Not many people are giving the vehicle straight back to the dealer for the calculated residual unless it's a last resort/emergency or they have enough money that they just don't care. There are plenty of situations where early trade-ins make sense (or are incentivised), and they aren't necessarily bad deals at all. It's nice to have so many options whilst enjoying all the protections of a lease.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
The $4XX I paid to end my lease early is pretty reasonable IMO. Not sure what other brands charge. Cost me a lot less than I would have had to pay for damage (windshield) if I gave the car back to the dealer, so it was a no-brainer even before calculating the rest. If you're getting a new car from the same dealership, the fee is usually waived as well. If I had financed, the only difference is I would have had less money for investments and none of the protection leasing gets you.
As I said earlier, it's just a TCO calculation + whatever the many advantages and protections of a lease are worth to you. If you plan to invest the extra cash flow compared to financing (this is what I do), you need to take that into account as well. If there are huge incentives one way or another, that can obviously change things on a case-by-case basis, but that is very rare in my experience. From what I can tell, most people do not really understand leasing so they avoid it. I can't see myself ever financing a car again unless the incentives are such that they make the car so much cheaper that they somehow outweigh all the protections/options a lease offers.
Also, looking at all the lemon car threads on Beyond (and other forums) over the years too has been a nice reminder of why I will always lease. You avoid all of that BS with no real downside if you end up the unlucky recipient of a vehicle like that.