Convert to a higher-mileage lease?

OK...so I have a bit of a strange question. I understand that getting a higher mileage allowance is cheaper up-front that paying the mileage overage on the back end. But is there anyway to increase the mileage allowance for a current lease?

I'm just 3 months in to a 36 month lease, and the Leaf is getting driven far more than I expected it would. I guessed at most about 10K per year, but it's at 3 months + 1 week and it's already at 3250 miles...it could easily break the 12K / year allowance, especially as we get more comfortable taking it on longer trips. So is there any way to re-negotiate the mileage allowance or anything like that? Or should I just drop my pocket change into a jar labeled "Mileage overage"?

Thanks for any info...

--G

I am not sure what the deal is with your lease but when we asked about it they said our (thought Nissan) overages would be $.15 a mile and if we wanted to go to 15,000 miles a year it would just add that exact same amount spread out up front. So we thought why change it. I am going to guess we will be way over since we are close to 1000 miles in two weeks But unless something major happens I think we will just end up buying it at the end, then the mileage won't matter anyway.

My lease had an option to buy miles for $0.10 a mile up front or $0.15 a mile at the end. You may call and see if it's still too late to buy some miles at the slightly cheaper rate. Let me know if they let you. I've been thinking about trying that myself. I'm not too far over (only 200 miles after 6 months), but it's a bit of a pain to have to worry about it.

Of course, if you do that and then buy the car, you wasted some money. I think you can also get them to waive the mileage overages as a negotiation point to buy/lease a new Leaf, if Nissan comes out with a 150-mile Leaf later.

... I think we will just end up buying it at the end ...

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I think you won't. Agreed that you are in a good climate region for Leaf, but still you will be hard pressed to find anyone that bought their Leaf at the end of the lease. Atleast I haven't heard of anyone who did that, or planning to do that.

If you're at 3250 miles but it took you 3 months and a week to get there, you're right at the 1k/month (12k/year) mileage limit of most leases. So unless you plan on driving the car even more in the coming months, I would not worry about it.

I know I was right at the 1k/month limit for the first few months, but as the novelty of having a new car has worn off, and my willingness to sit at public charging stations has worn off with it, I find I am now only putting 800 miles/month on it. I have had my car since January 2013 and it's only just clicked over 13k. I expect to give this car back to Nissan with just 30k miles in 3 years.

As far as purchasing extra miles at a discounted rate, keep in mind that if you don't use up all the miles, you won't get a refund. So if you don't think you'll go over by a lot, it may be cheaper to just pay the over mileage penalty. Even if you turn in the car with 45k miles at lease end, that's only $1350 in over mileage penalties, vs. $900 if NMAC allows you to buy 9,000 extra miles at 10 cents/mile. But if you turn in the car with 40k miles, the over mileage penalty is only $600. Your break-even point is 42,000 miles at lease end, so you are better off paying the over mileage penalty if you don't exceed this.

RonDawg said:

If you're at 3250 miles but it took you 3 months and a week to get there, you're right at the 1k/month (12k/year) mileage limit of most leases. So unless you plan on driving the car even more in the coming months, I would not worry about it.

...

Your break-even point is 42,000 miles at lease end, so you are better off paying the over mileage penalty if you don't exceed this.

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Thanks for putting this into a perspective I hadn't thought of before. That 3250 miles only had 2 "leisure" trips...so I suspect I will end up being over at the end of the lease but probably not by more than that 6000 miles. So I guess I'll go with the pocket-change-in-a-jar strategy for dealing with the overage. Thanks for the input everyone...

--G

Don't worry about the miles, you can turn the car early and exchange it for a new one too. It can be totaled or it might be worth your while to buy it at lease end (if new cars have greater range, the market value would be below your residual - making the leasing company unwilling to take it back - you can get a substantial discount for you to keep it).

or you can get another car just before mileage exceeds contracted miles.

Worst case, you don't want it and just pay for the excess miles.

braineo said:

Don't worry about the miles, you can turn the car early and exchange it for a new one too.

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How does that work? You'd still have to pay for the months that you don't have the car, right? They just roll it into the next lease or something? Doesn't seem like a great deal...

I was just giving multiple options to think outside the box.

If for example you commute with someone else one day a week, that lowers your commuting mileage 20%.

You might join someone half way and leave the car at a parking lot that would cut your commute by 50%.

You can use Uber and make some money by sharing your car on the way in or out of work.

You might also change jobs and have a shorter commute.

All I'm saying is that the future is not written in stone.

Today could be your last day (if pessimist) or you can win the lottery and quit your work!

I've also been worrying about going over my lease mileage limit.

I have a 2yr lease and purchased an additional 3000 miles/year for $250 to get to 15K/yr. However, one month in and I've driven this fantastic car over 2000 miles. I started to worry less after I read the above comments and when I realized my incremental gas savings per mile exceeds the lease overage charges per mile (my other car is a SUV). I think I will come out ahead at the end as long as I set aside the needed cash flow to pay the end of lease fee. Is there something I'm missing?