End of Lease Strategies?

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I'm still a few months out from my lease end on my 2015, but I'm pretty disappointed so far. I've only talked to my original dealer, and I was offered $9400 on my $10,800 buyout.

The last time I had to buy out a lease on a Suzuki, the price kept going down as the date approached, but I don't know if that will happen this time. When I'm down to 3 weeks out, I'll probably reach out to other dealerships via email to see what they will offer. It sounds like that's the strategy.

Its super frustrating that it looks like offers were several thousand less just 4 months ago, and Nissan is artificially jacking with it. Not that long ago I was saying "Absolutely I will buy this car!" but now I'm looking around at other options. New Focus EVs, Volts, and Bolts look like pretty good values. I wish the Ioniq was available outside California because my 2005 Hyundai was still a great car after 10 years.
 
34 cents/mile would be terrible. You're not accounting for the fact that my buyout is going for future miles being driven. What I paid for my lease versus the miles driven under my lease is the only hard number (18.5 cents/mile). Cost of buyout versus future miles is an educated guess -but It appears to me I'll do well.

My total payment was around $235*56 months = $13,160. I also paid tax on the $7500 rebate = $488. So my per mile cost was $13,648/73,750 miles = 18.5 cents per mile. I've been averaging slightly less than 3 cents per mile in electricity.

Now that I have a new lizard battery I've set it to 80% max charge and I'm no longer experimenting with max range and turtle mode. I'm going to baby this battery and expect to easily get another 73,750 miles. Based on that my future cost for the almost $8k buyout (once all the fees were added in) is 10.8 cents per mile.

At the end of the day this car is just for commuting. Money I don't spend commuting is money I have for family. I need to make it a minimum of 20 miles between home and work (chargers at each end). I know of no cheaper way to do that besides biking - and I'm way too lazy for that. I've always done my own car maintenance from oil changes to engine rebuilds. On this car I do practically nothing - what's not to love about that.
 
torabb said:
34 cents/mile would be terrible. You're not accounting for the fact that my buyout is going for future miles being driven. What I paid for my lease versus the miles driven under my lease is the only hard number (18.5 cents/mile). Cost of buyout versus future miles is an educated guess -but It appears to me I'll do well.

My total payment was around $235*56 months = $13,160. I also paid tax on the $7500 rebate = $488. So my per mile cost was $13,648/73,750 miles = 18.5 cents per mile. I've been averaging slightly less than 3 cents per mile in electricity.

Now that I have a new lizard battery I've set it to 80% max charge and I'm no longer experimenting with max range and turtle mode. I'm going to baby this battery and expect to easily get another 73,750 miles. Based on that my future cost for the almost $8k buyout (once all the fees were added in) is 10.8 cents per mile.

At the end of the day this car is just for commuting. Money I don't spend commuting is money I have for family. I need to make it a minimum of 20 miles between home and work (chargers at each end). I know of no cheaper way to do that besides biking - and I'm way too lazy for that. I've always done my own car maintenance from oil changes to engine rebuilds. On this car I do practically nothing - what's not to love about that.
+1
 
I'm starting to get ready to email a few local dealers to see what deals I can get on buying out my 2015 S model. Residual is $10,400.

Does anyone have a letter they have sent dealers about the same thing they could copy/paste here so I have somewhere to start.
 
It's all about the market price. If the market lists a 2015 for $10,000 they are not going to offer you a buy out much less than that. I was lucky. I approached them when the 2015 was selling for $9000 and my res was $17,500 and they offered me a buyout that would bring the final price, Inc taxes, reg etc to about $9000.. so I got an insanely great discount of $8000 minus a kick back for the dealership. I was probably one of the last to get that.
 
After going back and forth, finally did a lease buy out of my 2015 Leaf S, Quick charger. I don't know that we can go any time and do a buyout otherwise, I would have utilized super offers past year.

Here are the details, Residual Value, $12200, Buy out price $10700 ($1500 discount, on road after all kind of taxes, $12100.

I have a damage to my car which is not visible though but should get fixed (Approx 2.5K, to replace bumber and fender) while lease return. hence I had to go for buy option
 
Its not a good deal when compared to previous year offers and in general also as we can get SL for the same price outside now. Mine is 36K miles, 100% usage of limit. For my situation due to cosmetic damage I had to buy. Anyway I am ok with the car and not ready to getting into another lease terms of 3yrs. I have posted just to provide latest info to the people like me who are thinking to buy.
 
Seems it's still worthwhile to shop around. I contacted close to 10 dealerships. Most of them were adamant that no dealing was going to take place whatsoever. But I found one salesman willing to work with me. Residual was reduced about $1400, and about another $1000 savings from waiving various fees and lower sales tax. Not an earth-shattering deal but certainly better than throwing up my hands and going to the nearest dealer. Total was under $12,200 for 12-bar 2015 SV with LED and QC. And I keep getting value from my Wet Okole seat covers. :) Car serves my needs for now so I can live with that and we'll see how the 2019 shakes out.
 
Having failed utterly to get a local dealership to give me a payoff offer over email or phone (they all want me to "come in" to "talk") I tried the Nissan finance portal, because I also needed my account number to call the Leaf Specialist line to ask about a lease extension. Lo and Behold: they have a Payoff Quote calculator. Put in "Dealer Assisted" as the reason and you get about $1200 off the residual. In my case that's still over $17k, but at least I found out without having to talk to salesvermin. I suggest the rest of you follow suit.

