Source
r/askcarsales•
loo321

Drive over lease miles or ground & buy?

US Sale

To cut to the chase, I expect to drive over my allowed mileage about 3-4 months early. No interest in purchasing the lease as it's just about under water with almost a year left to go.

Would you recommend I purchase a car and ground the lease 3-4 months early (once I reach my allowance) or keep driving at $0.25/mile over - expecting about $1k in overage fees? Looking at a new WRX or a 3-4 year old depreciated Accord. Based on the low depreciation of both options going forward, it seems an extra $1k towards either and 4k miles makes more sense than throwing $1k for over mileage on the lease.

Any opinions would be very appreciated!

EDIT: Should mention I lease a G37x at <$350/month, currently under mileage and no damage that would eat into the $500 end of lease allowance. Nissan finance allows transfers and based on prices I've seen online this should be pretty competitive if I want to look at swapping the lease out. Overall though, might not be worth the headache to save ~1$k.

Posted May 16, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC · edited

810
inb4justlooking•

Seriously just stop by the dealer and see if they can buy you out of your lease early. Worse they can say is no.

I do lease buy outs all day and it is easier to manage if you are not over the mileage yet. If you didnt get your lease through the dealer tho that may complicate things. I've ended leases over a year older for people and put them in new leases or financed them into a new car, I'm working on a 10 month early termination on a lease for RAV4 right now.

7
loo321OP•

I'll give it a shot. I leased from large franchise, just have no intention to go into an Infiniti for my first purchase. Nevertheless, worth reaching out now while it's early and I'm still in the clear.

1
pcopley•

I had to terminate a VW lease early because I took a job that turn my 10 mile round trip commute into 85. They're very willing to work with you, especially if it means you'll be leasing or buying something else.

1
RexRaiderSales Manager - Canadian Kia Dealership•

Pay the $1000 and drive the overage. Buying and selling a second car won't save you the $1000. As well, you will then need insurance on both vehicles.

2
loo321OP•

Sorry I should've been more clear - I intend to buy one of those 2 cars after my lease ends regardless and keep them for the foreseeable future. If I were to make the purchase early I'd ground the lease so I'd only pay insurance on the new car.

1
RexRaiderSales Manager - Canadian Kia Dealership•

By not driving or "grounding" the G37 for 3-4 months, that will cost you 4x x$350 a month in payments = $1400. And most leases stipulate that you must have insurance on a car, even if you aren't driving it anymore.

1
loo321OP•

Didn't know about the latter insurance portion that's interesting. In either case I'll be paying the 350 so I wasn't sure if it's cheaper to go at 25c / mile or just pay towards a new car. I guess that's what it ultimately boils down to.

1
IAmTheAppleNew Chevy/Mitsubishi/Subaru Sales•

If you are planing on leasing another Infinity talk to your dealer about a lease pull ahead. I'm not sure if other brands do that or not but with GM we often have a pull ahead that will let you lease another vehicle up to 3 months before your current lease ends without paying any penalty.

2
loo321OP•

I'd love to but unfortunately my annual mileage is about to (almost) double so leasing is out of question. Luckily lease ends in a year and it won't be a terrible hit.

1
classifiednumbersBMW Client Advisor•

According to the training videos that my BMW dealer uses, cars tend to depreciate at $0.50 per mile, so paying $0.25 per mile over for a lease leaves you out ahead of driving more miles if you had purchased and then sold the car.

1