Hey everybody,

I have a 2k2 Max SE on a 4 year lease. Been in it since April 27th. I have recently seen the new G35 Coupe and fell in love. Even love the G35 sedan. Is it possible to trade in an existing lease for a newer model? Could you just start over on a new lease? Probably not between makers (i.e. Nissan to BMW, but since infiniti IS nissan, I'm wondering and hoping...Anybody know?

Thanks
Lloyd

 

Since the lease is a rental contract, usually you can get out of it by paying the number of months left times the monthly payment. Of course it wouldn't make any sense in your case. I hope they didn't blow smoke n mirrors in your face and you knew what you were agreeing too. Usually the lease helps people to afford "more car" than if they bought it, but in the end you have nothing to show for your payments. Yes, usually you can buy the car for the wholesale value (gee, how generous that the leasing co. would sell the car to you for what it's worth after you've paid 36-39 mos).

Numbers are harsh in the lease vs. buy equation--lease a BMW 325xi for $349. Buy a Volvo XC90 for $464/mo., $25,000 down. Many people don't have 25 grand to put down so leasing is the only way to get the car. Now I see 51 month leases starting to appear, man are those credit corp. really trying to get more people on board with leasing. Nobody ever intends on renting their housing indefinitely, it's a shame Madison Ave. is grooming people to the idea of leasing forever, and it's working.

Anyhow, you're better off in being happy with what you have, ie brand-new Maxima.

 

Should'nt you ask your dealer(s) this question?

The only way I would see this working without having to 'buyout' of the lease is if the dealer you want to buy it from is a Nissan/Infiniti dealer. If they are individually operated dealers I would say no.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I want to go to my local Infiniti dealer and find out, but since they are closed on Sunday, I thought I would ask if anybody here knew. I'm hoping that since Infiniti and Nissan are the same company, they may be able to work with me on just starting a new lease with them. I mean hell, they would be getting the Maxima back too. It only has 8000 miles on it. After what I've read, I'm starting to lose hope though. I don't know. I will find out tomorrow I guess.

 

I say, Yes you can. Talk with the Infiniti dealer about trading in the lease of your 2k2. My friend did with his Tacoma when he got his 350Z. The Nissan dealership took the Tacoma, waived all the penalty fees (for turning the lease in early, over mileage, and some other junk). They awarded him a $1,000 bonus to buy the Z that day.

Well, the pressure worked alright. Sold him that Z in less than an hour. Both of them got a good deal. They obviously made quite a pretty penny of my friend, selling a car for $1,000 below MSRP. Remember the invoice is thousands less than that, but then everyone is paying MSRP or over for a car so high in demand.

See what you dealer can pull for you. BTW, you can't really be on the education side of college, MrCollegeGuy. With those kinds of cars you gotta be on the teaching side (with a professor's salary) to afford such things.

 

Kevin,

THANKS FOR THE MESSAGE!!! That's exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to hear! I am confused though about how they were able to work with him since he had a Toyota, as opposoed to a nissan. BUT, since it worked out for him, I'm hoping that it may for me as well. I've been playing with the infiniti website, and it looks like I may be able to get a G35 on another lease for a lesser term for less money too. I might not be able to go with the Premium package, but I would still have leather, which is all I would really need. I'm paying $420 a month after taxes and everything for my Max right now on a 48 month lease, so hopefully they can put me into something better. Oh, by the way, I AM a college student (I'm 23) but I've been blessesd with a really good job. They are paying for my college and everything. (No, I'm not a drug dealer! ) Anyway, thanks again for your post!

Lloyd

 

Quite puzzling. Nissan dealer took somebody elses car in trade. The vehicle, in the above would be the Tacoma, most likely belonging to Toyota Motor Credit Corp. aka Toyota Financial Services. Usually when you trade-in a car you need to produce the title or loan info. And they gave the guy a bonus? Some info is definitely missing! Not to mention they waived Toyota's fees...Nissan must really be in the XMAS spirit!

All kidding aside the lease is an agreement. It must be satisfied and the vehicle returned to the lessor. Lessee cannot apply the vehicle's value towards a new car, it belongs to the lessor. Lease payments are like rent in an apt. scenario--no equity is being built.

 

I understand all of that. But since the lessor is the same company, I'm hoping that they will be willing to work with me. Like I always say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If I can't do it, oh well. At least I tried.

