Ways other than swapalease.com to assume a car lease?

January 19, 2010 11:18 AM

If you can't find possibilities on swapalease.com or leasetrader, are there other ways to assume someone's car lease? Contacting leasing companies directly?

I've checked swapalease.com, leasetrader.com, leasetrade.com and craigslist but I can't find enough options in my area. Is it possible to find car leases to assume by another means?

Can I contact leasing companies to see if there are leases I can assume? Looking to assume a lease because I need a short term (36 months or less) lease, and I don't have money for a down payment.

With the current state of the economy, I imagine a lot of people can't pay their leases and are having those cars repossessed. What does the leasing company do with those cars?

Thanks!

posted by wannaknow to Work & Money (1 answer total)

"... What does the leasing company do with those cars? ..."

In the U.S., at present, the leasing company, noticing the utter dearth of used car trade-ins in the last year of collapsed new car marketing, calculates a bigger than ever used vehicle valuation for the formerly leased vehicle, and happily presents the repo to a dealer network starved for late model, low mileage vehicles.

Pre-mature lease repos are all that is keeping some elements of the U.S. auto finance industry above water in these trying times. Have you tried to buy a 2 year old, low mileage vehicle off lease in the last 6 months?

Ain't happening, period. Not just "Ain't happening, like it used to."
posted by paulsc at 6:53 PM on February 19, 2010