Hi All. Just curious if anyone has dealt with this before and can point me in a good direction. I leased my car on Sept 1 of 2012 and I like the car a lot. I ended up moving and don't really use the car much at all anymore and it basically just sits in the garage for 3 weeks at a time. I called MBFS and see what options I had to get out from the lease and they told me I am only able to basically sell it to a dealer. I was hoping to be able to sell directly to a third party but this doesn't seem like an option. Has anyone experienced getting out of a lease early and if there is any work around? Thanks for any help.

 

Selling it to a third party would definitely be an option as well. It's just that the logistics of it might be a little more involved/cumbersome. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'd have to first pay the car off (per current payoff amount found on MBFS website), wait for the title, update the registration, then sell the car privately.

In most states you'd also be looking at paying sales tax on the purchase and income tax on the sale. So depending on how much your dealer is willing to pay for it, going that route might be a better option as you'd most likely be taking a hit either way.

I sold a leased car back to the dealer previously when I was 6 months into its supposedly 36-mo term because I was given a company vehicle then. Good thing it was not a luxury vehicle and I only had to cut a $3K check to the dealer.....

 

Try leasetrader.com or swapalease.com

I've never used them but heard others have with good results.

 

How much do they usually charge for using their services?

 

You can trade it in at any dealership, it doesn't need to be a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Dealerships--especially luxury dealerships--do these transactions all the time.

You can also sell it privately, but like glayfan said, the logistics are more complicated, especially if you don't have the cash yourself to pay it off first. Trading it in is by far easier but of course the trade value is less.

 

I may go the swap a lease route. Thanks for the help all. Much appreciated.

 

You need to check if MB lets you transfer a lease. The person taking over the lease will have to go through the same approval process from MB as you did. Sometimes manufacturers will let you transfer a lease, but you are still responsible if the new lessee ends up not paying. I researched this a while back, ended up returning the lease 6 months early to the dealer and eating 6 months of payments. The hassle of the transfer was too much for me.