 

I traded my 99 Max in on my 03. The 99 was leased by Chase Bank. The lease has a payoff on it just like a loan. Actually though the dealer has to purchase your vehicle. In Fla. you only pay tax on the payments so you dont save sales tax on the trade difference either. You should be able to call the lessor and get the required amount to pay off to end your lease. Good luck though I will guess your terribly upside down this early. One general rule of leasing is plan to keep the car for the term, I made the mistake of a 5 year lease on my 99. Payment was 319 inc tax. I got out 22 months early and it cost me about 1500....I purchesed the 03.

 

You are right that with leasing you have no car in the end.
However, you DO realize, that with financing you are paying more per month and still might have a downpayment, right? That's the only reason why you have a car in the end, because you paid more over the entire 3 or 5 yrs loan period. The value of your car in the end of that period, is just about the extra money you paid. Not much difference.

 

Exactly. A car is a depreciating asset. Who cares if I dont own the car at the end of the lease? I have invested the money I saved every month for the x amount of years that i had the lease into other things. Leasing works great for me. I like 5 min from work, and dont put a hell of a lot of miles on my car. All the drawbacks that most people bring up with leases don't apply to me, which is why i do it.

 

I know back in the day when it was easy to flip stocks it was almost logical to say let me allow the lessor to make $ off of me because the cash I save every month over a loan can be invested and I can make more than what I pay the lessor in fees. Can you imagine, unfortunately, how that thinking has compounded people's losses if they actually believed that? My friend with the 323i paid cash in late '99, cashing in stocks. He actually thought he was doing the wrong thing back then, but he lucked out. Was he foolish not to lease? Of course not. People are always trying to get the best deal, save 25% on parts, etc., and yet when it comes to a lease $1500, $2500 are thrown away like it's nothing. WTF is an origination fee and security deposit? WTF, if I have good credit, what kind of arrangement makes me put a deposit on a vehicle (rhetorical questions)?

I use my Volvo XC90 example because I looked into it a few weeks ago--if I put 25 grand down, on a 36 month loan I would pay $474/mo. 25 grand is alot of money, enough to make a person wonder should I just buy an Accord outright and forget the $474/mo times 36. What kind of leased car can be had for $474? Quite a nice one.

It's really not quite the same, because we all know there is no "free money" in life. The leasing co. is not "helping" you to afford more car than you really can. They are putting "more car" into your driveway and you are paying for that privelage. The thing that is amazing about leasing and how it differs from renting an apt. is you get none of the benefits of ownership like an apt., but you get all the maintenance and tax liabilities. Now that is amazing! Maybe kids learn to calculate the area of a rectangle in the 3rd grade, but we need to teach them the cons of leasing at that age as well.

 

You went around and talked alot but you did not make any real point or sense.

1) cars are deprecitaing asset. No matter you finance, lease or pay full in cash, your money is slowing going away, just in different ways. Of course if you get a bad deal in either method your money goes away faster.
2) Who said anything about "free money"?? Did I even say leasing is a better deal? Not at all. All I said is that you are misleasing people by claiming leasing is a much worse financial choice compared to finance, which is completely untrue.

Just using a simple example(I am tossing out rough numbers so don't get technical):
You buy a new $25k Maxima, you finance it for 3 years, your monthly loan payment is ~$850. So you pay $850 per month for 36 months, and in the end you have a 3 yrs old Maxima that's paid for.
You lease the very same Maxima for 3 years, with ~$350 monthly payment. Now you just pay $350 per month for 36 months, and in the end you have no car. However you paid $500 less per month for 36 months, that's $18000 of your money if you just put it in a shoe box under your bed, no interest or investing invloved.
Now, will you rather have that 3 yrs old Maxima or $18000 cash? Either is ok right? Thus both methods are pretty much equal, neither is superior to the other.

Anyhow, if you just gonna come back with empty argument, don't bother. If you want to be logical, bring out the numbers, beat my math, then we talk.

 

For reasons unknown you seem to take the facts very, very personally. Maybe you lease yourself, maybe you lost money on the market, who knows. Probably you sell shoes! But anyway, I'll use math, and then common sense. Maybe then you'll get it.

2003 BMW 325xi, it's $349/mo to lease, that's on tv we all know it. With the same amount down, 7% 36-mo loan, the car would be $950 mo. My POINT is that many people cannot even consider $950/mo. for a car. So the alternative is to lease at $349, drive more car than they can afford to BUY, and life goes on. Your shoebox theory, well, I hope you're being sarcastic. Because in the above example that would mean they're stashing away 950-349 = 601 per month into a shoebox. Your hypothetical question of would you rather have 601*36 = 21,636 or a 3 yr old 325xi defies common sense. At the end of the term the lessee has neither. You seem to believe that the difference between a loan payment and a lease payment is savings, again defying common sense.

