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MalachiConstant

Active member
Joined
Aug 25, 2016
Messages
27
I leased 2017 Nissan Leaf for 24 months. I put $0 down and pay $249/month. My lease ends in 5 months.
I wasn't planning on keeping the car, I was happy basically just paying to rent a car and then maybe rolling into something newer at the end.
However, I'm re-considering, and have a newbie question. The 2018 & 2019 Leafs are significant upgrades over the 2017 Leaf. So I imagine the 2017's value is substantially decreased. The battery life is so small compared to a lot of the newer EVs. Is it possible to negotiate a good deal to buy out my Leaf, or is the price already set in stone when I leased the car? Clearly, I know nothing about leasing and didn't really pay much attention to the Money Factor etc. when I leased because I was happy to put $0 down and only pay $250/month and didn't plan on buying the car at the end. Thanks for any input.
 
There is a topic on 'end of lease options' but the short answer is that dealers can negotiate residuals, but they hate doing it. Email a bunch of them asking for 'out the door' buyout prices.
 
Thanks- can you specify? Explain like I'm 5- so the residual is the amount I can buy the car out for, is that correct? What is an 'out the door' buyout price?
 
The likelihood of getting a discount on a 2 year residual is near zero. Getting one on 3 year residual used to be near guaranteed. Your best bet is extend. at $249 a month, you wouldn't be losing out
 
Keep in mind that the car belongs to Nissan, not to the dealership you hope to haggle.
 
SageBrush said:
Keep in mind that the car belongs to Nissan, not to the dealership you hope to haggle.

Nissan/NMAC used to act on that assumption, but now it's much more as if the dealership owns the car, because NMAC doesn't really want them back that much. They do limit the discount dealers can offer, but otherwise it's the dealer(s) you have to deal with, these days.
 
LeftieBiker said:
SageBrush said:
Keep in mind that the car belongs to Nissan, not to the dealership you hope to haggle.

Nissan/NMAC used to act on that assumption, but now it's much more as if the dealership owns the car, because NMAC doesn't really want them back that much. They do limit the discount dealers can offer, but otherwise it's the dealer(s) you have to deal with, these days.
Why would a dealership act as if it was buying the car if in fact it is Nissan ?
Where does the dealership profit ?
 
SageBrush said:
LeftieBiker said:
SageBrush said:
Keep in mind that the car belongs to Nissan, not to the dealership you hope to haggle.

Nissan/NMAC used to act on that assumption, but now it's much more as if the dealership owns the car, because NMAC doesn't really want them back that much. They do limit the discount dealers can offer, but otherwise it's the dealer(s) you have to deal with, these days.
Why would a dealership act as if it was buying the car if in fact it is Nissan ?
Where does the dealership profit ?

On both my lease turn ins, there was a "payment" made that was significantly less than the residual that satisfied the balance. I don't remember the residual on my 2013. It was in the $11-12 K range but a payment of $5400 applied to my account 2 days after I turned it in zero'd the balance.

The dealer in question did not send the car to auction. It was cleaned up and put on sale. So yeah, there is a financial incentive for the dealer. Now I did not attempt to negotiate a lower buyout and this was during a time where very good deals were being made all over the place.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
SageBrush said:
LeftieBiker said:
Nissan/NMAC used to act on that assumption, but now it's much more as if the dealership owns the car, because NMAC doesn't really want them back that much. They do limit the discount dealers can offer, but otherwise it's the dealer(s) you have to deal with, these days.
Why would a dealership act as if it was buying the car if in fact it is Nissan ?
Where does the dealership profit ?

On both my lease turn ins, there was a "payment" made that was significantly less than the residual that satisfied the balance. I don't remember the residual on my 2013. It was in the $11-12 K range but a payment of $5400 applied to my account 2 days after I turned it in zero'd the balance.

The dealer in question did not send the car to auction. It was cleaned up and put on sale. So yeah, there is a financial incentive for the dealer. Now I did not attempt to negotiate a lower buyout and this was during a time where very good deals were being made all over the place.
Interesting.
Nissan is willing to put cash on the table to entice the dealer to buy the car but not offer the same deal to the person returning the car.

I am **so** glad to be done with dealerships.
 
The incentives used to be offered to the dealer AND the lessee, but that changed a year or two ago. Now the lessee has to try to pry as much as possible from the dealer, while the dealer usually lies about the incentive even existing.
 
SageBrush said:
LeftieBiker said:
SageBrush said:
Keep in mind that the car belongs to Nissan, not to the dealership you hope to haggle.

Nissan/NMAC used to act on that assumption, but now it's much more as if the dealership owns the car, because NMAC doesn't really want them back that much. They do limit the discount dealers can offer, but otherwise it's the dealer(s) you have to deal with, these days.
Why would a dealership act as if it was buying the car if in fact it is Nissan ?
Where does the dealership profit ?

