Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with carlease

How can I not get screwed (more) on this leased car?

stewiethegreat — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:40:05 -0800

Misleading lease-filter: I'm paying twice as much as I should with 23 months left on a 36 month lease with Volkswagon. Do I have any options to get out or decrease my payment? Last year VW sold us on a 36 month Rabbit lease. I've got crappy credit, and the salesdude convinced me that if my girlfriend (who has tip-top credit) and I shared the lease, my credit would improve and we could refinance the lease after a year for a lower rate.

He crunched the numbers and offered us $400 for both of us, or $200 for just her. We nearly went with just her but he was incredibly persuasive and promised us that if we came back in 12 months, he would get us a better rate. He absolutely knew we had no intention of buying the car- he knows we wanted a different lease once this one was up, because we talked about it a lot. He promised us that we could refi the lease.

Fast-forward 12 months and today the salesjerk said that what he'd said was that we could refinance into a loan for the buy-out price of the car. No refinancing of the lease, not even if my girlfriend took me off the lease. He lied to us, and we're stuck for another 23 months in a lease for a car that we like, but are paying 2x what it is worth.

Do we have any options whatsoever?

I've considered leasetrader, but why would anyone consider trading for our lease since we were so obviously screwed on the payments? Moreover, VW Credit holds the original lease-holder responsible if the person they traded it to stops paying, so we could end up responsible for the payments regardless.

To lease or not to lease ...

Nelsormensch — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:28:33 -0800

Two year lease (new, used or swap) vs. buying a used car with the definite intention of getting rid of it after two years? Swarm of details ahead, apologies for the length. I checked out some previous threads, but most of them were about getting out of a lease.

I moved from the US to Canada about two years ago and I brought my car with me. This car can't be registered in BC for a few silly reasons and it's on its last legs anyway, so my girlfriend and I are looking for something "new." My gf is currently on a learner's permit (recent university grad, transit was more than sufficient previously), so we need a car she can practice and take a road test with. Due a number of bad experiences with classes, she's (understandably) utterly opposed to Young Drivers, et al. In general, we drive very little (maybe 5-6 times/month) with the only major spikes in usage being a weekend to Seattle every few months. She's not very comfortable with a larger vehicle, so we'd be definitely looking for something small. A Mini or SmartCar would be perfect, but they ain't cheap (recommendations on similar, but less expensive cars would also be great).

An auto coop would be perfect for us and we know of at least two in the city. However, BC has a graduated driver's license system and the auto coops require that all drivers have the fully graduated license. So until my gf can get a full Class 5 BC driver's license (about two years), we need something else.

At this point, we're trying to decide if it would be better to lease something for two years or buy a used vehicle and get rid of it after two years. A lease will likely be more expensive, but there's less of a chance of catastrophic failure. You can perform all the due diligence possible, but there's always a chance the transmission could fall out of something used. I imagine the chance of what would be lower on a new-ish lease, plus it should still be under warranty.

We're perfectly amenable to the idea of leasing something used or taking over someone else's lease, but it seems like all the used/swap lease sites I've found are for the US. I saw this one, but the BC offerings were rather unimpressive.

I realize insurance will be high on a new lease vs. a old car, but I can either get the lowest usage class of insurance or just get per diem insurance. If there's a massive difference though, that would be something to consider.

In general, the budget for a used car purchase would be about $5k and about $7.5k over 24 months for a lease. Given how little we drive, it doesn't seem like a good idea to take out an auto loan on something more expensive (either new or new-ish), plus the thought of borrowing money on something that only depreciates in value is a little bothersome. We've both got great credit and solid, relatively lucrative jobs, so an auto loan is possible. But in general, we'd rather pay back our student loans and travel vs. have a fancy car and the loan that goes with it.

I realize this is long and a bit rambly; thanks for getting this far and any insight/opinions/ideas would be much appreciated.

Give me the Dope on Leasing a Car

SlyBevel — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:57:20 -0800

Give me the Dope on Leasing a Car Mrs. SlyBevel and I have been pondering leasing a new Accord. Based on Honda's commercials, we'd save about half of our current monthly payment on a lease (after a down payment at signing, of course). We're in Most Extreme Debt-Paying Challenge mode right now, so this would be a big deal. We understand that at the end of the lease, we will not own the car, so it's a bit of a money pit, and we're ok with that.

Here are the questions:

Any hidden gotchas that we need to pay attention to?

Are leases negotiable? (Can I haggle at the dealership like when I'm buying, or do I just have to take what they offer? Is there a known way of getting a really great deal?)

Is there somewhere I can go online for average lease monthly payments by model? (I don't want quotes from dealers, I just want to see an estimate of what different models lease for.)

Disclaimers:

It's not a question about Hondas. I already know that I like them.

I did search before asking this question, but let me know if AskMe has previous questions that are relevant. (They all seemed to be about buying out lessees, or getting out of a lease early. Or apartments.)

I've already requested some dealer quotes, but I don't want to request quotes for every model that I consider...I'd just like to see a list somewhere of a ballpark of what you'd pay on a new lease on a given model.

We've already evaluated just selling our current car and doing without, and for our purposes here, that's not an option.

We're well within the average lease mileage restrictions (12-15k miles/yr.).

How to "deal" with car salesman?

GIRLesq — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:14:35 -0800

CarFilter: What are the typical hidden fees and pricing scams I should look out for when I buy or lease my next car? I'm considering going to a BMW dealer to buy a new or slightly used 300 series. I'm also considering leasing.

What types of hidden fees and pricing scams do I need to be on the lookout for? What types of things should I try to negotiate as included-at-no-extra-charge?