions about Nissan the company: it sucks.

sendler2112 said:

It has much more useful life than you are predicating depending on how much range you require on a daily basis for your commute. The batteries never suddenly fail. They slowly continue to lose range at whatever rate you are seeing now and possibly slow their rate of loss. And when it finally gets to a point where you don't trust the remaining range, Nissan has offered a very generous price of $6,000 installed for a new pack which minus any wear to the interior of the vehicle, gives you a more or less new car. And if you own the car you can save over half your insurance costs buy discontinuing the collision insurance.

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Thanks for the discussion, folks!

$6000 for an estimated 60k miles on a replacement battery is $0.10 mile, which is excellent.

For the range, my critical distance is home->work->airport->home. The daily commute is half that. I regularly charge at the airport, but sometimes, and increasingly, that's not available. On a cold night, I'm a few miles short.

Conclusion:

I bought the car last week. NMAC continued to drop the offered price. That price was low enough that the break-even vs. the lease is 2 years. That is also within the useful life of the battery for me. Except for the no-charging-room-at-the-airport case.

From their point of view, looking backward, what I've paid over the long leasing period plus the $5500 sales price is probably fair, about $18k.

From my point of view, looking forward, two years of life expectancy on a $6k car in great shape with negligible chance of major repairs is great. ~$250/month. I could even trade it in soon and get most of the sales price back, which gives me options.