I have a 20K a year lease, and it works out great b/c I also have a Sierra Denali that I drive...and that's the only reason I lease...

The two best options are what everyone has told you...either sell it outright which you are 100% allowed to do and if you can get more for it than what you owe...great, but more likely, as a few have mentioned, you will have to pay off the difference...the other option, if it is one, is to see if they will rewrite the lease with a 20k/year lease...your payment would go up but only by $50 or so I believe...worse comes to worse, car pool or something to conserve miles. Good luck.

John
03.5 G35 14.2 @ 96
02 Maxima SE 14.5 @ 95 (Wife's)
87 Mustang GT 13.2 @ 107

 

Quoting the sales manager at a major Infiniti dealership:

The normal payoff on a lease is the the total of the remaining payments plus the residual. Most leasing companies stop there and if you want out of the lease early that is what you pay. IFS and NMAC go a step further. They take the same amount but subtract the current market value (not KBB or Edmunds or NADA but rather what they are actually selling the cars for) and subtract that amount from the the "payoff." If the car is worth equal or more then you turn it in and walk away. This happens more often than you would think on a lease where the person did not roll in negative equity which raised the cap cost.

For example a person that leased an G35 for 36-39 nonths and did not roll in negative equity can probably walk away after about 18 months (no penalties and nothing more to pay than what they have already paid on the lease so far). But remember excess mileage or negative equity for the previous car will have an impact on the amount owed.

If the car is worth more than the payoff (again this happens often) they will not pay you money. The best it will be is a zero balance.


I am planning to do this in early 2005 to swap my leased '04 G35 Sedan for an M35 or similar (I am below my 18k miles per year lease agreement). Requirements for early lease termination with IFS is that you have made at least 12 months of payments and that you have never missed a payment and you have to let them know your intention in writing at least a month beforehand.

'04 G35 Sedan 6MT in Diamond Graphite/Graphite with Premium, Nav, Aero
'02 Acura MDX Touring in Redrock Pearl/Saddle with wood bits, cargo stuff