PetrifiedExPat

Hi,

I still need to read my T & C's within my own lease agreement, but, does anyone have any experience of breaking a car lease early? 1 year into a 3 year deal? I would like to buy from the same dealer but any help on what pitfalls to be aware of would be great.

H

BenK91

I believe one of the only ways is transferring the lease to someone else. I believe you'll have to pay a fairly hefty transfer fee and other "admin" fees.

Wouldn't surprise me if the lease was still actually in your name too, so if the person you've transferred to, misses a payment then I guess you'd be responsible.

That's how it looks in the T&C's on my wife's Mini.. I've been debating getting out of it for the last couple months as she's doesn't need a car now but it looks more hassle than it's worth to get out of it.

SpoogleDrummer

My boss recently took over the lease of his friend who died, apparently death isn't an excuse to just be able to hand the car back in and Mazda wanted the man's family to pay the remainder of the payments so my boss ended up paying the transfer fee and taking over the lease.

On the flip side I get emails all the time from the dealership asking if I want to end my lease early and upgrade, but my car is worth more than the buyout price as I've barely used it and there's only 5 months left.

You could always try Swapalease.com or something similar if you're desperate to get rid of it.

BenK91

We also keep getting emails from the dealership seeing if we want to upgrade (we have about 28 months left!).

Haven't bothered to follow it up though as I assume the last thing they're going to do is get us in a better model for a lower payment..

Jack8602

I chopped my lease in this year to finance a new car through the same brand. They gave me an incentive to bring it in early and get a new motor. I had 9 months remaining out of a 36 month lease.

Best bet is go to dealer and see what they say, my initial guess would be that you're gonna have to pay a fair whack to return it in that early.

PetrifiedExPat

Thanks all, I might wait until next year when they send me an offer of a 'great deal', I can then go in and say I want to buy...

scrubbedexpat091

When my grandfather died GM's financing arm at the time tried to pull the same with family paying, my dad and his siblings had no interest in the car, and my grandfather had no assets or estate to speak of so no funds from the estate to pay the lease fees, my dad just drove the car to a GM dealership and left it there with the keys. Never heard anything again from GM.

scrubbedexpat099

Would be a matter for the Executor,a debt to the Estate, no assets well no blood from a stone.