End of lease help please

A little background. I did a lease takeover on my PRO two and a half years ago. A guy down in south Jersey was the original leasee and put down 13k on it and payment was $575/mo. Long story short,he made 3 payments and decided it was too much so he listed it on swapalease. Its all legit. Went through toyota financial and the lease is is my name.
Here’s the problem. My last lease payment is 1/28. The residual on it is only 34k. I definitely want to buy it out and have the funds to write the check. Ive been hearing and reading stories lately though about dealers refusing the residual (especially low ones) and then just selling the cars at the crazy prices we are seeing now for maximum profit or tacking 5-10k onto the residual. I checked my truck on vroom two weeks ago and they offered me almost 63k so I can definitely see my local dealer doing this especially since they are not the originating leasor. Has anybody had any experience with this or heard of this???
My solution was to call toyota finacial and extend my current lease 6 months or a year and hope this market blows over by then.
Any thoughts guys??
Thanks in advance

 

I’m sure you can write a check to TFS without having to go through the dealership.

 

Called them on this last week without getting into details. They said i needed to go to a local dealer.

 

I guess I don't know how leases work, but I was under the impression that the buyout price was already built into the contract. I've never leased, but my mother has. I always thought she knew what the purchase price was going to be when she started the lease.

 

leases work by exercising the terms that are defined within the lease. When you reach the end of the defined payment period and the vehicle is due for turn in, what does your lease agreement say are your options? Doesn’t matter what you’ve seen read or heard anywhere else. Your lease agreement is the legal document that holds your answers. I suggest you read it, and if you don’t understand it, take it to someone who can decipher the legal Mumbo jumbo. Sounds like there’s $30k at stake. Know your rights as defined by the lease.

 

Since a lease is essentially financing the estimated depreciation, and lease contracts state it is an estimate, and the contracting dealer has title, they are in the driver seat on this.

 

I leased a 4Runner through south east Toyota financial and when I paid if it I just got a buyout from them then went to local credit union and had them send a check to SETF.

 

This is good advice, I would follow this suggestion. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

 

This is what ive read about and its the exact language in my contract.

 

I would call Toyota Financial and talk to someone different. If they maintain the lease paperwork, they should be able to take care of it. See the post from @Doxiedad

 

Im going to call TFS again this morning and check again on this

 

I have leased several vehicles, including the Tundra that I now own and bought at end of lease. All the lease contracts I have had expressly stated the exact price that I could purchase the vehicle for at end of lease. It was not an estimate.

 

In fact just reading my contract a little right now it states “subject to change without prior notification”

 

To help the OP, is it done by calling the finance company or local dealer? I'm thinking he might be getting the runaround as to where he needs to start if he wants to keep the current truck.

 

I bought my Tundra at end of lease this past fall. The lease was through US Bank. I just sent them a check. I did not deal with a Toyota dealer. The end of lease purchase price was fixed and stated in the contract. I can't imagine it is any different with TFS.

 

Should be in the lease agreement….

 

Finance company.

 

You may have a buyout option before the lease ends. I would check the lease agreement and exercise that if it’s available. Then no dealer shenanigans or “your lease expired when you made the last payment” or other BS.

 

I guess there are multiple different lease contracts then.

for a lease to guarantee what price you’d pay at end is a huge risk for the lessor. depreciation can vary on market conditions and the condition of vehicle. It is hard to guarantee such things.

in current climate I can see why lessors would be trying to take advantage of the inflated prices for used vehicles.

 

the lease terms estimate at the time what they believe depreciation would look like. Then you pay the difference between the sale price and the depreciated price. So you’ve paid for the equity that now exists in your leased vehicle. They cannot steal that from you. But law is law, and if you don’t know the law, they can exploit whatever loopholes that exist in their favor. Know your contract and don’t give them that chance. The lease states you can turn your car in at the end of the lease and owe no money. Even if the vehicle has depreciated more than expected. If it has depreciated less than expected and you turn it in, they owe you nothing. You have to exercise your option to buy as defined within the lease agreement if you want to keep the vehicle and take advantage of the equity in it.

 

Sounds like the OP assumed a lease from another person. Maybe the terms are different in that scenario.

I have leased several times, from different manufacturers. The residual value at the end of lease has been specified in the lease contract. A purchase option for the specified residual value has always been included in the contract. Common to add on a processing fee of a few hundred dollars. Again, just my experience.

 

I did take over somebody else’s lease. Just got off the phone with TFS. Onviuosly a different rep than my first go round. They are processing the buy out paperwork and I will have their bill by next week. As soon as I het it i will do an electronic transfer/payment and end this saga. Thereby ending this thread too. Thanks for all the replies and advice

 

thanks . Learning occurred.

 

One of the reasons you can get killer lease rates on some vehicles, like Jeep’s. They don’t depreciate much, so not much to pay to cover that. Other vehicles with high depreciation will have high payments. Also why mileage is always listed on a lease. Higher miles furthers depreciation. If you go over mileage, you have to pay per mile for the additional depreciation. Your paying to “use” the vehicle for a period of time and covering the just the cost of doing so.