Hello, I've lurked the forums for a bit less than a year and find my self in need of some advice.
In March 2014, after having my totally mustachian 2005 Toyota Echo hatchback totalled, I made the silly decision to lease a new 2014 Toyota Prius C. At the time I was doing deliveries and assumed I would be working there another ~3 years and calculated I would save money if I leased over buying a used small hatch. Fast forward to now, my wife and I have moved from northern Ontario to southern Ontario for work. I now work doing technical support from home and the hospital my wife works at is within walking distance. We now find ourselves driving barely ~500km per month. We own our second car, a 2007 Ford Fusion with 151,000km which has been totally reliable and we both love it (worth ~$5500).
I would love to get rid of the Prius C. Moving from northern Ontario to southern Ontario doubled our insurance premiums. I pay $387.82 monthly for the Prius, plus $240 in insurance (I am 23 year old male and insurance is crazy in Ontario) and it now just sits in the driveway. The problem is, due to how much driving I did at my previous job, the Prius C has about 10,000km too many based on its age (lease is for 20,000km per year and it currently has 31000km). I have posted it on a lease-take over website but haven't had any luck, even with offering a cash incentive + winter tires. The way I see it I have a few options:
1. Wait for the age of the Prius to catch up with the mileage. This would be about 6 months. If it still hasn't gotten any bites on the lease-take over website, I could go to the dealer and try to negotiate getting out of the lease early. This would probably mean I would have to get another car at the Toyota dealer, and sell the 2007 Fusion. Hopefully they would allow me to get a used car. Or if new, I'd get a Camry or Corolla and drive it 15+ years.
2. Sell the Fusion, keep the Prius. Buyout the lease in March 2017 when it ends is ~$12,000. Drive it for 15+ years.
3. Increase the cash incentive for the lease takeover (currently $1500).
If there are any other options anybody can see please let me know. My wife and I are young and frugal in just about every other aspect of our lives and have both just started our careers. We have about $16000 in student loans to pay off, and even with this car payment we should be able to pay those off in 6-8 months. I just really hate throwing this money out the window every month when it could be applied to our debt and really get us a nice head start in life. Thanks.
