My lease is almost up. Should I buy then sell or repair and return it?

bntoboxbntobox Member Posts: 3
edited November 2020 in INFINITI
I know the conventional wisdom is to buy out the lease if your car has a lot of miles or expensive damage. But what about the opposite? I have a 2017 Q60 3.0t Premium AWD. Only 15,000 miles are on it. I have a residual value of $27,000. Maturity date is March 2021, and I've all but stopped driving because I work from home now.

I haven't taken it in for an inspection yet, so I don't know if I will be charged for excess wear and tear. I've taken good care of it, although there is a small scratch in the front exterior that just showed up a week ago (of course). The rims took a bit of city living damage too, but otherwise it's well maintained.

So what should I do? With the mileage that low, I wonder if I can buy the car and then immediately sell it and either break even or even make a little bit. Or if it makes more sense to just be rid of it. I'm curious to get everybody's thoughts on this.

One more question - if repairs are needed, should I get them done independently prior to turning it in, or just pay the fee?

(ps I'll probably replace the car with nothing, so I don't think I would entertain a trade-in. I have no use for a car for the foreseeable future, at least until my office reopens)
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  • bntoboxbntobox Member Posts: 3
    Answer ✓
    Thanks for your insights! Any thoughts on buying and immediately reselling vs. returning?

Answers

  • MichaellMichaell Moderator Posts: 250,334
    bntobox said:

    I know the conventional wisdom is to buy out the lease if your car has a lot of miles or expensive damage. But what about the opposite? I have a 2017 Q60 3.0t Premium AWD. Only 15,000 miles are on it. I have a residual value of $27,000. Maturity date is March 2021, and I've all but stopped driving because I work from home now.

    I haven't taken it in for an inspection yet, so I don't know if I will be charged for excess wear and tear. I've taken good care of it, although there is a small scratch in the front exterior that just showed up a week ago (of course). The rims took a bit of city living damage too, but otherwise it's well maintained.

    So what should I do? With the mileage that low, I wonder if I can buy the car and then immediately sell it and either break even or even make a little bit. Or if it makes more sense to just be rid of it. I'm curious to get everybody's thoughts on this.

    One more question - if repairs are needed, should I get them done independently prior to turning it in, or just pay the fee?

    (ps I'll probably replace the car with nothing, so I don't think I would entertain a trade-in. I have no use for a car for the foreseeable future, at least until my office reopens)

    From what you described, you should be fine.

    When I turned in my leased Jetta a year ago, the front passenger door had a decent sized ding in it (let's not recount how that happened :worried: ). Inspector came out and said "no problem". I turned the car in a few weeks later and wasn't charged anything.

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  • MichaellMichaell Moderator Posts: 250,334
    bntobox said:

    Thanks for your insights! Any thoughts on buying and immediately reselling vs. returning?

    Do you think you have equity? Most leases don't. My Jetta had 17,000 miles on it after 3 years.

    And, if you buy it, you pay sales tax on that transaction amount. Makes it even harder to turn a profit.

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  • bntoboxbntobox Member Posts: 3
    Did you make any money on your Jetta? Fair point with the tax. I was thinking perhaps I could do a private sale and max out the blue book value, but it seems mileage might not be as important as I thought.

    Perhaps once I take it in for the pre-return inspection I'll see what, if anything, I'll owe on it.

    Last question - when returning your lease do you recommend a third party repair or simply paying wear and tear, if they charge it?

    Thanks for all your input! This will be my first lease return so I'm considering all of my options.
  • Ahmadski03Ahmadski03 Member Posts: 11
    I might be a little too late to the party but usually INF leases dont make sense to buy at the end. You'd have to have around 10k miles at maturity for it to be worth buying the lease out and KEEPING it. Depends on what features/packages you have on your car, it might make sense to buy it out and keep it. These cars are going for anywhere from mid to upper $20k's as a CPO at an INF dealership, so you can do the math yourself.
    Not all cars make sense to buy out at lease maturity. As for the repair, chances are you're only going to get charged for the scratched wheels (around $80/wheel - if minor) and minimal for the scratches. In other words, it would cost you more to repair the car than to let them charge you (wholesale price) for the minor damages.
    Will you be replacing it with another car or not getting anything else?
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