Buying out the car after leasing

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
hi All,

I am currently leasing a car whose lease expires by end of May 2022 and I plan to buy the car by paying the residual value in my contract. What are the important points to consider before I make my final decision and confirm to the dealer my decision on this?

Appreciate if you can direct me to another conversation if this was already covered somewhere. I had a look around but could not find detailed conversation so wanted to create a new thread.

thanks all in advance,

2
First check if you have the option at all to buy the car.

Then check the residual value against the current market price.

3
Fix anything broken in the car while the car is still covered by warranty.

4
yes, I've already done both of these points indicated in these two replies. thanks for your inputs.

any other suggestions or important points?

thanks

5
Recently there was a post by someone wanting to buy the car but dealer refusing. Is that a possibility for your contract?

6

Sure, I think most Tesla contracts give the dealer first option, all depends what you negotiate (before you sign )

7
Consider what the car is worth - KMs driven, second hand market value etc, so you can compare it against what dealer asks for.

Some dealers give better deals if you just replace it with another lease.

My lease contract gives me the option to buy.

I made the dealer to provide a document with minimum residual value at the end of the term. (I had to insist before signing the contract).

So, I will have the right to buy the car at that price. at least that's the plan

8
This is the other thread were the garage wanted the car back since there residual value was too low compared to the current commercial value. So,the garage wanted to pay to the customer the residual value, get the car back, sell it at commercial value and pocket the difference.

https://www.englishforum.ch/transpor...d-leasing.html

@opartal: check your contract for the terms at the end of the lease and assess the risk of being denied the option of buying the car.

9
No really?

10
I had a lease expire in December and was going to buy it out but the dealer offered me 45k over the residual to buy the car back if I ordered a new one. Then gave me 35k discount on the new model and let me keep the old car for 4 months before the new car is delivered a few weeks from now.

Can’t say fairer than that! My point is, talk to your dealer about your plans in advance. They might well offer you so much that it isn’t worth your selling the car privately.

11
I can’t believe anyone would sign such a lease. Defeats one of the major advantages of leasing, removing that valuable optionality.

12
That's why the say caveat emptor since literal centuries ago.

13
I just came back from a BMW garage and asked what happens at the end of the lease.

Interestingly, although they don't have the right to take back the car, the residual value is not guaranteed. It was always like this, and so far it was never an issue. However, given what is happening in the market right now, with the price of second hand cars going up, BMW can tell you that the residual value on the contract is not valid, and ask you to pay a higher price. I expressed my surprise, and then he said that they are not doing that right now, but they are already discussing that within his garage. He suggested that if your lease is expiring, come in a few months early to agree on the takeover as waiting until the last minute will only increase the possibility of such a thing happening.

I did not read the wordings myself, but I thought this is interesting info...

14
That is interesting... so you sign the lease contact and you agreed that RV at the end of the lease will be X amount. Now you pay your lease to actually go to that X amount within the agreed number of year and driven kilometers...

Can they actually change RV during the valid lease contract?

15
That's probably a question of having it in the contract. As usual, read before you sign.

But of course that creates the problem how you'd determine the RV- You can't allow them do that, there's far too much conflict of interest there, you'd need an impartial arbiter.

At any rate that would mean that axman's owed money back at the end of the lease if he doesn't buy, as the rates set a few years ago are too high for today's RV.

16
yep, as I was listening to this, I thought, but hey, if I drove only 8000 km per year instead of 15km per year as per the lease contract, I give the car back at a much better value and paid more depreciation than I am supposed to, and now you are asking me to pay even more???

I suppose this is a subtle way of introducing that element of trying to snatch the car away from the buyer...