Purchasing a leased car

My wife's Lease is up in August, it is a low mileage car with only 24k miles. The only thing I don't like about it is the residual price. It's Mazda lease through Chase, is there negotiating room when purchasing your own lease or is it cut and dry and the price is firm? It will need new tires, it is under KBB, it's right in the middle of KBB.

Check the terms, but it was my understanding that a stated purchase price has to be stated at the inception of the lease.  When you signed, there should have been a line that said "option to purchase for $X after the lease."

I've only ever had one experience with a lease while I was dating a lady who leased a Suby.  The agreement said $198/mo and there was a spot on the agreement that said something like "at lease termination, the lessee has the option to purchase [insert last 8 of the VIN] for a fixed cost of ______________."  As I recall, it was a pretty standard depreciation, but I think they're banking on your going over the mileage.  You'll either pay fees when you surrender it or suck it up and pay their inflated price.

trigun7469 said:

It will need new tires, it is under KBB, it's right in the middle of KBB

Are you on the hook for the fresh tires anyway?  

At the end of the lease, the car will be reviewed and they will add on additional charges for excessive wear.  You may find that you have to turn it in with good tires which means you have to buy tires for it anyway.  

Middle of KBB seems like a safe place to be given that you know the service history and how well the originaal owner took car of the car.  

Your best negotiation for buying the car may be to try to buy the car out early.  

Lets say your making $300 month lease payments.  Lets say the buyout price is $15k.  If you buy the car 4 months early for $15k then that is $300 x 4 = $1,200 that you do not have the pay in  lease payments or what would seem like $1,200 off.  

John Welsh said:

trigun7469 said:

It will need new tires, it is under KBB, it's right in the middle of KBB

Are you on the hook for the fresh tires anyway?  

At the end of the lease, the car will be reviewed and they will add on additional charges for excessive wear.  You may find that you have to turn it in with good tires which means you have to buy tires for it anyway.  

Middle of KBB seems like a safe place to be given that you know the service history and how well the originaal owner took car of the car.  

 

Your best negotiation for buying the car may be to try to buy the car out early.  

Lets say your making $300 month lease payments.  Lets say the buyout price is $15k.  If you buy the car 4 months early for $15k then that is $300 x 4 = $1,200 that you do not have the pay in  lease payments or what would seem like $1,200 off.  

I just finished my mazda lease this past weekend, you're nly on the hook for tires if they don't match and any are below 1/32 tread. They are judged separately from the $1k damage waiver. 

and price is what is is, no negotiation room. AND only you can buy it.. you can't have a friend write a check for it. chase will only accept funds from the person who leased the vehicle. 

I talked to the guy at the dealership where we turned it in and they ended up buying it from mazda for a couple hundred bucks less than what my buyout was with the immediate pruchase option they had when I grounded the car there. 

My purchase option on this car was $11,9xx 

dealership paid $11,7xx 

I drove a 2008 Trailblazer work lease for three years / 75,000 miles.  I contacted company to buy outright and they said I could for $18,000 plus tax - no negotiation on price.  It was sort of driven hard and I took a pass.  It wasn’t a good deal at the time.  

I bought a new base model Honda Accord LX 5-speed for $20,000 out the door instead.  

A lease is normally just a loan for the difference between the selling price and the depreciated end term value (fun fact: you can pay cash all up front for a lease). That deprecated value is what you can buy the car for at the end of the lease. There is normally no negotiation room, but it never hurts to ask. Is your lease thru Mazda or some other loan agency/bank? Some other banks may be willing to negotiate, but you will probably have to contact the bank which owns your lease. The dealership isn’t going to work very hard to help you buy out your lease since they make nothing on it and lose the sale on your replacement vehicle. I would try to use this as negotiation tactic for getting a replacement car at the dealership. 

I've been told that the difference between the residual value and the eventual auction price of an off lease vehicle is insured, so it doesn't matter to the manufacturer what the vehicle actually sells for, hence there's no room to negotiate a lower price than the residual value.

Two things to decide.

Do you want the car ?

Is the residual less than the retail value ?

I did and it was on my ZX2SR

Now we will see on the FiST in a couple years.