I had a thought and maybe it's a dumb idea or maybe it's already being done...but I was thinking it would be awesome to have a way to get in touch with people who are either:
1) About to return a lease (and not buy it out)
2) About to trade in a vehicle to the dealership for another one
My recent shopping has showed me more than ever how huge the variance is between lease residuals and market price, and we all know how badly dealers screw you on trade-in pricing. What if we had a way to get in touch with these people BEFORE they did either of those two things, split the difference, and everyone walks away happy? The seller makes more money, and the buyer gets a deal below market price - win/win.
In the case of a lease, sure you can buy it out yourself and sell it for more than the residual at market price, but there are so many people who can't even be bothered to do that despite a difference of thousands of dollars. People could also just buy it out, undercut the whole used market by a lot, sell it in a day, and still make money - yet so many don't. In the case of a trade-in, well you just get straight boned by the dealer every time so that one doesn't need further explanation. Dealers will give you a trade in value on your car for free, so you could take that number and post it here first to see if anyone wants to beat it.
I am constantly hearing stories about people with these immaculate, hard to find cars and they are just handing them back to the dealer, taking enormous hits. My first thought every time is "damn, if I could have just got to them first..." Or you will tell someone "hey when you go to sell that car, make sure to let me know first", and then you find out a year later they just traded it in for $10K less than you would have paid them and got something else.
Just as one example, last year the Audi dealer had three S6's on their used lot, all lease-backs. The residual on that $100K car is ~37% (or $37K for example sake) after 4 years. Those people literally just handed it back to the dealer, probably leased another one or something else, and market price on a 4 year old S6 is somewhere around $60K. If someone was able to offer them, say, $50K, for that car it would be the easiest decision of their life. Alternatively if they listed it privately for that, it would sell in one day - but nobody does that, and many just hand it back to the dealer.
Example 2: My Honda lease was ~$30K and residual is $12K. Guaranteed it will be worth more than $12K after 4 years, probably more like $17K. If I could sell it relatively hassle free for, say, $15K (assuming market was $17K), I would do that long before giving it back to the dealer.
Maybe I'm just thinking of something that's already being done in some capacity, but what do you guys think? Would it maybe make sense to have a forum section here where people post BEFORE they are about to trade in a vehicle or return a lease with either their buyout amount or the dealer's trade-in offer? Or people can post things like "hey if you have X car and you're going to trade it in - call me first". Thoughts? Dumb idea, or worth pursuing?