When is your lease up? And what do you mean by flipping it?

Thank you for saying what I was thinking. You pay more for a lease but you have the luxury of dumping the car in 3 years. If you buy, you are stuck trying to sell it. If you keep cars for long periods of time, buying is smart.

i will be making my first payment in may ... lease will end mid 2010 i believe ... anyways ... it's a 39 month lease ...

I see you just bought the car. Well I don't really know if it's good or bad for you right now. As long as you are not to heavily in debt it shouldn't affect your house buying. Overall all credit (credit score) will dictate what kind of rate you will be getting.

If you are planning on keeping the car at the end of the lease make sure to give the bank a lower offer other than what they are offering you. For example if they offer the car to you at 20k offer them 18k for sure they will make a counter offer. So just play it by ear on how much more discount they can give you.

can you really do this ...? are you talking about offering the dealer less than what the buy-out will be? i know that the buyout is $19,7?? ... should i go $18K ...?

didn't know that this was possible.

Technically, the offer is to the finance company, and yes it is possible.

so if i was going to go through a local bank ... i would not offer them $19,whatever the buy-out is ... and i should over them $18,whatever i would like to offer ...?

same way with IFS?

I have never done it myself, but I understand the basic strategy is to reach out to the financing company 30 days or so before the end of the term.
Say that you are interested in buying the car, but you have been looking on Ebay and used cars lots, and can pick up the same car with same options for 3K less than your buyout.

You then go through a negotiation, and if you can agree to terms, they leave the car in your car for less than the agreed residual amount.

If not, then just walk away, leaving them with an overpriced vehicle they will have to take an even greater loss on. They will then try to get the dealer to pick it up (for less than residual of course) or dump it on wholesale market.

So in essense, your offer is probably the best deal the finance company is going to get.

Maybe there is someone here who has actually done it.

I just don't personally believe leases should be bought out. Goes against my religious convictions

Yes but remember this is only possible at the end of the lease and not before. Surrender your car 2 months before the end of the lease term the bank will pay for the last 2 months of your lease. They will then offer the car to you if want to buy it. If they offer you 19.700 for the car offer them 18k and see what they say. They will do three things...

1. They will say yeah sure no problem, did you want to finance the car of pay it off? This is entirely up to you.

2. They will say no 19,700 is the price so take it or leave it. Again it's up to you if you want to get it.

3. They will say 18k is kind a low for an offer how about 18,700? Now again this is up to you.

The bank will always have the last say, but you have to try and see if they will even entertain your offer. It is possible to do this my best has done this twice and both of his offers was accepted by the bank. In this case the bank was Bank of America here in California.

should i try to go through infiniti financial first then go to my local bank ... i'm very interested in this process ... i know for sure i will be buying it out ... i didn't know that i can get it for less than the residual ... more info please ...

There is not a choice in the matter. You go to whoever it is you are currently sending your monthly lease payment to.

Who you choose to finance the buyout with, is another story.

Curious...

Your second (first) payment is due in May, and you have already determined you will be buying out the lease.

May I ask why you did not use traditional financing in the first place?

i don't know why i just didn't buy it out ... but there's a couple factors figuring in ...

1. we're looking to buy a home ... soon
2. the montly payments for a lease was way less for what I wanted to put down
3. poor excuse but this is my first infiniti ... i've always had hondas and toyotas (reliable of course) and i've alway trusted them and their reliability issues ... i want to make certain that i feel the same way with the infiniti ... this way ... i have the chance of returning it without any hassel or contine with the vehicle at the end ...

now i don't know if everyone will be agreeing with this and i don't expect that, but this was my though process going into this.

atleast warranty issues will cover the vehicle during my term if anything goes wrong ...

I like #3 the best
This is also my first Infiniti