End of Lease Strategies?

[mykalt45]

Hoping to get more info soon from dealers who have dealt with the Nissan Leaf. I hear there are now EV-certified dealers. Once I find out which nearby dealer is EV-certified, I will give them a call and see what's going on.

[ScottoR]

Figured I'd throw my experience/advice out there, even though this thread is already kinda insane at 1200+ posts.

In 2013 I wandered into a Nissan dealer based on Nissan's corporate site offering a $250/mo lease deal on an SV. I'm more a technologist than an environmentalist, and I've wanted an electric car since the days of Beyond Tomorrow on the Discovery channel but it wasn't a "must buy" for me.

Nearly 6 hours of "haggling" later (this dealership was quite literally criminal - story for another day), I got my $250/mo for 3 years with $2500 down. That's $11,500 total paid into the car for the lease.

In the summer of 2016 my lease was coming due. NMAC initially offered me a $17K buyout (less than what was on my original lease agreement). I told them I wasn't interested. They came back a couple of times, and eventually settled at $11,192 (inc'l taxes, etc).

I couldn't pass that up, as it was a total of $22,692 for a fully-spec'd SV with sticker price around $35K. Plus it had under 20K miles on the clock.

The entire buyout transaction took about 15 minutes with no surprises or nonsense (I went to a different and less sleazy dealer).

My current thinking is that if NMAC was willing to come down that low last year, I have to imagine that by 2020 they'll be willing to go even lower. Considering the number of EVs and PHEVs on the market (plus the 2018+ models), I can't see demand being high for used "107 mile" LEAFs three years from now.

It's just speculation FWIW, but I'd be willing to wager that NMAC won't want 2017s back by the time late 2020 rolls around, and will bend over backwards to unload them.

At the very least if you're considering buying out your lease now, haggle with them extensively.

[AlanSqB]

You were lucky to have done that deal back in the “good old days” when NMAC would negotiate with the buyer. They have now handed the entire process over to those criminal stealerships who probably whines about losing profit because of NMAC deals.

Now, the only ones told about the discounts are the stealerships and they don’t share. They now hold all the cards, forcing us to have to try and find the few who don’t want to screw the customer to complete the deal. The dealer I originally bought my car from flat out lied to me that there were no more NMAC buyout incentives on my car. It’s because they know they can still sell it for more than my low buyout+NMAC incentive. I also got screwed on my lease so the residual is low.

Anyway, I did the lease extension to kick the can down the road a bit. I’m hoping that by February I can find a dealer that will give me a square deal. Either way, this is my last Nissan and hopefully my last stealership experience.

[mantar]

Man, I think there were better deals last year itself. I got a 2 year lease for a 2015 S without Quickcharge in July 2014. Last year, I got it extended after they gave me 2 months free. After the third year expired, I got another extension for 9 months until April 2018(with 3 months free and I could cancel starting next month which is good as my stupid Georgia $210 registration surcharge is due in a month).

My residual is supposedly 14K plus and my payoff on my monthly invoice has gone down to 11,500. So the dealer (Town center in kennesaw, GA) is offering me pretty much the payoff price. He did say i get an 8 year warranty(which means another 4 and a half years) and 100000 miles bumper to bumper.

I was hoping for something in the 7-8K range based on the assumption I could have gotten a buyout last year for 10K or so. But they seem pretty firm so far on that price. And I glanced at the used market and it looks like 3 year old LEAFS are going for higher prices now than they were last year. Problem is I leased my car at the inception of the LEAF 2015 rollout. So even though it is more than 3 years old, the value of it seems to be higher than the 2014s that were being sold just weeks before I got mine.

[DuncanCunningham]

Just a thought, that bumper to bumper warranty will probably not include the battery (if it looses it's 4th bar), but everything else I assume. I never take warranties.

[tinker]

Hello,

I am posting for the first time regarding Nissan leaf 2016 buyout.
NMAC offered me buyout price of 12,300. Mileage is currently 14000 miles. Is this price OK? Please let me know your opinions.

Thanks

[LeftieBiker]

Hello,

I am posting for the first time regarding Nissan leaf 2016 buyout.
NMAC offered me buyout price of 12,300. Mileage is currently 14000 miles. Is this price OK? Please let me know your opinions.

Thanks

That sounds like a typical 33% residual. You've been paying a high payment, now you get a low residual as a reward.

[mantar]

So what would you guys think is this big disparity in buyout deals . Not too long ago, Nissan was offering 3-6K off the residual. What has changed recently where the prices seem to have gone up in the used market even though newer models with larger ranges are imminent.

[LeftieBiker]

There is no reason to expect residual discounts on 2015+ Leafs, because the residuals were set at a reasonable level. And since dealers now negotiate buyouts, they try to keep as much of the discounts on older Leafs as they can. In at least one case, they tried to keep ALL of it.

[Katera]

2015 SV, 23k miles. Lease was up on Oct. We did the 6 month extension with 3 free months. A good deal by any view really. Would like to keep the car at the end of the 6 month extension, but I'm not paying the full residual and the thought of dealing with stealerships is no very appealing. I wish the lease company was still in charge. Ah well, guess they will get it back. Good luck selling it with a range of less then 100 miles in 2018.....