As I understand it, Nissan profits by avoiding an auction where the car sells for significantly less. They then provide some of that gain to the dealership to use as an incentive to get the lessee to buy out the lease. When asked, most dealer salespeople will deny any such thing exists; some get downright hostile. Apparently this is a secret that we are NOT supposed to know about. Translation: the dealerships want ALL of that incentive for themselves. Thus the dealership's seemingly proprietary interest.

I found the best approach was to simply shop for the lowest "out the door" price and forego any talk of lease lingo, "discounts" or "incentives". At the end of the day, this is a sale. The price is negotiable.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The incentives used to be offered to the dealer AND the lessee, but that changed a year or two ago. Now the lessee has to try to pry as much as possible from the dealer, while the dealer usually lies about the incentive even existing.

Yep, definitely a huge change in the process. I think it all started back when 2011's were first coming off lease. NMAC was mailing offers directly to the customer so they were going in with that letter as the "starting" point to the negotiations leaving nothing but a processing fee for the dealer.

In some areas, that might be fine, but others not so much. So dealer pushback probably contributed to the system we have now which prices the vehicles based on the current market value of each individual area. IOW; the lease returns are being handled like any used car transaction.

But the a lease buyout is more attractive to the dealership because the issue of rehabbing it for resale along with the expense is no longer a consideration. Just another way for dealerships to make money.
 
UPDATE:
I called the dealership, and for my 2017 Nissan Leaf SV, the residual is $13,699.25.
From what I understand, NMAC owns the car with me since it's a lease. At the end of my lease I would have made 24 payment of $249, so $5,976, plus the $13,699 residual = $19,675 total for the car.
This seems like a really good deal, right? I got like an $11,000 rebate when I bought it, which is how the sales associate explained to me when I asked how that could be accurate since the new 2017 SVs are priced at over $30,000.
Is this a good deal? He also said if I go through the dealer instead of NMAC there's a processing fee of $1,500. So I imagine I would just go through NMAC? Could I try to negotiate down even further if the don't really want them back?
Thanks for any input.
 
I would definitely test the waters of a discount but the processing fee?? ainna no way!

FYI; minor thing but you only make 23 payments.
 
MalachiConstant said:
UPDATE:
I called the dealership, and for my 2017 Nissan Leaf SV, the residual is $13,699.25.
From what I understand, NMAC owns the car with me since it's a lease. At the end of my lease I would have made 24 payment of $249, so $5,976, plus the $13,699 residual = $19,675 total for the car.
This seems like a really good deal, right? I got like an $11,000 rebate when I bought it, which is how the sales associate explained to me when I asked how that could be accurate since the new 2017 SVs are priced at over $30,000.
Is this a good deal? He also said if I go through the dealer instead of NMAC there's a processing fee of $1,500. So I imagine I would just go through NMAC? Could I try to negotiate down even further if the don't really want them back?
Thanks for any input.

NMAC owns the car entirely, actually, unless you purchase it. That is a good deal, though, assuming that the capacity issues with the 30kwh Leafs is just a BMS error that is corrected by Nissan's software update. It's looking promising, but the jury is still out on that. Does yours still have 12 capacity bars and the same range it had when new?
 
LeftieBiker said:
MalachiConstant said:
UPDATE:
I called the dealership, and for my 2017 Nissan Leaf SV, the residual is $13,699.25.
From what I understand, NMAC owns the car with me since it's a lease. At the end of my lease I would have made 24 payment of $249, so $5,976, plus the $13,699 residual = $19,675 total for the car.
This seems like a really good deal, right? I got like an $11,000 rebate when I bought it, which is how the sales associate explained to me when I asked how that could be accurate since the new 2017 SVs are priced at over $30,000.
Is this a good deal? He also said if I go through the dealer instead of NMAC there's a processing fee of $1,500. So I imagine I would just go through NMAC? Could I try to negotiate down even further if the don't really want them back?
Thanks for any input.

NMAC owns the car entirely, actually, unless you purchase it. That is a good deal, though, assuming that the capacity issues with the 30kwh Leafs is just a BMS error that is corrected by Nissan's software update. It's looking promising, but the jury is still out on that. Does yours still have 12 capacity bars and the same range it had when new?

This is true. A 2 year old LEAF is easily worth more than your residual.
 
Yes, it still has all the bars. It also has the surround camera and Bose sound system. I suppose what I'm gleaning here is that I'm getting a good deal, but maybe if I contact NMAC they might give me an additional discount, or throw in some sort of tune-up or extra?
 
MalachiConstant said:
Yes, it still has all the bars. It also has the surround camera and Bose sound system. I suppose what I'm gleaning here is that I'm getting a good deal, but maybe if I contact NMAC they might give me an additional discount, or throw in some sort of tune-up or extra?

Oh well, I thought it was implied that it never hurts to ask. I was under the impression that was already decided. I am only here to give you some insight and perspective.
 
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