Technically speaking, the consumer cannot choose how they want to amortize the borrowed money. Many of my friends have mortgages in the 2500/mo ballpark. Our payments right now are almost all to interest because we're just starting out. We cannot choose to flip it around, and apply 2400 to principal and 100 to interest. If we did that, instead of the bank servicing the loan for 30 years, it'd be more like 160. Banks, and yes, believe it or not, leasing cos., are in the business to make heavy paper. As long as the lease appears to be a situation where you can have your cake and eat it too, everybody is happy. Good luck with your shoebox! Mine are size 12 1/2 so I can fit alot of money into it for sure.

 

Just keep in mind, you're going to lose money on this deal. If you've only had the car 8 months, you've taken a big depriciation on the car that hasn't been made up by your payments. Say you paid $24k for the car. A dealer is likely to give you around $17k for a trade in. 8 months into your lease, you probably have a payoff of around $21-$22k (early payments are heavily weighted to interest and not principal, plus you're paying for taxes, title, etc).

So in order to trade it in, you've got a $4-5k negative equity. Either you have to pay that, or the dealer you trade it in to has to pay it. Not to mention, you may also have to pay end of lease fees, check your contract. If you have that cash sitting around and don't mind spending it, go for it. If not, then the dealer can tack that amount onto the cost of your new car. Now figure the G is selling pretty hot right now, with no incentives and dealers asking MSRP. Now take $4k onto that price, you're paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $34-37k for the car.

Personally, I'd hang on to your car. You'll lose a lot of money getting rid of it right now.

Your only other option would be to find someone to assume the lease. That would get you out of it without a loss, but it's usually hard to find someone to do that.

 

You really can't look at the financial benefits of leasing vs buying unless you consider what you intend to do with the car. Leasing is not just a way to get people into more car, it also helps people like myself (who can't go more than 4 years without finding a new car I want) have new cars more fequently without losing money. I figure I'll never own a car more than 4 years, so why would I care about ownership? For people who will keep the car longer, it's a good deal.

This was my project for an Industrial Engineering Economics class I took many years ago, leasing vs buying. I did an analysis of the cost of leasing vs buying not just over the term, but over the ownership length, taking into account any fees at the end or any equity after time. The basic conclusion is, if you plan to keep the car only for the loan period, leasing saves you money. If you plan to keep it slightly longer (i.e. buying the lease and paying for a little while), it's about even. If you plan to keep it a long time, buying is a better option.

 

I think what Frank is saying is.. that at the end of your 4 year lease.. you have $0 and no car.. and now you are going to start paying again on a new car..

where as in buying... you buy it and at the end of 4 years.. hopefully if its not a maxima.. you still have $XXXXX left over.. that you can use to get yourself another car.. thus decreasing the price of the new one..

leasing is like renting.. at the end of it all.. you have nothing.. and will have to start paying again if you want something new..

 

>>> For reasons unknown you seem to take the facts very, very personally. Maybe you lease yourself, maybe you lost money on the market, who knows. Probably you sell shoes! But anyway, I'll use math, and then common sense. Maybe then you'll get it.

I am not taking things personally. I just don't want others to be misled by your false info. I am doing just great in the market if not superb, and I do lease because it is a much smarter financial decision for me, thanks for your concern.


>>> 2003 BMW 325xi, it's $349/mo to lease, that's on tv we all know it. With the same amount down, 7% 36-mo loan, the car would be $950 mo. My POINT is that many people cannot even consider $950/mo. for a car. So the alternative is to lease at $349, drive more car than they can afford to BUY, and life goes on. Your shoebox theory, well, I hope you're being sarcastic. Because in the above example that would mean they're stashing away 950-349 = 601 per month into a shoebox. Your hypothetical question of would you rather have 601*36 = 21,636 or a 3 yr old 325xi defies common sense. At the end of the term the lessee has neither. You seem to believe that the difference between a loan payment and a lease payment is savings, again defying common sense.

