Can you get out of a lease early?

[mjbuck]

I own a 2006 Nissan Murano. (Also own a 2007 Titan LE). The Murano is a lease that we've had for 18 monts. We still have 21 month to go. The mileage is only 13,000 at this point, well below the 18,000 miles that is average for a car of this age. So we are ahead of the lease miles by 5,000.

I want to know if anyone has gotten out of a Nissan Lease early. There are a number of reasons for this attempt. We like the Murano, but we have had a drastic change in my wife's job status. It would benefit us greatly to get out from this payment and into something about half as much. We intend to see the dealer this weekend (they are over 200 miles away) and ask about this. I don't want to even bring it up until I find out it is possible.

We would buy another car from them if they allowed us to do this. The Murano is a great vehicle, but there are a few things we are disappointed with. There are a lot of rattles that have developed in the last few months. The paint has numerous specks of rust on it that won't come off, mostly behind the front tires on the doors. I was told by the dealer this is metal flaking from the brakes and it adheres to the paint. It then oxidizes and you get the rust spots. They are small , but my wife really notices them everytime she washes it.

I love my Titan, though. I have had it for 5 months and have only driven it 3,300 miles. There are very few of them in our area (no dealers close by) and I get a lot of looks and questions about it. I didn't buy the truck for the reason, but it is sure nice to hear it looks good. Couldn't be happier.

If anyone has info on the lease question, please respond right away. This info will be helpful when I get to the dealership on Friday.

[ASU Vader]

I use to sell cars many years ago. Although the car business wasn't for me I learned a lot. You can get out of a lease early. Just as you can sell or trade a car in before you pay it off. Leases work out the best if you stay in them for the full term of the lease. The idea is that if you stay under the set miles and finish the term you should break even and pay nothing but just turn the keys back in and walk away. This is why leases don't appeal to some people because at the end you have nothing to show for all the payments you have made. You have the option to buy the car for the set residual price but most people just get a new car. Lease work for people that don't mind car payments and want a new car every few years. The most common lease terms are 2 - 4 years, anything longer than that it's not worth it.

In your situation if your 18 months into a short term (2 or 3) year lease you may be OK. What will happen is the dealer will look at your car and determent the trade in value then factor in the payments you still have left on your lease and the residual price (price the car is worth at the end of the lease).

This is were it can get sticky. If you have a long term lease (4 - 6 years) you are going to be way upside down (you will owe more than the car is worth) and more than likely you wont be able to trade it in or it will be really hard to do. Even on a short term lease you will owe more than it is worth just not as much. Remember a lease is set up so at the end of the lease you own nothing (your even).

Example:

Car sticker price $30,000.00
3 year lease monthly payment $500.00
Residual $15,000.00

3 year lease (36 payments) - 18 payments = 18 payments to go.

18 payments @ $500.00 = $9,000.00

$9,000.00 + Residual $15,000.00 = $24,000.00 (what you owe on the car)

Trade in value $19,000.00

So your filled about $5,000.00

These are just ruff estimations but you can see the numbers of it. The actual lease calculations will be much more accurate and a bit different but this gives you at lease an idea. If this is close to your actual numbers you should be able to trade it in and maybe jump on a good rebate on a lower priced car or even a used car. Most used cars have at lease $4,000.00 built into the price.

Hope this helps and if anyone else has more accurate info please post it. But this is what I remember of it from my time on the lot.

Good luck and be sure to do all the research you can. Don't think of it as them doing you a favor look at it as your the customer and they need to work to get your buy from them

Thanks,
-Trey

[AF-Medic]

What he said.

[SKEET]

Originally Posted by jbglenn

What he said.

I think this fellow is in the know.

[jguns2002]

You can get out of just about anything if you're willing to pay for it. In my experience (sold cars and have helped about 50 people buy/trade them) you will be upside-down significantly. You may be able to trade the car & get a lower payment on a lot lesser of a vehicle, but you'll still take a pretty big hit.

Don't just look at the payment. Remember that you're adding that negative equity to new payment. I've never seen anyone get out of a lease w/out a special program put on by the manufacturers.

3 vehicles ago I had a GMC Jimmy that I leased. I hated the vehicle & wanted to get out of it, but I couldn't 14 months into it. At 16 mos, GM came out w/something they called the "Pull Ahead" program, which basically let you turn in your lease early w/out any penalties. The catch was, you had to buy a new GM vehicle. But still I was able to walk away w/out paying a dime.

I wouldn't waste my time driving 200 miles to just try and trade it.

[SweetRide]

I work at a dealership, and no matter what you do you will be upside down at least 2 grand, thats the lowest I have every seen. One option you can try is try to sell it yourself for what it would take to buy it out, only one problem you have to buy it out to sell it that way our become good friends with a dealership and do whats called and "in and out"; because you or a dealership are the only ones that can buy it out. So if you sell it yourself to some one go thru a dealership pay their doc. fee and its done(typically).

Also on the note that most cars have 4,000 in mark from invoice, the only vehicles that I know of that have that much mark up are domestic vehicles. Alot of foreign cars will only have a grand or two, of course the more expensive car the more mark up it has. You can also go to edmunds.com and get a rough idea of invoice(they are not always accurate).

[Helinut1970]

Its better to stay in it. The money you will spend to get out of it will just be rolled into your next car and just make that payment close to what you are paying now but with a lesser car. Keep it.

[C4RACER]

Some mfg's allow someone else to assume the lease. So if the lease is a good deal, someone else may be willing to take over the balance of the term and you only need to pay a transfer fee. I have done that a couple times. But not so with Nissan. I decided I needed out of my Murano lease and was shocked to learn that Nissan does not offer this option. I am pretty sure I will never lease another Nissan product as a result - I like having the option. I ended up selling it outright and it cost me about $2K out of pocket. I had it for about 6 months and it was a 36mo lease. Oh well - cost me less than if I had bought it up front because then I would have wasted CA tax of 8% on a $35K car in addition to depreciation.

[vilim12]

Maybe you can go to another dealer and workout a plan to have them pay off your lease early, My cousin got out of audi a4 lease into a acura tl lease and acura payed them a check for the remaining balance due on the audi lease, the audi sits in the garage and acura is paying for it, dont know how they managed to get that one to work out tho