So, my lease will be ending soon but I want to purchase this car. The residual is actually much higher than what it's worth right now. Can the purchase price be negotiated with Infiniti or are they set on this residual price? I'm sure they would get a much lower price if it went up for an auction or to a dealer for a pre-owned sale.
Has anyone try negotiating on a realistic and fair price at lease end?

 

Its not negotiable.

 

I don't see where it hurts for him to ask.

 

Everything is negotiable these days. Definitely talk to them about it if you're interested in keeping your ride.

 

yes talk to your dealer my friend owns Infiniti dealership here in nor cal and ive seen him give 3 to 6k off the price that was set after the lease

 

It may not be up to Infiniti whether or not it's negotiable. Leases are usually handled by a separate company that a manufacturer has an arrangement with. It's often up to them.

Lease payments are almost always lower than purchase payments, in part because the tax portion of a lease payment is based on the initial value minus the residual value, not the entire value of the car. If the residual value, which is just a guess, is a lot higher than it's actual value at lease-end, the leasing company takes the hit. But, if it's worth more, then they get the benefit. But you the lessee can also get this benefit if you were to purchase the car for residual value.

They won't negotiate as a policy, for the most part, because there wouldn't be as much upside for them to lease. If the actual is higher than the residual, the lessee buys the car for residual and "pockets" the upside. If the actual is lower than the residual, the lessee won't pay residual, and so the leasing company eats the difference. There's no downside for the lessee, and no upside for the leasing company.

Now, one thing Infiniti can try to do is negotiate a price for your car with the leasing company and someone other than the lessee, even if it's your wife/brother/dad, whatever. The leasing company would love to sell your car, even if it's below the residual, they're just not going to sell it to you, the lessee, for anything less than residual.

 

Infiniti leases are through NMAC (Nissan Motor Acquisition Corp) and thus its not exactly like negotiating with a disinterested bank. The point is that it would certainly not harm him to inquire about negotiating down the payoff - in this market, especially, they may be eager to get rid of the car immediately instead of re-selling it or putting it up for a wholesale auction.

And don't forget, a buckeye is just a worthless nut.

 

Oh, you can absolutely negotiate the residual value. When you return your car, it becomes a used car that Infiniti has to sell, which is a problem nowadays. If the lease policy doesn't let you negotiate the residual, then tell the dealer you're returning the car to satisfy the contract, but you're interested in buying it off his used lot.

The dealers won't be happy at this proposal, but I've done pretty much the same thing with a friend and it worked.

 

I'm not saying it's a definite "No", but sometimes it's out of the hands of the dealer. When I returned my Mazda CX-7, Mazda Credit came the next day and took the car away from the dealer, never to return. I wasn't interested in purchasing it, but I asked about it, and they said I could only buy it for residual after it was "processed". That was a Mazda Credit rule. But it would only come back to that dealership if they requested that specific car. Otherwise it went to a Mazda auction.

I know you can negotiate the residual at the start of a lease, but if you can negotiate a better price after, that's awesome, go for it. And you're right, this current car market may have forced a few changes on the leasing companies. They're probably getting stuck with lots of vehicles these days.

Als35, good luck on your negotiations.


Agreed. Can't eat 'em unless you boil the crap out of them, but they sure have been doing a number on the Wolverine family lately! (props for even knowing what a buckeye was)

 

I expect it to be negotiable. Banks aren't stupid, they know when the residual is higher than what the car is worth and they don't want to deal with the inspection, shipping, cleaning, and auction fees. My friend was approached by Infiniti when his FX35 lease was coming up...they seemed to be willing to negotiate but he wasn't interested.

I had a similar experience with Mazda as Buckeye when I returned my RX8...seemed like they didn't even want to talk about me buying the car out. In my area Mazda tends to do the balloon loan deal rather than a standard lease, so that may affect their ability to negotiate. But, my Honda dealer tried to get me to buy the Accord I was returning, dropped the price by a couple of grand to below "fair" price.