eli173

On the 15th I went into my local MB dealer, and signed a lease for a 2008 C-class sport. Its on a boat right now, scheduled to arrive on the 28th. I may have lost my job in the mean time. I signed all the lease paperwork and registration paper work. Is there any way to get out of my lease? Thanks

AMGTestDriverNJ

I do think you might want to check swapalease.com and see if somebody would be willing to assume your lease once you receive it. That may be your best bet.

JRAMGV8

Oh man sorry to hear that, I would do what AMGtestdrive said, go to swapalease.com. I hope everything works out for you.

oblu

Signed a lease for a car that you didn't take possession of the day you signed? I'm not sure they can really do that can they? Payments start right away on a lease, so you're paying for use of a car that you don't have.

I'd think, no-car, no-lease no matter what they had you sign. But I'm no expert.

ffejalink

I'll second oblu.

Txhurdle

Technically if the car has a VIN, you can sign the paperwork, but it's unusual to sign a lease (as mentioned earlier that you pay on immediately) in the middle of the month, on a car you aren't going to have for another 2-3 weeks.

In the immortal words of Seinfeld.....good luck with all that.

chilledbenz

Does seem odd to me that you would buy or in this case lease a car sight unseen. I ordered my car and made a special effort to have them put in writing on the deal that it would only be honored if I approved of the car. Heard too many horror stories about things that happen on those boats ha ha. Maybe you will luck out and they will have the paper work on hold until the car arrives and you still have a chance to get out of it.

mac911

Yep first thing is to find out if you are really all locked in, or not. Seems very strange you could have finalized paperwork without the car being there. I mean, you aren't using it yet, so why would the lease have started? If it hasn't started, one would think you could get out of it.

Otherwise, you'd have to try the swaplease thing maybe.

Try to work this out with the dealer though. What is the point of making you take a car that hasn't arrived, if you can't pay for it?

Try to stay clam though. It's tough, but try not to get too sick over it all.

oblu

On a tangent, what does happen in a lease situation where you find yourself no longer being able to afford the lease payment?

That's the one thing I didn't research when I did my lease (my first). Do I turn it back into the leasing company and pay a fee? Do I sell it and pay off the remaining lease balance like I would with a traditional loan? Or do they expect me to be completely stuck and force me to do a voluntary reposession?

I don't see swapalease really being much of an option for most people unless they got a rock bottom rate.

Derspeed

That's odd. My dealership was adamant about finalizing the deal once the car was on their lot, and not a second before. If I backed out, i would have only lost my downpayment because I ordered the car.

webada

I would call the dealer and explain your situation. Its hard to believe you finished all the paperwork without the car on site. You might have just signed an "agreement" something dealer might have you do if they have to order it. Varies from dealer to dealer.

dont be shy to approach your dealership about cancelling, most dealer would be very accommodating and at most charge you some kind of fee/deposits.

Txhurdle

Get someone take over your payments, or voluntary reposession.

You can't sell it, cause it's not yours (it belongs to the lender). And to buy out a lease you would have to pay the residual 'buy it now' price at the end of your lease + all of your remaining monthly payments. That math will never work out in your favor, you will always owe much more than the car is worth.

JamesN.

I don't know the laws behind it, but I'm pretty sure that if you haven't driven the car off the lot, you have not purchased/leased it yet. You may lose whatever deposit you put down, but you're not obligated to take possession of the vehicle.

When I briefly sold cars one of the bull**** games the management used to play was after the contract was signed, they wanted us to encourage the owner to take it up the street while we finished up the paperwork. By driving it off the lot, they now "owned" the car. Do a little research - I'm sure it's documented somewhere online.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.