End of Lease Strategies?

[LTLFTcomposite]

Sigh, so I found out that I essentially have 8,000 more miles and 9 months to go on my lease. I will probably burn through those in about 6 months. I'm thinking of unloading the car 3 months early to save on insurance, registration, and the rare chance some electrical part sh!ts the bed out of warranty. I have no interest in leasing a new leaf, as I'm going to the BMW i3 (probably around December/January 2016).

Any thoughts on my strategy?

I did the same thing, to a lesser degree, sacrificed three weeks of use of a car to avoid paying $100 tag renewal and risk something happening to the car. Near as I could tell you can turn the car in as early as you want... as long as you've paid out the lease.

 

[mn4az]

Well I need to call NMAC back Monday as my dealership knows nothing about the $5000 off the residual. They did however in good faith negotiate a buy on those terms and it is really reasonable. As long as I pay my final 5 payments at $2435 then I walk with the car $12199.55. That is tax, tag, and all fee's. I will have to go to Santa Rosa Nissan's site for the warranty though.. They wanted to sell me the used car plan for $2655 for 6 years/80,000 miles for the Security+ Gold. Ah well can't get everything in one place I suppose. So I'm thinking I'm going to keep it. Just have to talk it over with the wife, and call my bank to get a pre-approval. Then figure out what proof I can get from NMAC to get the $5000 off because it isn't showing in the dealers computer system.

My lease is up at the end of April and I am curious as to what happened here.

 

[TimLee]

My lease is up at the end of April and I am curious as to what happened here.

Not sure about the individual case, but several with 2012 lease pushed with NMAC and were offered $5,000 residual reduction.
Some took them up on it and bought the car.

But you have an early 2013 SV.
Have not read of them offering on 2013 yet.
Will be interesting to see if they do.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I'm guessing they will have to develop a glut of off-lease 2013s first. That may happen by the time my one year extension of my 2 year lease is up...

 

[charlottend]

They have. We got one of the early 2013s. Our lease expires in 2 weeks. We have an offer to continue at our current rate month to month for up to 12 months, or buy it for $4000 less than the residual.

I had hoped to roll into a 2014 (gone around here) or a 2015 (39% residual) but even dropping down from a SV to an S drastically increases our monthly payment.

Leaning towards doing the month to month, although ours needs new tires after only 14k miles (really needed them around 12k but I put it off in expectation of rolling into a new one).

 

[LeftieBiker]

If you are staying with a Leaf either way, invest in better tires that you can transfer.

 

[mn4az]

Hmm.. either the $ off residual or continuing the same lease payment for 12 months via a month to month could make for some tough decisions in April for me.

 

[mn4az]

We have an offer to continue at our current rate month to month for up to 12 months, or buy it for $4000 less than the residual.

Did you engage NMAC and/or a Nissan Dealership for this or did you wait for them to contact you?

 

[charlottend]

We have an offer to continue at our current rate month to month for up to 12 months, or buy it for $4000 less than the residual.

Did you engage NMAC and/or a Nissan Dealership for this or did you wait for them to contact you?

They contacted us about 45-60 days before lease end. Also the residual value was dropped but only by around $2k.

 

[TimLee]

We have an offer to continue at our current rate month to month for up to 12 months, or buy it for $4000 less than the residual.

Did you engage NMAC and/or a Nissan Dealership for this or did you wait for them to contact you?

They contacted us about 45-60 days before lease end. Also the residual value was dropped but only by around $2k.

Please clarify how you can buy it for $4,000 less than the residual if the residual is only being reduced by $2,000 :?:

 

[LeftieBiker]

It reads like the residual is $2k less, and the offer is $4k below that. This would mean $6k below the original residual. Clarification is needed!

 

[gamekid2k]

If lease expires in May when does Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp will contact? Is it better to contact the dealer?

 

[Weatherman]

If lease expires in May when does Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp will contact? Is it better to contact the dealer?

I've tried to initiate discussions with dealers a couple of times to roll my 2012 lease into a 2015 with no luck. It appears that, since NMAC owns the car, all the discussions need to start with NMAC, first.

Even some of my recent discussions with NMAC have gone nowhere. There is the offer from NMAC for 2012 lease holders to buy out their lease or go for a 12-month extension for a nice discount, but I have zero interest in keeping my 2012 any longer than I have to. It's very clear that NMAC does not want the car back.

It seems like routine lease-end discussions don't really begin until 90 days prior to the lease end date. My lease ends on July 8th, so I don't expect to get much attention from anyone until after April 8th.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

If your intent is to turn the car in and be done with it, don't waste your time talking to the dealer. The market value of the car is way below the lease residual value so they have no interest in it... other than giving you the illusion of doing something for you in the form of getting you into another lease and hiding the remaining lease payoff amount in whatever you are buying or leasing next. So for example, if you have 6 payments left of $300 each, that's $1800, so they can lease you a new one for 36 months and price it $50/month higher than it would have been to recover that $1800. Yeah they got you out of it, but really you're still paying that $1800, and in the process giving away six months of use of the car.

NMAC will contact you to set up the pre-return inspection, they'll send somebody out from a third party (ahem) service to assess the condition of the car, that's when you'll know where you stand. You can turn the car in early if you want, but you have to make all the remaining payments. The dealer is really just a dropoff point.

 

[Weatherman]

I decided to take the initiative and call the number NMAC provides for the final inspection of the car before it's turned in. I asked what the earliest date I could turn the car in was, and was told 60 days prior to the maturity date on the lease, making my earliest turn-in date May 9th.

I got 100 days left until I can give the car back.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

I do wonder sometimes what happened to my old Leaf. We should start some sort of registry.

If anyone listening here got 2012 white SV VIN JN1AZ0CP5CT015926 speak up.

 

[Turnover]

I just got an Event letter from Nissan of Portland stating they want 2012 Leafs and that the Average Condition Value is $9,735 while the Clean Condition Value is $12,210. They state they would like to appraise my Leaf. I am leasing so this doesn't apply to me but the values are pretty interesting in that they are far lower that my residual.

 

[Weatherman]

I think that's true in every case. Nissan greatly underestimated the rapid depreciation rate.

Good thing for savvy lease holders. Bad thing for buyers.

 

[sonnylax]

I think that's true in every case. Nissan greatly underestimated the rapid depreciation rate.

Good thing for savvy lease holders. Bad thing for buyers.

And bad thing for future Leaf lease holders.

Nissan Finance has dramatically lowered the Leaf's residual values which in turn has raised the current lease quotes. As an example of what I was quoted this week - January 2015 LEAF residual is 18% lower than the April 2013 LEAF (44% vs. 62%). Which makes the overall lease cost ~ $2,000 higher then 2 years ago.

 

[pkulak]

I think that's true in every case. Nissan greatly underestimated the rapid depreciation rate.

Good thing for savvy lease holders. Bad thing for buyers.

And bad thing for future Leaf lease holders.

Nissan Finance has dramatically lowered the Leaf's residual values which in turn has raised the current lease quotes. As an example of what I was quoted this week - January 2015 LEAF residual is 18% lower than the April 2013 LEAF (44% vs. 62%). Which makes the overall lease cost ~ $2,000 higher then 2 years ago.

More reason for my next car to be a used Leaf.