You are changing the subject.
You previous posts were trying to say how bad lease is, and the cons of lease. Now you are saying how leasing make people not see what they really can afford, and how people can not put away the money they saved by leasing vs. buying.
Now I do not care how many people can consider $950 a month, and I do not care if the person will just p1ss the $601 per month away or not. That has nothing to do with my point that leasing is not a worse method than financing.
If you want to say that most people are stupid and can't save money and don't know what their financial status is, I agree. But leasing is bad vs. financing, I disagree.



>>> Technically speaking, the consumer cannot choose how they want to amortize the borrowed money. Many of my friends have mortgages in the 2500/mo ballpark. Our payments right now are almost all to interest because we're just starting out. We cannot choose to flip it around, and apply 2400 to principal and 100 to interest. If we did that, instead of the bank servicing the loan for 30 years, it'd be more like 160. Banks, and yes, believe it or not, leasing cos., are in the business to make heavy paper. As long as the lease appears to be a situation where you can have your cake and eat it too, everybody is happy. Good luck with your shoebox! Mine are size 12 1/2 so I can fit alot of money into it for sure.


Again, it has nothing to do with leasing vs. financing.
Of course leasing co is in it to make money, just like financing bank, bank is a bank, a bank does both, did you expect or think banks only make money on leasing not on financing?

 

you will have 0 and no car left after leasing IF you p1ss away all the money, that's the fault of the owner, not the leasig program. you can not say lease is bad because people are stupid.

 

I think everyone understands what Frank is trying to say. The point is that is not what I asked for. I did not ask for an economics lesson on leasing vs buying. The fact of the matter is, for some people, such as myself, it's a viable option, for others like Frank, it's not. That's fine. I don't understand why some people ALWAYS have to jump in and give a lecture on the *EVILS* of leasing everytime the word comes up in a message post. Geez. I asked if I can trade my lease in on a newer car. I didn't ask to be told why I shouldn't have leased a car in the first place. Sheesh...

 

you mis understood me.. i never meant $0 as in no money.. i meant $0 as in you can't sell the car and get money for it..

 

Exactly.

 

I really don't give a ****.. mainly because i am leasing my next car.. i am not here to say leasing is BS and Buying is better.. how could i.. i am leasing my next car..

i was meerly explaining what frank was saying.. to Chad...

 

Then you did not understand my post in the 1st place.
You have no car to sell in end of a lease, but you SHOULD have the money you saved by leasing vs. financing. So it is the same.

 

Just like the good old days.

 

I know what he's trying to say I'm just trying to point out his logic is flawed. It's silly to assume that you should buy just because leasing leaves you with nothing at the end. I mean, I'd rather have nothing after 3 years when I go shopping for a new car than have -$3k in equity.

That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, to the original poster, call the bank and ask for your buyout amount. Then look up the trade in value for your car on kbb.com. Subtract the latter from the former and decide if you are willing to pay that much extra to get the G. There ya go

 

not entirely true..

paying 4 years on a lease is a bit more money than paying 4 years of making payments to car for buying it..

its like this.. and i am sure you already know so why am i explaning.. but for the search function purpose

if i continued on the track of paying the same amount of money for my lease.. lets say 6 years .. and it would take 6 years for me to pay off my car and owning it at the end.. i would have (1) paid more money in the lease and (2) not able to sell the car back after.. because i still don't own it..

so 3 years of lease is more money than 3 years of payments

 

Good lord, take some Paxil or something. I wasn't *Flaming* you as it appears you think...I was really just trying to explain my frustration that *FRANK*, not you, took my original post and warped it into something stupid. I hear doctors are doing wonderful things with blood pressure medicine these days...

 

Both methods are not equal and they're aimed at different categories of consumers. People who purchase, generally intend on keeping the car for longer. People who lease, generally want to trade in for a new model/vehicle on a regular basis and they don't want to hassle with the resale market and future maintenance.

Purchase terms are generally longer than lease terms - 60 or 72 months vs. 36 for leases. I think WoodEar's numbers are flawed for not taking this into account. The numbers are also flawed because it requires a 14% interest rate for the loan but only 1% for the lease. I understand we're making generalizations here but that's just a bit ridiculous so I'm going to try to level the playing field
a bit here while still staying general.

Vehicle value : $25,000
Residual after 36 months : 12,500 (50%)
Down Payment (both cases): 0
Due at signing (both cases) : 0 < good luck finding a deal like this.
Interest rate : 7%

Purchase: ~770/mo - total outlay is about $27,800. Drive the car as much as you want. Maintain the car in whatever way you deem appropriate. Modify the car however you see fit.
At 36 months and 1 day, you own the car.

