End of Lease Strategies?

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pkulak said:
I plan on buying a used Leaf to replace my lease. Probably through the same dealer I got this lease from. Will that qualify me for waived fees and the like?
Not from what I have read. The waiver for the disposition fee and up to $500 of excess use/damage appears to only apply if you buy or lease a new Nissan (or Infiniti?).
 
Spies said:
One thing that may make the decision more urgent is if you have access to the $1,000 Owner Loyalty Cash as it is set to expire 01/02/2015 according to my records.

I would like to take advantage of that $1000 Nissan Owner Loyalty Cash offer (expires 1/2/15) too.... but reading the fine print, they don't excuse you from your existing lease payment obligations if you lease a new Leaf. My current 2-year lease doesn't expire until April, 2015 - so I'd be looking at 4 extra months of payments.

Has Nissan ever offered a deal where they give a financial incentive plus wipe out any remaining lease payments? I want to eat my cookies and cake too. :)
 
sonnylax said:
I would like to take advantage of that $1000 Nissan Owner Loyalty Cash offer (expires 1/2/15) too.... but reading the fine print, they don't excuse you from your existing lease payment obligations if you lease a new Leaf. My current 2-year lease doesn't expire until April, 2015 - so I'd be looking at 4 extra months of payments.

Has Nissan ever offered a deal where they give a financial incentive plus wipe out any remaining lease payments? I want to eat my cookies and cake too. :)
There have been "pull ahead" deals in the past, where they basically end your lease three months early (including making the payments) but they didn't have one this fall. I would have probably taken advantage of it had there been one. As it is, I'm riding it out till the end, and the lease termination waiver and possible excess wear forgiveness is the only encouragement they are providing to keep me in the brand. There is the $1000 loyalty cash too, but it remains to be seen whether I'll actually be able to apply that against the best deal I could have had otherwise, ie is it really the same as reaching into your pocket and pulling out ten hundred dollar bills.
 
kmp647 said:
There is some sort of program started in october that allows certain Leaf Leasers to buy their current car at a price way lower than the contracted residual.
Dealers just received the program info (most prob wont have read it yet) and NMAC has the info on who is eligible.
I received a call from NMAC and an offer to sell me my current Leaf at a large drop from the current payoff of $17,500

I dont really want to buy my Leaf , i'm turning it in end of December.

But I will try to get and post some of the programs details here.
Has anyone heard any updates on this? Or received calls from NMAC regarding buyouts at less than the residual price?
If they're going reverse the opt-out thing I'd want to consider this. There is certainly a price where it makes sense.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
There is the $1000 loyalty cash too, but it remains to be seen whether I'll actually be able to apply that against the best deal I could have had otherwise, ie is it really the same as reaching into your pocket and pulling out ten hundred dollar bills.

I've had the same exact question in the past.... If you negotiate your best lease deal and then at the last second throw the $1000 loyalty cash deal on the table, how (& where) does that apply to your lease deal's "bottom line?"
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
There is the $1000 loyalty cash too, but it remains to be seen whether I'll actually be able to apply that against the best deal I could have had otherwise, ie is it really the same as reaching into your pocket and pulling out ten hundred dollar bills.
From what I understand it is like you pulled out ten hundred dollar bills as it comes straight form Nissan. So I see no reason that you could not get your best deal and then apply the extra $1,000 like it was cash out of your pocket.

I also have $250 to spend towards a new vehicle from the One to One Rewards program but I am not exactly sure how that one works yet but plan to look into it soon. I would not be surprised its different from the $1,000 loyalty cash though. Still another $250 certainly would not hurt.
LTLFTcomposite said:
kmp647 said:
There is some sort of program started in october that allows certain Leaf Leasers to buy their current car at a price way lower than the contracted residual...
Has anyone heard any updates on this? Or received calls from NMAC regarding buyouts at less than the residual price?
If they're going reverse the opt-out thing I'd want to consider this. There is certainly a price where it makes sense.
I am curious about this too as I believe I am in the same boat as LTLFTcomposite. I need to figure it out soon as my lease is up 01/14/2015. Trying to decide between the options of turning in the Leaf and leasing a new one before the end of the year to take advantage of all the incentives that Nissan is offering, just turning in the Leaf and paying the price to do so and going with a different EV such as the Soul or even going without a second vehicle for a while and the possibility of being able to buy the Leaf I have if offered to me at a reasonable price. All these options have their pros and cons for sure.

