Going to blow past my miles, what are my options?

cflbuyer · March 2018

So,

I did all of my homework and research, negotiated well and love this vehicle.

I'm going to go past my allotted 15k miles per year by at least 10k by my estimate @ .20 = $2000.

Question:
My wife loves the car, If I want to buy the car outright am I locked into buying it at the residual value?

If we do buy the car, should we do it now, or wait until the end of lease (June 2019)?

Any other tips or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

Residual values are rarely negotiable I'm afraid. I won't say "NO" but it's highly unlikely. Basically if the bank or FI were to lower the residual, especially an initially attractive one, it would be like them accepting a loss on the car.

If you were given a high residual, that was to save you money on your payments. By adding so many miles, you may have eroded that initial advantage.

In order to decide whether to buy it or return it and take the mileage hit, you'd have to get an accurate idea of what it is worth as market retail. Perhaps if you got a bid from CARMAX and then added a few thousand profit, that would give you a ballpark retail value--or check Craigslist or a price guide. You need to figure out if you have any equity in the lease, or if you are totally bottoms-up on it. Maybe it could be traded into the dealer, and the overage becomes irrelevant? But some leases don't allow you to do that.

There are a lot of wrinkles to iron out in this situation.

kyfdx · March 2018

cflbuyer said:
So,

I did all of my homework and research, negotiated well and love this vehicle.

I'm going to go past my allotted 15k miles per year by at least 10k by my estimate @ .20 = $2000.

Question:
My wife loves the car, If I want to buy the car outright am I locked into buying it at the residual value?

If we do buy the car, should we do it now, or wait until the end of lease (June 2019)?

Any other tips or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Ride the lease out.. 15 months is a long time.. $55/mo. extra for 20K/yr mileage isn't really a "penalty", it's just the cost of driving a lot. And, when lease end time comes around, you can balance the current value of the Pilot vs. the buyout minus your $2000 extra, and make the best decision at that time.

It's possible that the spread between buyout and value of the Pilot will be less than $2000, and it will make sense to buy it out. The best part about waiting is it costs you nothing extra now. See how much she loves it when it is three years old and has 60K miles. Then, you can make a decision with all the numbers in place.

isellhondas · March 2018

Good advice but how do you know it's a Pilot?

kyfdx · March 2018

isellhondas said:
Good advice but how do you know it's a Pilot?

Look at the tags at the bottom of the original post.

cflbuyer · March 2018

Thank you for your responses!
I just checked and realized there were responses, normally it alerts me.

I am going to wait, excellent point about 3 years and 60k, lol!
Residual amount isn't bad, but just irritated to have bought additional miles and STILL gone over.

Thanks again for your responses.

Michaell · March 2018

cflbuyer said:
Thank you for your responses!
I just checked and realized there were responses, normally it alerts me.

I am going to wait, excellent point about 3 years and 60k, lol!
Residual amount isn't bad, but just irritated to have bought additional miles and STILL gone over.

Thanks again for your responses.

Unfortunately, that is one of the risks of leasing - life circumstances change and the number of miles you drive changes radically. Hang tough and check back with us at the end of the lease.

Going to blow past my miles, what are my options?

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