As for lease extensions: I told the woman that I needed to wait for a 2019 60kwh Leaf. her response was 'I'm sorry but we don't have any extensions listed for that reason.' I then asked if she had any listed for ANY reason. She hesitated, and then replied "No." So there might possibly be an extension given if you can guess the correct reason, or there might not. I suggest the next person try "They don't have any of the model Leaf I want/need in stock here" as the reason...
 
LeftieBiker said:
Having failed utterly to get a local dealership to give me a payoff offer over email or phone (they all want me to "come in" to "talk") I tried the Nissan finance portal, because I also needed my account number to call the Leaf Specialist line to ask about a lease extension. Lo and Behold: they have a Payoff Quote calculator. Put in "Dealer Assisted" as the reason and you get about $1200 off the residual. In my case that's still over $17k, but at least I found out without having to talk to salesvermin. I suggest the rest of you follow suit.

As for lease extensions: I told the woman that I needed to wait for a 2019 60kwh Leaf. her response was 'I'm sorry but we don't have any extensions listed for that reason.' I then asked if she had any listed for ANY reason. She hesitated, and then replied "No." So there might possibly be an extension given if you can guess the correct reason, or there might not. I suggest the next person try "They don't have any of the model Leaf I want/need in stock here" as the reason...

Useful info. Did you have to guess about the "dealer assisted" option too, or was that built-in to the calculator?

I was given the same info regarding 2019 as reason for lease extension -- not being offered. They told me an extension would be considered for purchase of 2018 but only if I was already waiting for an order. I.e., to "tide me over until delivery".
 
I just had my lease return inspection done this morning by AIM. The inspector told me the report should be available within few hours, does anyone know how can I retrieve it? Can I download it from Nissan website or will AIM email me a copy? Thanks.
 
Useful info. Did you have to guess about the "dealer assisted" option too, or was that built-in to the calculator?

Nope, the calculator is right on the page, with three options. Dealer Assisted gives you the discounted price, probably based on an averaged portion going to the dealer. The other two give you the full residual, I think.
 
TRW said:
I just had my lease return inspection done this morning by AIM. The inspector told me the report should be available within few hours, does anyone know how can I retrieve it? Can I download it from Nissan website or will AIM email me a copy? Thanks.

hmmm, well that is different. My inspector printed mine out about 10 mins after the inspection was over. Since Nissan is the 3rd party in this process, I am guessing you would have go to the inspector website. He has your email, right? Wait for his link
 
TRW said:
I just had my lease return inspection done this morning by AIM. The inspector told me the report should be available within few hours, does anyone know how can I retrieve it? Can I download it from Nissan website or will AIM email me a copy? Thanks.
I was emailed mine before the inspector left.
 
We bought out our 24K miles, '15 Nissan Leaf S (no qc) at local Nissan dealer yesterday. Purchased the car with loan from NMAC. Happy with car and deal. Here it is:

MSRP- $30,620. Includes $29,010 base price + $850 destination + splash guards, floor mats, cargo mat, and cargo cover.
Lease Payments- $9,504 ($264x36). Includes NMAC/dealer discounts, 7% sales tax, $199 doc. fee, $1.25 tire fee, and $595 acquisition fee.
Buyout Price- $9,194.00 ($11,601.40 Contract Buyout Price less $2,407.40 Nissan Discount).
Purchase Amount- $10,336.58. Includes 7% sales tax and dealer fees ($199 document and $300 purchase).
Total Paid- $19,840.58

Notes- Live in Southern IN, USA with very few BEVS on the road and no state, local, or utility rebates available. We've seen app. 5 Leafs, 5 Volts, 3 BMW i3s, and 4 Teslas total in the last 3 years. In other words, local auction prices for BEVs are likely low in our 250K metro area due to poor consumer demand. I contacted NMAC about the available buyout discount after clueless local monopoly Nissan dealer finance person said no discount is available. NMAC mentioned program that is available to dealers, after I told them that other customers have reported (online) getting such discounts. Contacted local dealer finance person again, maybe a different person this time, and he looked it up on computer and found it. I contacted another Nissan dealer 40 miles away and they were even more clueless, but later got back to me and offered measly $1K discount on contract price. I'm not sure if contacting NMAC was the reason for getting the discount, but persistence does pay off. The discount does vary from month to month and likely by location. Maybe no QC port also lowers resale value and increases discount because it reduces export potential?

Leaf is used for wife's 14 miles RT commute and local "city" driving. We average about 150 MPGe throughout the year, and really appreciate the efficiency and fun to drive nature of the car. It's a great runabout. GOM is 91-98 miles now at full charge, down from 100-106 when new, so maybe 10% loss in battery capacity. It still has 12 bars and battery is now 3.5 years old, as the car was in the dealer showroom for 5 months before we bought it. We hope to keep it 10-20 years.
 
Is it true you can take it 10 days late after the lease expires? I called NMAC and they seem to confirm. Just wanted to make sure this is 100%.
 
I had a real hard time to return my leased 2015 Leaf-S in San Jose, California. 2 of my nearest dealers kept refusing to take back my leased vehicle because they apparently don't have any space left to take the car. They kept saying that Nissan is not taking the cars off their lot - it looked like some kind of turf war. I finally managed to return it in Sunnyvale Nissan (after a small scare). Not a great experience overall.

I did not consider buying off the car mainly because of California's new rules with the white sticker/red sticker.
 
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