Ending a lease early - penalties

[awd]

I am leasing an XTERRA for 4 years -- what is the usual penalty for ending a lease early?

I really like the vehicle but I am pretty sure I will want something different within a year or two.

Would the penalty be smaller if I stayed with Nissan? Than if I was to kill the lease and go elsewhere?

[benyl]

Um, you can't kill the lease.

You basically have to pay out all your payments, buy out the vehicle and sell it. That is the only way to get out of a lease early.

Nissan will buy it back from you, but you will get bent over. Transfering your lease to someone else is also an option. But you usually have to give them a pretty big incentive to do so.

If you knew you were going to change vehicles so soon, why did you go with such a long lease? 3years is a better term

[awd]

Originally posted by benyl
Um, you can't kill the lease.

You basically have to pay out all your payments, buy out the vehicle and sell it. That is the only way to get out of a lease early.

Nissan will buy it back from you, but you will get bent over. Transfering your lease to someone else is also an option. But you usually have to give them a pretty big incentive to do so.

If you knew you were going to change vehicles so soon, why did you go with such a long lease? 3years is a better term

Ouch lol.

It was an impulse purchase -- oh well, I really like it so its not like I leased a POS for 4 years.

[403Gemini]

least it wasnt a kia! lol

[SilverBoost]

I ended a truck lease early. Only by 8 months, but here' how it worked for me at the time (4 years ago)

I had a dodge truck lease and wanted to trade it on a new Nissan.

I had 8 payments left on the truck. The residual value of the truck (what your buyout would be after lease) PLUS the remaining 8 payments, ended up being less than what they could sell the truck for off thier lot, so Nissan bought out the remaining lease and the residual value of the truck and then gave me like a $1000 to play with because in the end they still made a few grand on the deal.

Not exact numbers but here it is:

Truck residual buyout. = $12000
Remaining payments combined = $4000
= $16000 they would have to pay to Dodge to get me out. They said they'd give me $17000 for the truck, and ended up selling it for $19000

What did I lose? The money I put down on the lease initially to lower my payments and residual buyout. If I had kept the truck and waited another 2 years to pay it off then obviously I would have had more to play with on a trade.

As for penalites, none. Dodge got all their payments and sold teh truack as well in one shot. What do they care?

[CLiVE]

I'm in the same boat. You're better off just waiting out the lease.
33 months down, only 27 months to go...:banghead:

No point losing my 12K downpayment, + ~3yrs of payments.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Originally posted by SilverBoost
I ended a truck lease early. Only by 8 months, but here' how it worked for me at the time (4 years ago)

I had a dodge truck lease and wanted to trade it on a new Nissan.

I had 8 payments left on the truck. The residual value of the truck (what your buyout would be after lease) PLUS the remaining 8 payments, ended up being less than what they could sell the truck for off thier lot, so Nissan bought out the remaining lease and the residual value of the truck and then gave me like a $1000 to play with because in the end they still made a few grand on the deal.

Not exact numbers but here it is:

Truck residual buyout. = $12000
Remaining payments combined = $4000
= $16000 they would have to pay to Dodge to get me out. They said they'd give me $17000 for the truck, and ended up selling it for $19000

What did I lose? The money I put down on the lease initially to lower my payments and residual buyout. If I had kept the truck and waited another 2 years to pay it off then obviously I would have had more to play with on a trade.

As for penalites, none. Dodge got all their payments and sold teh truack as well in one shot. What do they care?
Yeah that works as long as the residual is reasonable and with only 8 payments left there would be a little bit of equity in the vehicle. With 2-3 years to go on a lease guaranteed their is more owed on the vehicle that what its worth unless buddy put a huge amount down which would have been a bad decision. Regardless, the lease obligations must always be met, there is no way just to hand it in, pay a penalty and walk away.

[max_boost]

I wish I could do that. I owe roughly $43k on my 330 with 43,000kms and have 5 payments left. I look in the autotrader, an 04 ZHP 330CI with only 29,000kms is going for $37k. I can forget about that. I'll just use the car for winter.

You can try www.leasebusters.com but you'll most likely have to give some sort of cash deal to the other person for him/her to take over the lease. Should he/she default on payments, you are still on the hook but I can't see some reasonable person destroy their credit by doing that.

[benyl]

Really? BMW Gallery had a '05 ZHP for $53K.

Guess I won't be trading in the ZHP for a new 335