I leased my car when I got it, but in the near future I plan on buying out my lease outright just to be done with it and keep the car since it's modded. Does anyone here have experience with this? From what I can tell, all I have to do is send a check to my finance company along with the DMV odometer reading form and instructions for who to make the title out too. Is there anything else beyond that? Do i have to worry about smogging it early since I'm buying it out? it's an '03 WRX and it's already registered in my name.

 

I just went through this in December. Did you go through SOA? If so, you have to take the car to the dealer. Technically, you have to sell it to them and buy it back, but it's just on paper. They don't try to charge you mileage or anything. You don't have to worry about smog until it's the normal time for smog. I went back to Green Valley, and while I got ****ed by them not trying hard enough to get me financed, they actually only charged me like $45 for their paperwork. Things will probably go smoother for you.

Edit: I dunno if you are looking to buy out the lease early or not, but it doesn't really save you any money and they may have a pre-payment penalty which would suck. But you can just call the number on your statement to find that out pretty easily. They can't hide any of the lease details from you. Leasing in CA owns, it's way more regulated than straight financing, and if you know what you are doing you can get a screaming deal.

 

it's leased through Chase Automotive Finance. I'm hoping I can just cut a check to Chase and be done with it.

some tool at maita advised that I just wait till the lease is up to buy it out, prolly because they get a cut out of each monthly payment i make. asses.

edit: i just read your edit. i called the # on my statements and they the payoff ammount is $22,500. To pay it through the term of the lease and then buy it at the residual value it would cost me close to 26k.

 

Ah, well, you just need to call them up. I think it's still technically a car sale though, from them to you, and will require the services of a licensed seller. If they want any money to pre-pay, I would wait for it to come up. The dealer already got all the money they may or may not have coming to them for your deal, so you can't screw them by terminating early. You do that by letting them write you at 15% with a huge discount on the car, then coming in with a check the next day before they send it to the bank.

 

Oh, and salesman don't know anything about this. The dealer you decide to go to should have a dedicated lease-end person who deals with this all the time. Nobody will get a commission off of buying out the lease.

 

lol. check out my edit above.

 

Bankers>RussB. Hardcore.

 

?

 

If you can cut them a check outright buy it for sure, if you need to finance, take a look at the interest on that amount over the time you'd be paying the lease.

And have a look at how much you're driving, mileage penalties only come into play if you don't buy it, but they pile on top of the devaluation if you decide to walk away at the end, so that can hurt. (my ex bought her Forester off the lease at its end after I ran it on the Alcan Winter Rally in 2000, and it was a pretty good deal for her)

 

lol. i'm at 40k miles on a 48k mile lease. and i've got 2 and a half years left to go. i'm buying it for sure, just wondering if it has to be inspected or smogged.

 

Wow. I hope the dealer used lube. $22k for a 16k car that you've been making payments on for a year and a half.

 

The old you're-upside-down-by-lots-more-than-you-thought-on-your-trade-in deal. He isn't that bad off actually.

 

meh, i was 4k upsidedown on my trade in. pos RSX. after all is said and done with, it'll total out to paying off that 4k, paying 24.5k for my WRX, and paying 1.5k in learning experiences.