One thing I should add is that Nissan is usually open to extending the lease up to an additional year on a month to month basis at the same monthly price of your current lease including additional miles. Certainly not something that works for everyone but if you have a good monthly lease rate and you don't mind taking the risk of out of warranty repairs it is another option. However I have already used this option myself and so far it has worked well for me. Of course I was hoping for better options form Nissan by now.
 
My lease payment is $481/mo with tax. When I asked they said they could extend my lease at the current rate, which of course I have no interest in whatsoever, and extending at a reduced rate was not an option.

It's pretty much like talking to a wall. I'm 99% certain the way this will end is with me turning in the car, NMAC will get like 8 grand from a wholesaler and if they are lucky somebody will eventually buy the car for 10 or 11. Who knows, with $2.69 gas the wholesaler may be catching a falling knife.

That said, if some new news comes to light that NMAC wants to deal, I am interested... at the right price.
 
MicStr said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
Looks like there won't be a pullahead deal this fall. Of course a dealer can get me out of my current overpriced lease early but because the market value of the car is less than the residual all they would be doing is rolling the negative into the next lease or purchase.

I did confirm a couple of interesting things though talking to NMAC. if I purchase or lease another Nissan or infinity they will waive the termination fee and also allow me up to $500 of excess wear. We've kept the car in pristine condition but the tires are getting a little thin and that might be an issue so I'm hoping that $500 waiver would cover that.
But here's the interesting part: you don't need to buy or lease the new car at exactly the time you turn in the old one. You have about 60 days to buy or lease the new vehicle and still get those waivers credits. So we might try to limp along with one car for a few weeks until the North American Auto Show announcement where we see what the 2016 looks like, then decide where to go from there. Even though availability would still be several months away it would still be nice to make an informed decision.

they waived $843 on mine

What did you say to get them to waive more than $500 on excess wear? The dealers I'm talking to don't seem to be willing to "eat" the repair costs (I had the appraiser come out and said I needed $1000 of repairs - dent, scratches from kids bikes, crack in rear light panel). One salesman said they could "work it in" - thus less/no wiggle room on monthly payment. Thoughts?

well, technically my dealer did not agree to waive anything either since they are not the ones who determine the monetary end of it. an independent inspector does that and submits it to NMAC and the bill comes from them. I had "valid" charges like a deep scratch on the back that I was willing to pay for but my gripe was a charge for a windshield replacement that was like $300 or something that my insurance would have replaced for nothing. the damage was a tiny spider crack that might have been an inch long or something. But they waived all of the damage above the $500 limit (i also had broken antenna that was like $350ish to fix) that included all the windshield and a few bucks of the scratch. not sure of the exact dollar values of anything now but my liability was like $384 or something like that

i also had other stuff they did not get me on like mismatched tires and what not...
 
I will share what news I have as soon as someone , either NMAC or the dealership can actually give me the proper info on this offer!!!!!

they all seem to be to busy at the moment closing the month! trying to sell cars I guess


second I get some concrete info I will post it. hopefully Monday
 
kmp647 said:
I will share what news I have as soon as someone , either NMAC or the dealership can actually give me the proper info on this offer!!!!!
I am eagerly awaiting your news of the NMAC offer. :) The clock is ticking. ;)
 
Third party inspector just finished checking out the '12, which is going back in 3 weeks. Thought he would ding me for the tires at least, which are a little bald on the edges, and maybe a couple scratches I couldn't buff out totaly, but I had the $500 waiver offer from leasing the '15, so wasn't too worried. Turns out he thought the tires, the originals at almost 22k, had plenty of tread, and he never noticed the scratchs, so was worried for nothing. Total damage estimate was $0! Way easier than I thought it was going to be.
 
