$5000 Customer Discount for Lease Buyout

I got an unexpected but welcome letter in the mail last weekend. Nissan is offering current lessees of MY12 Leafs a $5000 discount if you buy out your lease before January 31st, 2015. Running the numbers, this seems like a great deal to me. I plan to keep the car for a good 10 years, but even if I sell it later, it will probably work out in my favor. Bottom line, I'm buying a 2.75 year old Leaf with 24,000 miles for $13k. I haven't seen used cars around for that price.

Is anyone else here taking advantage of this deal?

Also, it is unusual for a company to put money on the hood of a leased car? Is Nissan losing their shirt in auctioning these cars off for a loss? Although this is good news for me, is this possibly bad news for the EV market? Or am I reading too much into it.

[MOD NOTE: Clarified subject -drees]

Wow $5k off the residual, last week it was $4k and I still passed on it.

At today's gas prices an EV only saves you about $300 or so a year in fuel costs, they've got a lot of old LEAFs to get rid of. I saw my old one sitting in a field behind the dealer today waiting for a truck to pick it up and take it Lord knows where.

I have not seen this letter yet.

$5000 won't even cover the cost of an inevitable and earlier-than-expected battery replacement. If they put $7000 on the hood, I would do it.

Would you be so kind to scan or snap a pic of the letter and make it available online? Mostly I am after the contact information to see if my 2011 Leaf is eligible and for what amount.

I have a pre return vehicle inspection scheduled for this coming Monday and a few more weeks on my lease extension. Depending on how the inspection goes and how much the repairs cost it may actually be worthwhile for me to seriously consider the offer. More off would of course certainly be better especially since I have one of the first Leafs before any of the improvements were added.

Very interesting... if Nissan offered me that at the 2nd of my 2 year/24K mile lease AND I was able to apply for the $2500 CVRP, that might be interesting.

It seems like I'd be in a ambiguous situation due to http://energycenter.org/clean-vehicle-rebate-project/faqs/what-are-applicant-requirements" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I'd be past the 18 months, originally only leased for 2 years (thus originally ineligible for CVRP) but if I purchase... can I start the 18 month clock at purchase time? If no, I wonder if the CVRP policy will change or if they'll make exceptions.

it would be great if you could post the letter after redacting your personal info

they offered me $4,000 off but I never got a letter , 2012

Interesting - I also haven't seen this letter nor received any offer to reduce my residual. Now that I'm on a lease extension perhaps that is why I didn't get the letter.

Of course, $5k won't do it. My 2012 SL residual is over $21k on a 2-year lease that terminates at 30k miles. Even taking $5k off the remaining $16k is still higher than the market price.

Moreover, when I do replace the 2012 it will probably be with an out-of-state 2013. First, I like all the improvements in the 2013s including the faster on-board charger, better designed cargo area, and apparent reduced battery wear among others. Second, Colorado offers a 24% tax credit on purchases of out-of-state used EVs if they were never registered in Colorado, meaning it makes no sense to buy a used EV here unless it is from out-of-state.

Here is a snapshot of the card I received. The original offer was for $4000, but upon calling the dealer, I was informed it was increased to $5000.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngi9mj99oh8x9v2/leaf_offer.jpg?dl=0

As much as I like the improvements made for MY13, I find it hard to shell out that much money on another new car. It especially pains me to hear about cars sitting neglected after the lease has ended. If our goal is to reduce the impact of transportation, throwing out a 3-year-old car is not a good way to do it.

As for battery replacement, I doubt I will need to replace the battery in the next 10 years, unless it fails catastrophically. I rarely drive more than 30 miles in a single day. Even with 40% capacity loss, I can do that in the dead of winter. Besides, if I couldn't I would just have to either take the hybrid or charge during the day. As much as I would love to take a BEV on longer journeys, it still remains somewhat useful to me with a 30 mile range. I figure less than that, I can sell it cheaply to the parent of some high school student. I'd imagine a cheap car that is cheap to maintain/fuel, and which the student cannot up and leave town would be very appealing.

Getoffyourgas--unless I am misunderstanding, I think the offer applies to buying YOUR Leaf out of lease (or extending it), not buying another car. In that case, you aren't shelling out money another "another new car," you are shelling out money and buying your own. It also reduces the number of 3-year old cars sitting on lots that no one wants to buy.

I never intended to buy my own car out of lease, but for $5k I would highly consider it. But it looks like this offer is only good for 2012 models?

GetOffYourGas said:

Here is a snapshot of the card I received. The original offer was for $4000, but upon calling the dealer, I was informed it was increased to $5000.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngi9mj99oh8x9v2/leaf_offer.jpg?dl=0

Click to expand...

Thank you for doing that GetOffYourGas.

So the fine print reads that MY11 and MY13 Leafs are excluded. I can understand excluding MY13 Leafs since they are newer but MY11? Why on earth would they do that?

As far as contact information it seems that one is supposed to contact the dealer about the cash incentive offer. Not really interested in doing that. I wonder if the EV Customer Support Team would know anything about it.

