Buy a Car at the End of Your Lease

October 15th, 2008 by Shenron

Going on test drives are one of the things that car buyers take into consideration before fully making up their minds whether they are purchasing the car or not. Auto lease clients also do the same thing. The only thing different would be the duration of the test drive. Most car dealers allow a certain amount of time or distance when taking a car for a test drive. You can say that people who leased a car before buying it out have done the same thing; only they had a longer duration to try it out.

Before signing to any deals, read carefully the terms and conditions that you are being offered as well as its termination fees and how much it would cost to buy out your lease. Research and educate yourself about everything you need to know before signing any contracts. The price to buy your lease would normally consist of the value it has at the end of the contract and the purchasing fee that typically cost about three hundred to five hundred dollars ($300 to $500). The residual value at the end of the lease can also determine the price for you to buy out you lease. Take for instance a vehicle with an initial price of forty thousand dollars ($40,000), with an residual percentage of fifty percent (50%) the value at the end of the least would cost twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).

After determining the cost to buy out your lease, check out how much would the car cost in the market. Check out online sites like Cars.com, Edmunds.com, or Kelly Blue Book, for more price lists. Researching about the possible value of your car in the market can help you identify more or less how much it still worth. This way, you can compare the prices to help you make a practical decision. It would be rather pointless to buy out your lease when you can buy a brand new car with the same price.

Again, playing your cards right and negotiating with your lease company can help you knock off a few zeros to make it more manageable for your wallets. However, if after several negotiation proposals the cost to buy out your lease still has a higher value than its retail price than opting to purchase a brand new car would be a wiser decision to make.

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