Want to get out of my $520/month car lease!

[Greatoutdoors]

I'm trying to get out of my anti-mustanchian $520/month VW Atlas car lease!  There's 24 months remaining on a 36 month lease and only used 5k of the annual 12k mile allowance.  I need to get a cheap 2nd hand car instead

I spoke with Swap-a-lease, who only advertise the car and connect you with potential buyer.  Their cheapest deal is $400 advert and most expensive $1000.  Appears that I would also need to be a guarantor on the lease in case the primary owner default, although likelihood should be low if they get appropriately vetted with high credit score etc.

Has anyone had experience with Swap-a-lease?  Is the service worth it?  Or any other thoughts on my dilemma above?

[dougstash]

Don’t do it. Companies like that feed off of desperate people and charge huge amounts to post an ad you can just as easily put on Craigslist. With that being said it won’t work either. Nobody looks on swap a lease to lease  a car. People who want to lease cars go to a dealer (as you probably did)

One last piece of food for thought- if you were in the market to llease a car, would YOU pay 520/month for a 1 year old and used car when you can lease a brand new one for the same price?

I don’t know the best way to get out of a lease but don’t get ripped off twice on the same car and DO NOT pay 400-1000 for a advertising service. Nobody gets value from such crutches except swap-a-lease

[leavesofgrass]

Unfortunately, I don't think there's an easy or cheap way out. I'd avoid swap a lease -- sounds like they are preying off people like you.

Find out from your lessor how much it would be to break the lease. Maybe it'll save you some money vs. waiting until the lease term ends.

Either way, chalk it up to the cost of learning a lesson and move on. Try to make better financial decisions in the future.

[Greatoutdoors]

Thanks for the comments.  No easy way of breaking the lease without paying hefty penalties.  I'll most likely hold on till the end of the term now.  You certainly learn from your mistakes, this was a costly one and hopefully there won't be many more like this in the future!

[RWD]

I'm trying to get out of my anti-mustanchian $520/month VW Atlas car lease!  There's 24 months remaining on a 36 month lease and only used 5k of the annual 12k mile allowance.  I need to get a cheap 2nd hand car instead

Ouch, that's $1.25/mile in payments alone!

Thanks for the comments.  No easy way of breaking the lease without paying hefty penalties.  I'll most likely hold on till the end of the term now.  You certainly learn from your mistakes, this was a costly one and hopefully there won't be many more like this in the future!

What are the penalties? Depending on what they are it might make sense. You've still got $12,480 in payments ahead of you...

[ReadySetMillionaire]

What are the penalties? Depending on what they are it might make sense. You've still got $12,480 in payments ahead of you...

This was my thought as well.

A much cheaper version of this was when I was stuck with six months left of our DirecTV contract (we were at $127/month I think).  But when we did the math, we realized that saving $100/month would pay for itself.

[Greatoutdoors]

Re the termination fee, I just read my lease document which simply says "You may have to pay a substantial change if you end this lease early.  The actual charge will depend on when the Lease is terminated".  I will call to find out the exact number. 

[Dave1442397]

Re the termination fee, I just read my lease document which simply says "You may have to pay a substantial change if you end this lease early.  The actual charge will depend on when the Lease is terminated".  I will call to find out the exact number.

You may also be able to just trade it in at a dealership. My wife's car is a 2011 model that was leased, but traded in after a year because the previous owner wanted a bigger car. There's no reason you can't trade it in for something smaller and cheaper. See if a Toyota or Honda dealer will work with you on it.

[Greatoutdoors]

I spoke to VW finance:

23 monthly payments remaining
Total repayments remaining $12,038
Residual value $19,772

My options:

1. I simply pay the Payout Quote of $30,882 to own the vehicle outright
2. Sell to a car dealership.  VW finance would provide a separate 'Payout quote' and it would be different to the number above.
3. Hand back car to VW who will auction (probably the worst option)
4. Sell car privately and transfer the title across

Looking on the VW website to purchase my car new from the showroom would cost $36,935 + title, tax and dealer fees.

I'm guessing I should go to a dealer and see what I could get for the vehicle and whether there's a shortfall I would need to pay.
I went onto Truecar.com which gave me a trade-in cash estimate of $24,900.  Not sure how reliable that is but seems low and could leave me with a ~$6000 shortfall.

 

[RWD]

Wow, $6k to save $12k in payments is pretty steep. The private sale option is probably the most money efficient. KBB seems to indicate (I made some assumptions) that you could sell the Atlas for around $28.5k.

[Dave1442397]

I went onto Truecar.com which gave me a trade-in cash estimate of $24,900.  Not sure how reliable that is but seems low and could leave me with a ~$6000 shortfall.

Depending on your state laws, you may only pay sales tax on the difference between your trade-in and the price of your replacement car, so take that into account if you decide to sell privately. The tax savings on $24,900 would be $1,556 here in NJ. Not all states work like that, but it's worth checking.

[bryan995]

I think you might be stuck. Start driving Uber/Lyft on the weekends to make up some extra $$? Especially since it’s not your car and you are under the mileage limits?

[birdie55]

There is a radio show called the Car Pro show.  The host owned multiple car dealerships and advises people on how to deal with buying/leasing cars.  He also has info on leases on his site. 

I have heard him recommend an auto lease broker to sell your lease to someone else.  Maybe search his website Carprousa.com for that info.  You can also email him through his site and he responds pretty quickly. 

[englishteacheralex]

Dave Ramsey answers this question every other day on his show. His advice is always to sell the car privately and pay the difference, as painful as it might be.

Dave's advice tends to be "rip the bandaid off quickly" advice. It doesn't always make perfect sense mathematically. With a leased car, the financial implications are such a shitshow I'd be inclined to get the whole problem out of my life ASAP, take the fastest option as a form of harm reduction, and go with the plan of selling the car privately and making up the difference, especially if I had the cash to do so (if not, he always recommends trying to get a loan for the $6k shortfall through a credit union, if possible).

Selling a car that is worth more than $10k through private sale is a little tricky. I'd recommend ebay and Craigslist first--take awesome pictures and advertise that thing well. Price it competitively. Read up on avoiding scams. Any kind of professional car selling operation is not going to offer you the best deal (they can't; they have to make money when they sell the car), and you need the money so you have to at least try to deal with the hassle of selling it yourself.

You're going to take a haircut on this deal. But hey, you'll never lease a car again.