# Lease Buyout / Trade-in



## minster (Nov 26, 2003)

Looking to trade in my 2010 CC Sport for a smaller car. Parking has become a severe issue and would like to avoid the headache from dings caused by city parking. Can any of the sales people/dealerships explain the process? Will I incur any extra fees or charges due to exiting my lease early? 

Thanks.


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## phantom2010 (Aug 3, 2010)

minster said:


> Looking to trade in my 2010 CC Sport for a smaller car. Parking has become a severe issue and would like to avoid the headache from dings caused by city parking. Can any of the sales people/dealerships explain the process? Will I incur any extra fees or charges due to exiting my lease early?
> 
> Thanks.


Not sure how long you have left on your lease, but your typical options to get out early are:

Pay the remaining payments and turn it in, probably not attractive! 

Talk to your dealer, they can pull your payoff and compare it to what the car is actually worth. Chances are you'll be upside down a bit and owe some money to make up the difference, if they are even willing to take the car back at this point, it's really up to them. 

Another option is posting your lease on sites like swapalease, leasetrader, etc, and have somebody assume your remaining payments. Usually the finance company charges a fee to do this, probably between 300-500. I would think this is your best bet if you can find a willing party, that's the hard part.


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## dubious judas (Sep 23, 2010)

Find out what the lease payoff amount is (vwcredit.com) and the trade-in value of your car (nada.com). If they're close it should be possible. I traded in my leased GTI early for the CC and actually had a little equity.

On a somewhat related note: How legit are lease swapping websites?


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## phantom2010 (Aug 3, 2010)

dubious judas said:


> Find out what the lease payoff amount is (vwcredit.com) and the trade-in value of your car (nada.com). If they're close it should be possible. I traded in my leased GTI early for the CC and actually had a little equity.
> 
> On a somewhat related note: How legit are lease swapping websites?


They are legit....really all they do is hook up the buyer and seller, all the lease swapping paperwork is done by the leasing company, so the website isn't involved at all they just help you find a willing party. I had somebody assume one of my BMW's when I wanted a new one and couldn't trade and I used swapalease and then BMW FS handled the rest of it, cost me $450 to do it which was a far cry less than what the dealer wanted to get me out of the car early.


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## minster (Nov 26, 2003)

So one of the things to look out for in a lease swap is with VW Credit, the liability remains with the original lessee. I'm sure you can work something out contractually with the person that acquires your lease but is one of the factors that is deterring me from a lease swap site. 

I checked with a dealer and the lease buy-out value is very close to what a dealer could offer me on a trade in. Might lose a couple hundred but not much. I just want to know if I do go with this route, will VW Credit charge me any extra fees. Any buyout fee, taxes, etc.?


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## VdubTX (Jul 5, 2003)

minster said:


> So one of the things to look out for in a lease swap is with VW Credit, the liability remains with the original lessee. I'm sure you can work something out contractually with the person that acquires your lease but is one of the factors that is deterring me from a lease swap site.
> 
> I checked with a dealer and the lease buy-out value is very close to what a dealer could offer me on a trade in. Might lose a couple hundred but not much. I just want to know if I do go with this route, will VW Credit charge me any extra fees. Any buyout fee, taxes, etc.?


Have you tried calling them to find out? They are always cordial on the phone whenever I have inquired about ending leases etc.


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## dubious judas (Sep 23, 2010)

minster, any fees _should_ be included in the payoff quote, but I would call VW Credit to make sure.


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## minster (Nov 26, 2003)

yeah i'll just call up vw credit. just being lazy


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## CC U L8TR (Aug 3, 2010)

most likely, they will transfer the remainder of your balance into your next car payment. :thumbdown:


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## crazywayne311 (Jan 29, 2006)

im in the middle of the same thing now lol


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## Punch Dub (Mar 1, 2010)

Get your payoff online from VW Credit. I traded my cc last month without a hitch. No hidden fees, etc. The most important thing to remember is if you have an auto draft to pay VW Credit, be sure to cancel it a week before trading in.


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## FirstCC808 (Apr 1, 2010)

I'm curious about the option of trading in your lease vehicle to purchase a new car. Could someone post a simple formula/calculation on how this works? 

For example (totally guessing here): vw lease buy out value + new car price - equity in lease car = purchase price


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## VdubTX (Jul 5, 2003)

FirstCC808 said:


> I'm curious about the option of trading in your lease vehicle to purchase a new car. Could someone post a simple formula/calculation on how this works?
> 
> For example (totally guessing here): vw lease buy out value + new car price - equity in lease car = purchase price


New Car price
-
Trade in Value
+
Pay off amount on trade
=
Total price + taxes, license and fees.


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## polarizer (Oct 26, 2005)

phantom2010 said:


> Another option is posting your lease on sites like swapalease, leasetrader, etc, and have somebody assume your remaining payments. Usually the finance company charges a fee to do this, probably between 300-500. I would think this is your best bet if you can find a willing party, that's the hard part.


This is a good option if your finance company will allow the lease to be transferred completely. However, VW Credit will not let you off the hook. If you transfer a lease with VW credit, they will still look to you for the payments and your credit will be at risk if the new lessee stops making payments. This works well with BMW and others, not so well with VW:thumbdown:


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## FirstCC808 (Apr 1, 2010)

Using the formula provided, is this how you apply the formula in lease trade in transaction?

New Car: $30k - (trade in: $20k - buy out: $10K) = purchase price of $20k not including fees, taxes, etc.


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## polarizer (Oct 26, 2005)

FirstCC808 said:


> Using the formula provided, is this how you apply the formula in lease trade in transaction?
> 
> New Car: $30k - (trade in: $20k - buy out: $10K) = purchase price of $20k not including fees, taxes, etc.


Looks like your scenario above includes $10K in equity in your leased vehicle 

That would be really surprising, but if that's the case, then you have it right. Usually (but not always) you have negative equity on a leased car (Which is why you often get incentives from the finance company for you to purchase your leased vehicle, rather than turn it in). 

If you are turning it in early, the best way to think of it is that you are really buying out the car from the finance company and then reselling it to the dealer for whatever the dealer is willing to pay you. You will owe the balance of payments, minus the "unearned rent", plus the residual value, plus the disposition fee and other nickel and dime fees. You can find all this out by getting a "Payoff request" from the VW credit web site. 

Dealers will look at the auction value of your car (normally much lower than KBB trade in value) and that's what they will give you for your car. They will then subtract your payoff. Unless you did something crazy like pay a gigantic cap cost reduction (which would make your payoff extremely low), you are going to be looking at a negative number. In other words, add that number (subtract a negative) on to the price of the next car and that's what you'll be paying on when you buy your new car. 

Here's a scenario:

New car: $35K MSRP.

Negotiated price on new car: $32K

Lease Payoff on current car: $18K

Auction value of current car: $13K

Your "Trade in" value: $13K - $18K = (-$5K)

Cost of new car after "trade in": $32K - (- $5k) = $37K

Unless you are very close to your turn in date, it's usually pretty painful to turn in the car early. You might want to investigate other options: 

Try to find a buyer yourself rather than letting the dealer put the screws to you. If you can find a buyer for it used at, say $16K, you'll be ahead of the game. If you are in the last 90 days of your lease, start calling the finance company and ask about incentives. They can range from nothing to $3K! Again, you're better off taking the incentive and buying the car, then reselling it privately. In California, if you resell the car within 10 days, you won't owe any taxes or registration fees. Only the new buyer will have to pay for those. 

Good luck.


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