Lease : ~385/mo - total outlay is about $13,900. Drive the car no more than 10K to 12K miles per year. Maintain it according to the lease terms. You can mod it but you have to demod it when returning it. You need to watch excessive wear or you'll pay for it in the end.
At 36 months and 1 day you own nothing but have the option of buying or giving up the car. If you choose to buy it and it's actually worth 12,500 and you actually did put the $385/mo. in a shoebox under your bed, you can buy the car outright and pocket the extra $1400.

Why doesn't it actually work this way? Well, leases have acquisition fees, buydowns and so forth associated with them.

Still though, we'll forget about that part and keep it all simple. Let's take it out to 72 months:
Buy: You increase risk with longer loans so the rate is now 8%. You pay ~$505 per month for 60 months for a total of ~$31,300.
Lease: You paid the same as above but you had to do it twice and again own nothing but the option to either buy the second car or start a new lease.

If you like a new car every few years and don't want to hassle with reselling a car, uncertain future values and so forth, then leasing is for you. If you plan to keep a car for an extended period of time (say more than 5 or 6 years) then purchasing is quite likely the better option. For the average consumer, the real numbers work more in their favor to purchase by the time you factor in all the fees associated with leasing.

 

thats why i put in that "not a maxima"

because the way how a maxima resale value drops.. owning it is just a waste in the long run.. because it devalues so greatly from 3 to 6 years.. that you are better off getting out of it in 3 ..

why does it feel like i am arguing in this thread for leasing and for buying

 

what you talking about willis..

i am always like this.. i am sure you have read my disclaimer in my signature before..

 

Eh, it's resale value is not good, but after 4 years of leasing my 99 SE, it's actually worth more than my residual.

I chose to just turn it in, I probably could have sold it and made a profit, but it's a pain in the *** to sell a car on the private market. Plus, I had to make arrangements to turn in the car and didn't have a lot of time to sell it. And the real kicker was that you don't just buy it for the residual amount, I would have had to make the bank an offer to buy it. I don't know how much they'd take for it, so I don't know what I'd have to sell it for.

Big pain in the butt, easier to just let the bank have it

 

I was leasing an Accord when I got my Maxima this year. I had about five months left on the Accord lease and the Nissan dealership advanced me $ forthe reaming lease paymetns and finaced it out on my monthly paymetns on the new Maxima. I fullfilled my lease agreement, payed it up and turned it in... got new Max!! I can see this happening if your current Max is like a 99, and you only have a few months left on your lease, but not with a brand new one.

 

Sometimes an item is a "must have" so you just pay a little extra to get it, in your case the 5 mos worth. I think the dude that started this thread said he had 48 mos total and the lease originated in 2002, OUCH!

Sounds like the dude really wants to do it so let's just advise him to do whatever makes him happy. Just don't lease the G35, purchase it. That way if he does get bored with it after 4 mos he really can sell it with just the depreciation costs, no financing penalties. Just tell him what he wants to hear and let's lock this pup!

 

I just called the dealer and pretty much found out that I won't be able to do this until 2-3 years into my lease, unless I want to pay anything, which I don't. I went into this with the intention of doing it unless I had to pay anything. Oh well. I'm not unhappy with my Max or anything. I just wanted to see if I could upgrade. No biggie. Thanks for everyone's comments.

 

100% false.
There is NO WAY you end up paying more in leasing compared to financing to own.


You are correct. If you lease and then finance the residual to own after leasig term, it sure will cost more than financing to own in the 1st place.
However that is defeating the purpose of a lease. If you lease, you should either turn it in(when residual value is greater than market value), or sell for a profit and pay off residual(when residual value is less than market value). You should NEVER finance the residual to own. Thus this does not prove leasing costs more money because you should not lease like that.

 

woody.. you took too long to come back.. i am cold now

 

My number is not flawed.
I did not use 14% APR for the financing, I used 6%. Use a loan calcultor to see for yourself, a $25k car with 8.25% NYS tax, 6% APR at 36 months(not the usual 60 months b/c the leasing term is 36 months so it is easier to compare), the payment is close to $850, with zero down.
The leasing term of 36 months, is also at 6% APR which is a .0025 money factor. It is also zero cap deduction with $350/mo payment for 36 months.

How is that flawed??

 

lol, sorry to leaving ya hangin.
drove to city for errands, mad ****'ing traffic, 3.5 hrs for a 28 miles round trip. the damn tourists should just get the ***** out of the town, dayyyum.

 

IBTL!