Fine print says offer expires 11/30, after that offer subject to change and may not exist. Also, dealer may take $300 fee on the transaction.

I never got this offer either, but my residual was also over $21k so probably wouldn't have. But if it works for you, end of the year could make for a good deal.

Remember they took the 7500 tax credit from the govt. If they offer that back then I would bite.

So the EV Customer Support Team said to contact NMAC about the incentive and NMAC said to contact a dealer about the incentive. Not surprising at all but I really was hoping for at least a little information directly from either of them about the incentive as opposed to none and to suggest I contact a dealer. I loath dealing with dealers so I may not purse this much farther.

asimba2 said:

Getoffyourgas--unless I am misunderstanding, I think the offer applies to buying YOUR Leaf out of lease (or extending it), not buying another car. In that case, you aren't shelling out money another "another new car," you are shelling out money and buying your own. It also reduces the number of 3-year old cars sitting on lots that no one wants to buy.

I never intended to buy my own car out of lease, but for $5k I would highly consider it. But it looks like this offer is only good for 2012 models?

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Sorry, when I was talking about "shelling out money for another new car" I meant upgrading to a MY15 at the end of my lease. I was always planning on staying in an EV (either a Leaf or otherwise). You are correct, it is talking about buying out my own leased MY12 Leaf.

Spies said:

GetOffYourGas said:

Here is a snapshot of the card I received. The original offer was for $4000, but upon calling the dealer, I was informed it was increased to $5000.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngi9mj99oh8x9v2/leaf_offer.jpg?dl=0

Click to expand...

Thank you for doing that GetOffYourGas.

So the fine print reads that MY11 and MY13 Leafs are excluded. I can understand excluding MY13 Leafs since they are newer but MY11? Why on earth would they do that?

Click to expand...

You're welcome. I thought the same thing about MY11. Your guess is as good as mine.

DNAinaGoodWay said:

Fine print says offer expires 11/30, after that offer subject to change and may not exist. Also, dealer may take $300 fee on the transaction.

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Yup, and I got verbal confirmation that the offer was increased from $4000 to $5000, and extended from 11/30/14 to 1/31/15.

bbrowncods said:

Remember they took the 7500 tax credit from the govt. If they offer that back then I would bite.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how your deal was worked out, but NMAC gave me the full $7500 back in the form of a down payment on the lease. To me, that was a fair deal since I would have only qualified for about $3000 given my tax burden. I know that some dealers are sketchy and try to pocket the $7500 for themselves. I hope that didn't happen to you..

GetOffYourGas said:

You are correct, it is talking about buying out my own leased MY12 Leaf.

Click to expand...

I think I see your dilemma. At $5k, Nissan is basically giving you a free battery. At that point your 2012 model is a 2015 model, at least from a battery perspective. What is your residual value? I bet you couldn't buy a 2015 for even close to your residual, and hence the reason it is probably worth considering.

asimba2 said:

GetOffYourGas said:

You are correct, it is talking about buying out my own leased MY12 Leaf.

Click to expand...

I think I see your dilemma. At $5k, Nissan is basically giving you a free battery. At that point your 2012 model is a 2015 model, at least from a battery perspective. What is your residual value? I bet you couldn't buy a 2015 for even close to your residual, and hence the reason it is probably worth considering.

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My residual is $15,600. But that's after I make another $2,200 worth of lease payments. Alternatively, I can buy the car now for $15,600 + $2,200 - $5,000 = $12,800 + $300 dealer fee.

At this point I have decided to buy the car. I am still hopeful that I will never need to replace the battery. I'll take the savings (versus a MY15) and put it away for a Gen II Leaf or a Model III to replace the hybrid.

I am still curious why Nissan is offering so much cash on a lease buyout. I have never leased before (and probably never will again). But it seems more logical to encourage people buy a new car than buyout / extend their lease. Unless Nissan is sitting on a growing pile of lease returns.

Turned my '12 in a week ago and they said it was going straight to auction, where they probably lost $10k on it, so offering $5k off is still better for them.

DNAinaGoodWay said:

Turned my '12 in a week ago and they said it was going straight to auction, where they probably lost $10k on it, so offering $5k off is still better for them.

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Or go to auction and buy your car for $10K :lol:

My dealer saved me $1K by not being able to "ground" my 2012 before the end of November because the necessary person was on vacation and NMAC was closed on the 30th. Still, it apparently took 4 days of negotiation by my dealer with NMAC to get the original submission of my return changed to be effective in December. The dealer called me today to inform me of the $5K deal. So I zipped right over there this afternoon and got the deal closed. My adjusted payoff amount in December was $17125, so even with the dealer charge of $597 (!) I'm quite satisfied. (They were going to hit me for the $597 even with the $4K deal, so it was really $1K in my pocket.)

I understand that the dealer does need to make some money off this deal, since I guess they don't get anything from the NMAC payoff amount. I see where someone above quoted a $300 dealer charge. That's more in line with what I would have expected. At least NMAC didn't charge me the $300 purchase option fee noted in my lease agreement.