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

bntobox · November 2020

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)

bntobox · November 2020

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

Michaell · November 2020

bntobox said:
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.

I simply returned my Jetta; like you, I wasn't in need of a car after the lease was up. No equity was realized, and even if I had bought the lease out, I wouldn't have expected any.

Does Infiniti schedule pre-return inspections? Give the bank a call and ask them what the end of lease process is.

If the inspection turns up no issues to address, then don't worry about it.

Take your car to CarMax, or use the on-line sites Vroom or Carvana, to get a buy bid for your car, as is. Compare that to your buyout value, then you'll know if you have equity.

Michaell · November 2020

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

). Inspector came out and said "no problem". I turned the car in a few weeks later and wasn't charged anything.

Michaell · November 2020

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.

bntobox · November 2020

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.

Ahmadski03 · December 2020

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?

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

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