My mother in law picked up an Acura TL three months ago. The headlights have been stolen twice. The first time the bill was $5,000, and she had to pay a $500 deductible plus the difference to rent a car for about three weeks.

The lights were stolen again today.

Anyone have experience breaking a lease? Help. My marriage may depend on this because if she wants to swap with my wife's new Aurora.......

Thanks.

 

There are provisions in the contract to break the lease, but there is normally a stiff penalty. but have no fear there is a way out, if you go to that same dealer and buy another car from them they will normally let you out of the penalties.

So just go to the dealer, tell them what you want, and then trade it in.

That should do it.

 

I looked into this a few years ago when we wanted to trade our mini van for a 968. Basically, we would have had to “buy-out” the lease, which was more than the car was worth at the time we looked into this.

Since then, the leasing company contacted us and gave a s good deal on buying the mini-van, even though there was one year left on the lease. The price was better than that indicated in the “blue book”. They also offered an extended warranty (for a price) that is transferable if I sell the mini-van. Now that we have a child, we snarfed up the deal.

I have also heard of others being contacted by their leasing company, with the leasing company offering great deals on a lease buy-out. There seems to be a trend for leasing companies to offer good deals on their cars so that they are not turned-in at the end of the lease – some leasing companies are really taking a bath due to the glut of used cars on the market.

You may want to contact your leasing company to see if they have a good buy-out deal. You may have to buy it and then turnaround and resell it.

 

I'm talking about walking away from a 3 month old 2002 car. She want to tell them to stick their car.... and then lease an invisible American car.

 

Look at this from the dealership's point of view: if they let you walk, all they have is your 3 months of lease payments. Their new car is now a used car, so they take a 10-15% hit off the sticker price of it. They also lose all the money they were going to make in the right side.

Do you have gap insurance? That's technically insurance fraud, but that's the simplest way out...

 

Try swapalease.com

That way you can pass the lease on to someone else and get out of the financial obligations without any penalties.

 

Getting out of any lease can be ugly. Theres usually early termination fees (stiff), plus any disposition fees above and beyond that. Subaru tried to sneak in a disposition fee on me and I told them I wouldnt accept the car until they wiped it off (it was a long hour in the finance dept but they did - this was on a car I ordered and waited 2 months on, I had all the leverage). Never tried swapalease.com, but Im wondering if the original lender (ie: Honda Motor Finance or whatever it is) still holds you accountable to the car. If so, Id hate someone else driving a car Im responsible for. I dont know much about it though.

Having the car for just three months, best bet as others said is to approach dealer it was leased from and try to work something out. If you dont want to lease from them again, that could be a problem. Even in that scenario though, its not uncommon that they roll some of the debt from the first one into the second car since the lease was broken so early they havent had time to make a profit on the car yet (they are still upside down).

The other alternative is to pay off the lease, buy off the residual from a bank note, then sell it yourself. Chances are however that dollar figure is well above the market value. Buying a car at lease end is rarely beneficial, but I did do it once. Had little under $1000 in equity in it based on the ALG residual number, bought it from the dealer, then sold it back to him 10 minutes later. Transaction was entirely on paper.

Why are the headlights getting stolen?

 

[quote]Originally posted by fpena944:
<strong>Try swapalease.com

That way you can pass the lease on to someone else and get out of the financial obligations without any penalties.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That is cool! I found a '98 Corvette for $450 a month with 30,000 miles and only five months and 16,000+ miles remaining on the lease. Of course, it was already sold. Still, if you found a vehicle that was bought with a huge initial cap reduction, you could get a car for a low monthly payment and a short term/commitment. I think I will keep my eyes on that.

 

what a great webiste, a good idea for all involved, those that need to get out of a lease and those that would like to pick up a car w/ out needing the deposit and all that jazz.

There is an M Coupe on there for 400 a month, for the next 24 month. I want it.

 

[quote]Originally posted by ian:
<strong>There is an M Coupe on there for 400 a month, for the next 24 month. I want it.</strong><hr></blockquote>

OMG, that car is soooo mine! I guess it is time to say goodbye to my 120k mile 15 year old 951! At that price, you could unload the lease again at any time with absolutely no problem!

 

[quote]Originally posted by Steve Lavigne:
<strong>

OMG, that car is soooo mine! I guess it is time to say goodbye to my 120k mile 15 year old 951! At that price, you could unload the lease again at any time with absolutely no problem!</strong><hr></blockquote>

It really is a bargain, not to mention that the M coupe is the most entertaining car I have driven strait from the facotry (well it and the e30 M3). It has lots of power, easy to control, likes to wag its tail, and I just love the quircky looks of it.

 

I love the look of the M coupes and prefer them over the convertible, even in Cali. I am seriously considering this. I will have to look into the licensing and tax costs, as well as what fees may be involved with the leasing companies. I also am not sure if this is legal in all states.

Checkout the M roadster for $450 with 6,000 miles and 12 months and 18,000 miles remaining on the lease. That is tempting!

Maybe the 951 can be turned into a track only &lt;2500 lb semi-tube framed beast!

 

I looked at some of the vette leases as a former Vette owner. They sucked. Yeah the payments are no big deal but the last payment/buyout amount is usually as much almost as you can buy the car alone for on ebay.

 

[quote]Originally posted by Sprewell17:
<strong>I looked at some of the vette leases as a former Vette owner. They sucked. Yeah the payments are no big deal but the last payment/buyout amount is usually as much almost as you can buy the car alone for on ebay.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I wouldn't buy the car, but a low payment SHORT term lease on a great condition car... THAT ROCKS! When the lease ends, find some other poor schmuck who made a HUGE downpayment on a nice car and assume his low payment.

Did anyone notice that I am excited about this?

 

wow Tom, that sounds crazy and really unfortunate

i thought Acura TL's were invisible?! who the hell wants TL headlights? and to think, we all drive 944s.. complete opposite of inivisble.. especially compared to a honda, err acura TL. oh well, good luck with everything!