DNAinaGoodWay said:
Third party inspector just finished checking out the '12, which is going back in 3 weeks. Thought he would ding me for the tires at least, which are a little bald on the edges, and maybe a couple scratches I couldn't buff out totaly, but I had the $500 waiver offer from leasing the '15, so wasn't too worried. Turns out he thought the tires, the originals at almost 22k, had plenty of tread, and he never noticed the scratchs, so was worried for nothing. Total damage estimate was $0! Way easier than I thought it was going to be.

Similar experience here. I had removed all the badges and then I had re-affixed the "LEAF" letters in a much wider spread across the hatch. But I ignorantly chose to use a liquid emblem adhesive. Very aggressive stuff and I was afraid to try to remove it so I figured I'd just find out what the inspector came up with before trying anything. I was afraid of some massive "strip and repaint" charge, but he only noted something like $15 for "relocate LEAF emblem". Frankly I think it looked better my way and nobody buying a 3-yo LEAF is going to care one way or the other. Luckily the interior was pristine thanks to Wet Okole seat covers and also the wheels thanks to having colorized them with Plasti-Dip. That peeled off very easily leaving perfectly new wheels.
 
So the dealer I originally leased my leaf from did get some type of info from nmac
And offered to sell me my leaf at 4k$ off the current payoff of 17,800( I have 3 payment left)
So 13,800 plus local sales tax of 4% and tag fees
my residual is $16.5k



I still couldn't get any more real info from them but they did email me a buyers order offering me the car at this reduced price.

I am currently trying to get more info , but I am planning to turn my car in end of december :?
 
kmp647 said:
So the dealer I originally leased my leaf from did get some type of info from nmac
And offered to sell me my leaf at 4k$ off the current payoff of 17,800( I have 3 payment left)
So 13,800 plus local sales tax of 4% and tag fees
my residual is $16.5k



I still couldn't get any more real info from them but they did email me a buyers order offering me the car at this reduced price.

I am currently trying to get more info , but I am planning to turn my car in end of december :?

If you keep this car, why would you have tag fees? Transfer of title?

More importently, with 10 bars left, how much longer will it be useful to you?
 
yup got jammed into a 39 month lease, I should have gotten them to lower it . I have a 39mo 48,751 mile limit (15k per year)
currently at 47,760 so only 1,000 included miles left and .15 mile after that.
last payment is the 9th of January, I might drive it til January

and you are also right at 10 bars and 48k with not much hope of losing 2 more bars before 60k..........
off she goes to the auction.(lease return)

I don't want it even at 13k ,and BTW when you buy your car off lease you have to pay local sales tax in VA on the purchase amount 4.05% , its no different from buying any other used car, the only thing yousave is time and the disposition fee.
but don't get me wrong its the best car I have ever owned. I cant wait to see the next gen Leaf! or Nissan EV.

my current plan is to get a used certified volt for under $20k, the wife will actually drive it( she refused to drive the Leaf, she drove less than 200 of my 47,000 miles !)
also the Volt will be easier to trade on a new Leaf Gen 2 or a Volt Gen 2 or whatever cool car is out in a year or 2.
also I test drove a Ford Fusion Energi and was very impressed. 24 miles EV then the engine started. nice car if you can live with the limited trunk
 
I just turned in my 2012 lease.

3-4 months ago I got an offer to extend my lease at the same payment. Since my payment was $235 with taxes I was really tempted but my office may be moving and if so it might have been out of range.

The offers got better as I waited.

Initially they reminded me of the 1000 loyalty cash . Eventually they offered to waive 500 in damage and the turn in fee if I re-leased.

The final offer they bumped the loyalty cash up to 3000 along with waiving 500 damage and the turn in fee... a read good deal if I didn't have a 2010 Accord that's been mostly undriven for 2 years.

My inspection was painless. I had already had to replace my tires which didn't make me happy. The inspection itself turned up $80 in damage which they considered normal wear and tear and my cost to turn in was $0.
 
Initially they reminded me of the 1000 loyalty cash . Eventually they offered to waive 500 in damage and the turn in fee if I re-leased.

The final offer they bumped the loyalty cash up to 3000 along with waiving 500 damage and the turn in fee... a read good deal if I didn't have a 2010 Accord that's been mostly undriven for 2 years.

The standard return terms seem to be waiver of the return fee if you re-lease and $500 of damages. No negotiation required on that. The $3k was good, though.
 
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