Lease Buyout: Is it normal as a lessee to transfer a vehicle to a dealership to sell to you?

Dleap

I have a lease via GM Financial and am hoping to do a lease buyout as my three year lease is up. Most recently, GM Financial will only let me do a lease-end buyout via a certified dealership. During this buyout the dealership wants me to transfer the vehicle to them (through a California Vehicle/Vessel Transfer and Reassignment DMV form) so that they can sell it back to me using the same type of transfer form. Is this normal? How do I have the power to transfer the vehicle to the dealership if I'm the lessee and GM Financial is the lessor? Any help would be super helpful! Thank you!

Michaell

Not 100% certain of what follows, but my best guess ....

I believe that GMF has to run their lease buyouts through a dealer, as GMF isn't qualified / licensed to sell cars, just finance them.

Have you checked with more than one dealer to see if you get consistent information?

Dleap

I have, but a lot of dealers don't want to talk about the finance process unless I'm committing to them or seeing them in person. It's very aggressive from dealership to dealership which makes me nervous about how trustworthy the info is. Thank you though!

Dleap

I guess it just seems strange to transfer to a dealership to then sell immediately back to me, but seems like a fairly normal process? I just don't want to get mislead/scammed overall.

kyfdx

Dleap said:

I guess it just seems strange to transfer to a dealership to then sell immediately back to me, but seems like a fairly normal process? I just don't want to get mislead/scammed overall.

That doesn't seem right, at all. I'll guess the dealership can buy the car from GMF for less than your buyout, and they are pocketing some cash on the deal. I'd go meet in person, and have them explain it to you. If you can figure out their motivation, you might be able to negotiate some of that cash for yourself.