I drive my Leaf too much!

[CMYK4Life]

Ahhh! I have a 12k a year lease and I havent had the Leaf but 5 months and I am at 8k miles!

What do I do!? I dont want to leave the Leaf sit and drive my wife's ICE.

Is there such as thing as adjusting the terms of your lease?

At this rate I will owe Nissan a ton of money at the end... which will suck.

Anyone wanna swap Leaf's for a few months ? LOL

 

[surfingslovak]

Get another LEAF? Stranger things have happened, and my friends cured the same problem this way.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Take heart, at 15 cents a mile overage it's probably still cheaper than gas. Also cheaper than going over on a Volt lease where the penalty is 25 cents a mile.

One question to ask is whether have you been driving more than usual because you're having fun with the new car, and your mileage will drop as the novelty wears off.

 

[pkulak]

You could also just not worry about it at all and buy the Leaf at the end of two years. That's about where I'm at. I've had mine for a week, and I'm not sure I'll be able to stay under 24,000 miles. If I go too far over, I'll buy it. If my battery is jacked and there's a new Leaf with 200 miles of range, I'll just pay the fine. Live in the now!

 

[pkulak]

Also, if you keep up exactly like this, you'll owe $2160 at the end. You could just "modify" your lease in your head and put $113 in an account every month when you make your lease payment. Then, if you decide to buy, use it as a down payment.

 

[JeremyW]

In the same boat, about four or five months ahead on miles (almost 19k and I'm 14 months in on 12k/year). I figure if the fine's big enough or I modify my car enough or it's scratched up enough ( :? ) I'll just have to keep it.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Also, if you keep up exactly like this, you'll owe $2160 at the end. You could just "modify" your lease in your head and put $113 in an account every month when you make your lease payment. Then, if you decide to buy, use it as a down payment.

When I did the math I came up with 21,600 miles over, which would be a penalty of $3240. Ouch.

 

[smkettner]

Do they ever waive this fee if you roll onto another lease?
Or could the cost get rolled into the next set of payments?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Do they ever waive this fee if you roll onto another lease?
Or could the cost get rolled into the next set of payments?

This is my first time leasing so I don't have any firsthand knowledge but people have told me if you are leasing another car many sins are forgiven (minor dents, that spot on the upholstery) but if you are walking away expect them to beat you up over every little thing. Being 21k miles over may be more than a little thing though.

 

[surfingslovak]

Also, if you keep up exactly like this, you'll owe $2160 at the end. You could just "modify" your lease in your head and put $113 in an account every month when you make your lease payment. Then, if you decide to buy, use it as a down payment.

When I did the math I came up with 21,600 miles over, which would be a penalty of $3240. Ouch.

Keep in mind that the battery replacement cost could be higher than that, if you did not qualify for a free replacement and needed a new one down the road. It's something we still don't have charity on, and where leases, even with overages, could prove to he advantageous.

 

[UBUYGAS]

My Wife and I bought new cars the same week, 4 days apart. 5 months gone by so far, I'm at 5400 miles, she's at 9000!!!!!!! She drives like crazy!!, but we both bought. I bought because I like to mod my car and she bought because she drives a lot.

 

[kubel]

I'm in the same boat as well, way over my 15,000 mile per year quota. Both of my other options are bad.

1) Park the LEAF and drive my Crown Vic. Ouch. Gas isn't cheap. Using the 21,600 mile example above and my gas cars 17MPG, that's 1270 gallons of gas at a cost of about $4500. It's cheaper to just pay the $0.15/mile overage at $3240. Or...

2) Buy out the lease. This was my original plan, but with the residual value being so inflated, no announced price for a replacement battery, and 2013 LEAFs being so cheap- I think buying out would be a mistake. Unless of course I have to eat a $3240 fine...

Ugh, decisions...

 

[RonDawg]

Do they ever waive this fee if you roll onto another lease?
Or could the cost get rolled into the next set of payments?

If it's only slightly over the allotted mileage, you might be able to get the dealer to absorb those costs as part of purchasing/leasing another car from them.

Otherwise, that dealer would have to purchase the Leaf from the lessor at the price the lessor sets. Any negative equity would be rolled into the payments of your new car, but there are limits to how much you can do so, depending on the finance company involved.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Another way to look at it if your residual price is $15k and you have racked up $3k in mileage penalty, in effect that reduces your buyout price to $12k. Starting to sound tempting, particularly if the cars is in good shape and there's any chance of getting a new battery for free before 5 years / 60 k miles is up.

 

[JeremyW]

Another way to look at it if your residual price is $15k and you have racked up $3k in mileage penalty, in effect that reduces your buyout price to $12k. Starting to sound tempting, particularly if the cars is in good shape and there's any chance of getting a new battery for free before 5 years / 60 k miles is up.

So the more I drive the more I save! :lol:

 

[LeftieBiker]

I'm at the other extreme. I got my Leaf May 31st of this year, and now have about 2600 miles on it. I have used it to commute every single work night, but I only work three nights a week, and it's only about 42 miles round trip. Even errands and the occasional short day trip don't seem to rack up many miles. I'm not complaining! OTOH, I've had my EZIP bicycle less than a year, and have about 1200 miles on that. ;-)

 

[Deleted member 9549]

I'm in the same boat, well over my 12k/yr allotment. But I've figured the $0.15/mi penalty is cheaper than driving our 18 mpg ICE so I'm not worried. I'm also assuming that over time the novelty might wear off, or if the battery degrades enough, we might not be able to make some trips we do today. My approach is to use it to the max now and worry about overage later.
My plan it to lease a 2015 or 2016 Leaf if I can get this lease extended. I'll just pay the penalty or I've been told they'd wave an overage, but I'm sure there's a limit.

 

[cwerdna]

Take heart, at 15 cents a mile overage it's probably still cheaper than gas.

Not for me. My other car is a Prius.

I too am thinking I should've opted for 15K miles/year... :/ 12K miles/year seemed like it'd be enough given my commute is ~24 miles round trip every weekday... No, I don't plan to buy mine out at the end.