I have an 07 sedan (sport) that I took a 39 month lease on; I have 15 months left. I changed jobs right in the middle of my lease and as a result my commute went from 8 to 29 miles one way. My lease is for 39,000 miles total and right now I'm at 40,000. At the end of my lease I'm going to be about 26,000 miles over the contracted amount.

What would you guys do in my situation? My options are:

1. pay $3900 in mileage fees and walk away
2. buy the car for residual $21,000, but be several thousand dollars upside-down since the car won't be worth anything near that

As much as I like my G, it's my 2nd in a row and I'm ready to get something different, so all the niceties of negotiating a new lease go out the window. Besides, the 2010 model will basically be the same as my 07 and there aren't any other Infinitis that I want.

Obviously a huge factor in deciding between the 2 options is whether or not I wanna cough up $3900 all at once. Sh**, I might as well buy a beater car right now for that much and stop driving my G. That way at the end of my lease at least I would have the beater and wouldn't have to pay the mileage fees haha. I dunno, what does everyone think?

*I forgot to add that I called IFS but they will not negotiate the buyout price.

 

keep the car, and pay for miles at the end if you have to. If you buy it out now, then... you're upside down anyways.

If you just keep driving, at least you have an out.

 

I'd say to pay the $3900. You could go the beater route and drive that around, but then you need to worry about either selling it after or having it insured while you're driving around, which to me, wouldn't be worth it over a lease.

 

Third option -

Keep on driving this G until just before the contract is up and then trade it in for any car you like. When you trade it before the lease is up? you wont have to pay over mileage penalty or IFS wont charge you penalty as long as you satisfied the "payoff" amount. Of course your trade in value would be lower compare to other with lower mileages, but the difference wont be 4k.

If you want to get rid of it now? call IFS and ask what is your current "payoff" amount, then go down to any dealership to see what they would offer you for your G, or try to sell it on your own, judge for yourself which way will cost you less.

 

HAHAHAHAH!!! WHAT? Why would you not have to pay for our overage of miles just because you trade it early? You're still obligated to pay for the extra car that you use. And if you trade it in to a dealership, you're still obligated to what they DON'T give you for it (i.e., unless you get your payoff amt plus 4k, you still owe money). A lease is a contract. You can't circumvent a contract with Tom Foolery. lol.

If you have some money down and good credit, you can get out of the hole on your next purchase. I wouldn't trade it in because unless the other dealership wants to buy your car, they're just going to roll in your over miles and remainder of payments into your new car. That could be $80-$150 in payment alone based off of what you owe (that's based on $1k= $20 payment). Not a financially viable option unless you're just made of money.

The beater car is a good idea actually. It puts you in a better situation at the end of your lease (car wise) and depending on condition, allows you a back-up car should you find yourself in a similar situation.

I think the best option is to just pony up at the end of your lease. It will cost you the least amount of money in the long run.

Outside of that,

 

I just bought my car at lease end 2 months ago, and I was able to negotiate a lower price on it. My original residual buyout was $18,800 and I negotiated a buyout at $16,800. I only had 24k miles on my '04 too.
Believe it or not, the lessor does not want to take any vehicle back and most likely will try to work with you. Just a thought.

 

As long as you satisfied the payoff amount? there will be no extra mileage charges. Be cause you are not returning the car to them. Do you have to pay for extra mileages if you decide to keep the car when the term is up? No, why? be cause you satisfied the residual.

The leasing/lending company use the car as collateral, they wanted the car returned with certain conditions and mileages so they can turn around and sell it to recoup their money (residual). If you find a thrid party willing to pay that payoff amount or you come up with the differences, why would that leasing company cares how much mileages it has and what conditions the car is in? just as long as they get paid.

 

Hmmm... that's encouraging to hear.

 

Yeah. The payoff amount is 21k. Now, we've seen people buy these for retail of 20k. Given that most dealerships will purchase a car anywhere between 2-3k under what they can retail them for (if not more), let's say they give him 17k. That's STILL 4k in the hole. And all that is assumming that his next dealership wants an 07 G35 sedan w/40k on the odo. Especially given that they can probably buy that same car at auction for 15 or 16 with less miles. I mean, that all sounds good on paper, but you're setting that guy up for failure with that idea. His next dealership (assuming it isn't Infiniti) will more than likely offer to pay off the remainder of the lease term, which will still leave him with the mile overage or they'll offer to pay off the lease plus overage. All that really is is a fancy way of saying, you're going to pay us for paying off your loan. And that's all assuming the next car will carry that extra amount of money. Most cars won't carry 4,5, or 6 grand more than what they're worth. I don't want to get too deep into it, but that's just all in all not a good or pheasible idea.

Maybe you can hagle the residual amount down a smidgen. I'm seeing what Austin did happen a lot. I mean, you'll still owe more than the car is worth, but welcome to America. Population: everyone.

 

I dont quit understand the highlited part. No matter what car dealerships (Audi, BMW...) he decides to go to? it works the same, there is no need for over mileage fees if he trade it in before the term is up.

He will be 4k in the hole if he decides to return the car down the road, thats given. So any other way to minimize that amount is helping, wouldnt you agree? Besides I dont see much of difference of paying 4k at end of lease for over mileage fees, like you suggested and roll them into your next purchase other than interest, he need/want another car anyways, we dont know how much would a dealership going to offer him for that car, untill he try it.

Didnt I also said this?

 

Paying off his lease term is different than paying off his car. If the CAR is paid off then he owes nothing. That means, the entire residual amount of 21k. In order for that to happen, the dealership would a) have to want an 07 G35 w/40k miles and b) agree to giving him 21k. If his lease term is payed off, that means the remainder of what he would pay if he kept his lease (i.e. 15mo at 500/mo =7500) is paid. That results in the purchasing dealership returing the car to Infiniti in which case he would STILL owe for the overage miles. You can't "trade" a lease in the traditional sense because YOU don't own it.

Turning in a lease now will not cut down on anything. I can almost garuntee that. The biggest problem he has is that he has over a year left until his lease is up AND he's over mileage. Makes it hard to negotiate the residual when your term has that much time left. The cheapest option (unless you just find a dealership that really wants your car) is going to be pay the overage or buy it out at the end. Anything else will end up costing you more.

 

Hahaha, I will let someone else answer that.

 

Ouch.. Sticky situation.. You should have realized how many miles you were going to be driving before putting on so many miles. Should have gotten a beater to commute to work. Don't know what to tell you.

Good luck bro

 

Answer what? I didn't ask anything.

 

Um, yeah, you can. A lease has a payoff just like a financed car does. I have traded in a leased car 1 month before the lease was up. I was under my miles, therefore had equity in the car. I traded it, instead of turning it in, and got $1000 from the dealer to put down on my new car.