My folks have a lease on a Sienna that ends in November. The dealer (shocker) is being really scumbaggy about it, and trying to get them to trade it on a new van that they want to sell them for close to the equivalent of $57k, so I've encouraged them to just buy their van for the residual amount.
So here's what the dealer is offering them for a buyout:
• A base price higher than the contracted residual amount. (Which I kind of understand, since they're trying to buy it early)
• $999 delivery fee (come TF on...)
• $450 in tag and title fees (which is like triple the DMV, and it would be a transfer tag)
• $300 for a "third party" title agency (Probably called "Shmaytona Bloyota")
So, am I crazy here, or are those additional fees crap? Particularly the delivery fee.
Sadly, Carvana and the other online outlets won't buy lease options from Southeast Toyota. The van is worth like $37k to Carvana right now, though, so even buying now at the time-inflated current value is a good deal, if we can work through some of the bullcrap fees.
The main thing I'm trying to avoid here is November rolling around and them expecting to pay residual + tax + reg/title + dispo fee and the dealer being scummy and tacking on a bunch of garbage and leaving them carless and shopping. Or do they have more leverage at that point since the contract has all those numbers alredy laid out?
Anyway, what does the braintrust recommend? Copy of their lease and the worksheet the dealer offered them today is below.
If you wait until November, the dealer does not need to be involved. You pay the residual, and the $350 as spelled out in the contract, then pay the tax and tags direct when you register it in their name. There is 0 advantage to doing it now.
Buy out that 2020 Sienna and keep it!
$21,000 for a 36k mile Sienna is unheard of right now!
John Welsh said:
Buy out that 2020 Sienna and keep it!
$21,000 for a 36k mile Sienna is unheard of right now!
I'd buy it for $21k!
I don't have anything useful to add other than you might want to edit the PDF to remove personal info.
I've never done this before, but I don't see any reason to do it early. Also, do you get a pro-rated refund for some of the lease payment if you end the lease early?
In reply to Tom Suddard :
AFAIK you don't, the finance company may actually try to roll the remaining payments into the buyout. If you want to keep the vehicle there is usually never a reason to buy out a lease early.
John Welsh said:
Buy out that 2020 Sienna and keep it!
$21,000 for a 36k mile Sienna is unheard of right now!
Sure, the 2020 Sienna is not the cool-kids, new version but keeping the old one is sure better than $999 (minimum) just for the privilege to be able to pay too much for the new one.
In 3 more years, at this rate they will have a 6 year old Sienna with 72k miles. Still at that time about all they will have done is replace the front brake pads once and a set of 4 tires.
For comparison, a current 6 year old Sienna (2016) with 72k miles is retailing, in your region for:
$23k
$24k
So, it could be argued that if the market doesn't improve in 3 years (and I don't think it will) then they could get 3 more years of FREE ownership out of this van. Buy it for an additional $21k and sell it in 3 years for $23k (or more!)
I agree with before. I would sit on it until November but not out for $21k plus $350 as the lease calls out and then you choose if you want to drive a nearly new vehicle or trade it in on whatever you want next.
I had a Honda lease come up last year. Honda finance will let you extend for up to 1 year with the same terms. The residual value keeps going down and then the lease end terms are the same. I never knew that before my last lease but it relieves the pressure of making a decision on their time frame. Maybe Toyota does something similar?
I just realized that I should have leased a 2019 ND.
My wife's elderly Aunt leased a car then passed away. The dealer said they wanted $1000 to turn it back in. Only her name was on the lease.
I not sure I'm a fan of leases.
Okay, so waiting sounds like the best option, particularly since we won't can just deal directly with the lease company at that point.
And, yeah, I don't sweat much about stuff like addresses getting posted somewhere. There are exactly four people in the entire country with my last name, they're all related, and Florida property records are public. If my name was Bill Smith it might be easier to keep a zero profile, but that ship sailed a while ago.
Datsun310Guy said:
My wife's elderly Aunt leased a car then passed away. The dealer said they wanted $1000 to turn it back in. Only her name was on the lease.
I not sure I'm a fan of leases.
No need to turn it in to the dealer, call the leasing company direct. If they say turn it in and pay $1000, stop the payments and let them figure it out.
Not to thread jack, but on a related note, I know that we generally shy away from leasing. For the reasons we usually discuss here, I've only had one lease in my entire life. That was my Nissan Leaf, back in the days when incentives were so good that it was dumb not to lease it. Given how high residual values are, is now a good time to lease? I've always wanted a newer German car, but didn't want to deal with them as the warranty expired.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
I just leased a new Subaru Outback. The payoff value (after three years) is about 8 thousand below what a "three year old Outback" is selling for right now. Not unlike the van that the OP is asking about.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
100%. If your name isn't on that lease you don't have to do a thing.
On the question if leases in todays car environment. Lease prices haven't seemed to go down while actual residual value is up. That has to end up with people owing far less than the car is worth. Honestly the same math will apply to new purchases (assuming the car has the same starting price). If you hated a lease before all the same things apply. It's timing. If you bought (or leased) any car in 2018-2020 or so you are probably sitting pretty on it. The lease is just more obvious because it has a defined end date and a value to compare too.
I suspect that one of the reasons that leases aren't cheaper right now other than the "because we can" part is that finance companies might not expect the high residuals to last for the typical lease cycle.
Funny thing- I have the exact same issue with a Fusion that has it's lease end in October. I'm getting tons of offers for cheaper lease re-do's right now, but a few years ago, we decided to get down to one new car post retirement. (and given how often we've used my car over the last 2 years- having a second car is pretty much a waste).
I know that on my contract, there's a part that there's a lease turn in charge of ~$500 that is always waived if there's a new lease to replace it. So when the time comes, I'm probably going to buy the car out on the contract terms and then sell it- maybe even back to the dealer. I don't need to be greedy- so if they just waive the extra payment, I may just hand them the car. I'll be looking at Carvana prices, as I understand that their buy price is ~4k less than the sell price. If I buy it out, I'll have a clean title to sell it.
As for the fees, JG- all of those were probably already charged when the lease was first signed. So it's incredibly sleazy for the dealer to attempt to charge them twice to the same customer on the same vehicle. A "delivery" fee for a car already in possession? That's nuts. And for the paperwork- that can be declined with a visit to the SOS.
I know it's a stretch but if they are looking to sell my wife and I are in the thick of trying to buy a minivan.
shoot me a pm and a number of you want, we just might be up for buying it.
CarKid1989 said:
I know it's a stretch but if they are looking to sell my wife and I are in the thick of trying to buy a minivan.
shoot me a pm and a number of you want, we just might be up for buying it.
The thing is, my folks really want to keep the van. well, technically they want one with a few more options, but I think I have them convinced that this is an awful time to buy a car, especially when they have a nice car already and they can buy it cheap.
Mostly they just want to buy it in the most hassle-free and economic way possible, so we're trying to figure out if an early settlement is the way to go (it appears not).
Late to reply but i get what youre saying. Thanks for replying.
Im happy that you were able to convince them to keep it- its awful out there on the market
