My question is more like a request for confirmation that I'm going about this right. Thanks for your thoughts!
Edit: I know this is a face punch but it's from pre-Mustachian ways. Shameful in any case.
Details:
I lease a 2012 Toyota Yaris for $258/month. The lease is up on March 31, 2015, but I want out and don't want to pay more than I have to to do that.
In August, Toyota told me I could walk away from the car that day if I paid them $1200. If I didn’t take that offer, they told me I’d be responsible for the cost of replacing the bumper and some other things. My deductible with Geico is $1000, so let’s just say I’d have to spend that much. With $1806 in monthly payments still remaining at the time, my total cost if I kept the car till March would be about $2800. If I paid it off then, I would have "saved" $1600.
I didn't go forward with it because I had some travel planned and my life was kind of chaotic at the time.
I need to go back to Toyota to get another pay-off number, which should be close to the last one. I have $1290 in payments left, plus that $1000 bumper repair isn't going away. Should I just pay them and get out? Is there any way to negotiate this? They told me that amount was firm.
I’ve looked into doing a lease swap but I’m getting mixed messages from different sources about who's responsible for repair costs at the end of the lease. Not worth the hassle it seems.
I have set aside $3000 for a new (used) car and I’m hoping to add to that, but I'd have to use part of that to fund lease pay-off immediately. I'd use my credit card and at least get points for the payment.
I do need to use a car occasionally for my work, so I could do Zipcar for about $300/month (at the most) for those clients who are located far apart that I need to get to in a hurry. My current monthly total with lease, gas ($150), insurance ($90), upkeep ($40) is over $500. Public transportation could work some of the time but not all of the time, given my schedule. I'm on my bike whenever I can be.
Thanks again for lending an ear and throwing thoughts/experience my way!