Therealman

Has anyone leased thier new IS in the past and actually bought out thier lease
How was the process any regrets? Or was it worth it?

dstopsie

Buying your car at the end of the lease term is never worth it because you're paying sales tax on that purchase price for a car that's 3 to 4 years old. I lease my cars but I never intend to buy them at the end of the lease. It's just not financially a.sound idea.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

In most states you pay the sales tax on the lease payment.If you buy your lease vehicle,you pay sales tax on the purchase residual amount.Same as buying a used vehicle.
Some states make you pay tax for the cost of the vehicle upfront with a lease.

SW17LS

The process is very easy. The last experience I had with buying one out was way back in 2001 when my Dad's company bought his leased 98 LS for him as a company car. It was as simple as going into the dealership, doing some paperwork, and then getting the car inspected and retagged.

Just recently I traded my 2010 ES out of the lease which was also very easy. Before that I had called LFS to see what my options were and the woman I spoke to on the phone told me I did not even have to go to the dealer anymore if I chose to buy it, they could do everything remotely.

With that said, in general if you are going to buy you should just go ahead and buy the thing from the getgo. It nearly always is more expensive to lease then buy than to just buy it upfront. To me the exceptions for this are:

1. If you lease for business and can write off business use of a vehicle. Sometimes the tax savings are worth it. I have a coworker who leases Mercedes and always gets the lowest residual possible to she has the highest lease payment possible, writes of the high lease payments, buys it out for cheap and flips it. Works for her.

2. If its a model where you are unsure of its resale value or reliability. For instance we leased the Jeep which I typically would not have done fora non-business car because I was unsure of its reliability and with the fluctuating economy and fuel prices I was unsure of its resale-ability.

3. If they offer some sort of huge incentive to lease. This was also the reason we leased the Jeep. They had a $3,000 incentive only if you leased, and the money factor was almost nothing, so that coupled with situation 2 was a no brainer.

Look at leasing as a financial management tool...you have to look at the whole transaction and find out what way to go about financing it that costs you the least.

ThermonMer

Who said no??? Slap yourself. It is simple...

Buying at the end of your lease SHOULD result in a good deal. If it wasnt a good deal, then that would mean the dealership would be losing money if they sold your car CPO. If the dealer is making money selling a car CPO, then in turn, the trade in value from the former lessee must be of lower value. This is the entire basis for setting the CPO market value.

So at the end of your lease, if you were to pass on buying it out, and changed your mind a week later, you would end up paying more to buy it off the lot. Would you not?

Some leases, like Jeeps, for example, do not have good money factors, and therefore are not very profitable in the used arena. other cars, like my 2010 IS, I actually pocketed 2 grand when i opted out of my lexus lease 12 months prematurely. and i didnt even do a trade in. a dealer offered me $28k to buy my car knowing my lexus financial buyout price was $26k. why? because they sold it a month later for $29k with little effort.

my family leases cars for this very reason. we offer each other our trade in values at the end of our leases to abuse the system. you could sell your trade in value on the open market too. hell, my dad just offered me his $9k trade in price for his subaru outback. i passed, and the dealer sold it for probably $15k the following week.

SW17LS

First of all, buying your own leased car does not get you the CPO warranty so you have to factor that in.

Its not that your off lease car is not a good deal, it may be, its that when you compare the cost of leasing the car, then buying the car it is generally more expensive than having just bought the car in the first place.

Also, the dealer that takes the leased car in does not automatically get lease returns back, they get allocated nationwide and sometimes go to auction. Whether its a good deal or not depends.

LOL, what do you think a "trade in" is? You traded the car into the dealer and they paid your lease off. Thats precisely what I did 7 months early and also made $1k.

Did you buy a car from them? If so they hid profit in the purchase, no way they are going to leave only $1k in room on a trade. It costs them that to CPO it, they lost money on that deal and I'm sure made it up on what they sold you.

ThermonMer

no kidding. thats why i wrote "i didnt even trade in". i left the lot with a NYC metrocard and 2k in my pocket.

as for 'CPO', i am just using that as a abbreviated way of saying 3-4 year old used car market. in any event, strip out the CPO costs and there is still profit left on the table. a margin that could be utilized by the lessee upon buying out.

ThermonMer

if the OP's question is: Is it worth it to lease then buy out, as opposed to just buying in the first place, then that is a different story.

i am talking about those that typically lease cars from the get go...and their potential benefit to buy out thereafter.

SW17LS

Calling any used car a CPO would be completely incorrect. CPO is a very specific thing.

Thats what we're talking about.

Timmah

Another benefit of leasing is that God forbid the car was in an accident you do not have to worry about the diminish value. Along with that the LEV(Lease end value) you know of today so in 3 years if car is worth more you will get the difference back whether you go with another Lexus or not. If it is worth less than the LEV you can turn it in and walk away.

LexusSC430

I leased my IS350C in 2009....3 years was up last July. I ended up buying the car. It was quite simple actually. The part about the sales tax, they don't double tax you.

It depends, if you see value in the car keep it. As we all know cars are not good investments. I am lucky enough to have a car with a lot of value in it. You do have to factor in the warranty, which I recently purchases, tired, brakes and all that stuff. I do not plan on keeping the car, but it made sense to buy it out as I like the car and was unsure of what I would even get.

I went online with my bank, filled out the info, went to the bank to sign some things, they sent a check to Lexus and they sent me the title...unfortunately the bank then wanted it haha. Went to DMV, got new plates...easy breezy.

John510

I leased a Chevy truck and ended up buying it. I should have just bought it in the beginning since I ended up paying more for it when leasing and buying.