Mr.Gearhead

Hi all,
I was thinking about getting out of my new lease (only 10 month old). I have 29 more months left on my 2006 E350 and wanted to know if anyone has ever ended their lease early? I saw lease trader and other sites but I noticed all the cars on there have really high payments and also want a down payment. Am I missing something? I am thinking of offering cash to the seller to lower the monthly payment for them. Is this crazy? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I found another incredible deal and would like to purchase this car...

THANKS,

Anthony

bm75204

The only way to get out of the lease early and walk is to pay the payoff amount (you'd get this from MB Credit if you leased through them), which is usually higher than the market value. It's often much higher than market value due to inflated lease residuals, so 99% of the time you'll get hosed. I do think the Swapalease.com and Leasetrader.com sites are excellent options to dispose of the car in an inexpensive way, especially if you're payment is reasonable (with or without an incentive you'd provide) and the deal on your replacement car is too good to pass up.

I've used Swapalease to get a couple of cars and it was a very easy process. One guy offered me a check up front for a couple thousand dollars to bring down the effective payment, and the other was such an incredible deal that I didn't even consider negotiating and wanted to get the car before someone else did. Who wouldn't want a loaded BMW X5 3.0 for 13 months at $287/month including tax?

Mr.Gearhead

Good point. I am definately not turning it in to MB. I was thinking of giving $2900 to the new buyer and pay the transfer fees. This would make the month base payment $500. I am alotted 30K more miles within the next 29 months. I think the end of lease terms are 28K to own. How does a lease get transferred in MB? Does this sound like a reasonable deal?

bm75204

At that price I think it'll go quickly. You might even consider a smaller incentive since many people might try to get more out of you. Then again, you can always say no! I'd contact MBCC for details on a transfer, but it should be like my BMWFS experience in that the new lessee has to be fully approved through MBCC to take over the lease. It's the same check as if the person walked into a dealership...credit, income/assets/debt, history, etc. The one important thing to check is if you are 100% unattached to the lease once the transfer takes place. That didn't used to be the case with BMW --- the original lessee used to be the last resort if the new lessee defaulted even after the full transfer --- but it has since changed.

monstaloc

Thanks for this post. I was thinking "how do I get out of this lease" without paying the full amount. I'm going to check it out.