LindsayLex

I am nearing the end of my car lease. I leased a 2007 LS from Lexus Financial Services.

3 year lease 36,000 miles. My lease expires in one month.

I love my LS and want to keep it. But I don't want to pay retail price $40,000. Anyone know what I should do here? Thanks.

Here's current pricing:

http://www.carsdirect.com/2007/lexus/ls_460

http://www.edmunds.com/used/2007/lex...43/prices.html

miniz

If you love the car, it has never been in an accident, and you have low mileage (under allotment), then depending on the options, it might be worth around $40k. You could try to negotiate the buy out price. Lexus is not know for playing ball on this, as other makes, such as Mercedes are, but its worth a shot. Otherwise, look into A.) Buying another 07 LS or B.) Leasing a newly refreshed 2010 or C.) Getting anything else you want

LindsayLex

I am going to try to negotiate the end of car lease buyout option. I found a great site that gives step by step instructions how to do this.

(www.getyourcarback.com)

How do you know that Lexus does not negotiate? Am I wasting my time?

Have you negotiated the end of lease with Lexus?

Do you have any gems of wisdom to look out for and what to do or not to do?

Anyones help here is appreciated. Thank you in advance...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

for me, i am just speaking from experience. me myself and all people i have, no one has been able to negotiate buyout price with lexus. they simply say buy it at the price on contract, or return the car.

miniz

I have never heard of anyone being successful in negotiations with Lexus Financial, but it might be possible. You would need to negotiate with Lexus directly and not with the dealer, as the dealer would rather you lease another vehicle and they do not have the authority to decide this. Maybe one day, Lexus will realize they need to start negotiating, as they could be making more money by unloading the inventory and no longer have to live with auction prices.
Worst case, is you could try to follow the car to auction and get an auto broker or dealer to purchase it for you. This can be tricky, but sometimes it works and you can normally get a great deal. This assumes that the dealer who 'sold' you the car new, doesn't take the option to purchase the car outright at their lease-end buyout price (which is lower then yours, but above wholesale). Normally dealers only do this, when A.) The car has low mileage, B.) Full service history, C.) No accidents, D.) Needs no work or replacement parts of any type.... and for some dealers E.) Is not a base model and has options

usermel

Not many 2007 LS460's out there for $40,000. The price is going down but, if you like what you already have see if you keeping it is an option sir. If you notice most LS460's are still above what yours is worth now. The other option is to do another lease buddy! May make sense to keep the LS460 you have now and buy it if you want to buy a car now instead of leasing because you know that cars history(good/bad). Either way you cant go wrong if your happy with your decision!!! L.G.N.M

LindsayLex

Thank you all for your advice. I have taken about 3 hours to study your advice and the all the advice I found online. That is why I love the internet. I tried to talk to Lexus on the phone today and I was referred back to the dealership. I am heading over there now. Armed with all the information that you and others have taken the time to give me. I will let you know what happens. I must say that GetYourCarBack.com offers a lot of great information. Now it is showtime to see if it works. Wish me luck!

AceVA

The best way is to get an independent dealer to follow the car to auction, pick it up for you and pay a small fee. Naturally, you run the risk of not actually getting the vehicle, but that's a rarity if you follow it to auction.

Chances are your dealer isn't going to do anything for you that's in your favor. There's no incentive for them to do so.

That said, $40k for an LS460 that you've driven since new, know the history and know to be problem free -- a pretty great deal to me!

LindsayLex

No luck with negotiating with Lexus or the dealership. They dug into the residual buyout price. As I said in my previous post I am not willing to make an emotional decision here. If it were 2006 and the economy was great then maybe I would let go and given them some of my hard earned money. Not today. I just hired Get Your Car Back to help me negotiate the end of my lease. If they can not do that then I will have them buy my car back at auction. Not a bad deal. considering, they represent me ending my lease ( I do not have to deal with this) and they put a proper value on my car. If the end of lease negotiation process does not work out the monies I spent hiring them at the the end of my lease will be applied to have them represent me at auction. I will let you know what happens in 2-3 weeks.

miniz

Let us know how this company works. I have never heard of them. I would like to know how much they charge and what happens if they get outbid at the auction (should the car get that far) or what happens if the dealer decides to purchase the car at their buyout price.

AceVA

Perhaps Lexus has a different arrangement with their dealers, but as the case is with most manufacturers, if the dealer wants the car, they go to auction just like everyone else - that's typically part of the franchise agreement to keep things even for all dealerships.

The customer turns in the car and it will generally sit until the manufacturer has someone pick it up and take it to auction.

LindsayLex

End of Car Lease Representation costs $400.00 and if that does not work then they will apply $200 of that fee to the $1,000 it costs for Auction Representation.

Total all in cost is about $1,200.

What I found out about Auction Representation is if the price of the car goes above a preset and predetermined limit by me and GetYourCarBack.com, I can use them to buy another car at auction. Not exactly what I want but it is a good back up plan. I will let you know what happens.

In response to the below post.

Perhaps Lexus has a different arrangement with their dealers, but as the case is with most manufacturers, if the dealer wants the car, they go to auction just like everyone else - that's typically part of the franchise agreement to keep things even for all dealerships. The customer turns in the car and it will generally sit until the manufacturer has someone pick it up and take it to auction.

My response.

I asked Debbie Steinberg from GetYourCarBack.com what would happen if the dealer decides to buy it and I was told that the dealers are not buying many end of lease cars right now and the dealer buyout price is higher then the buyout price the customer gets at the end of the lease.

It seems like a very confusing situation for all parties involved. I was told by my dealer that they do not have to help me. I should go to another dealership. I am a bit confused right now.

miniz

So, you are paying them $1200 to get A (may not even be yours) car for you. That doesn't make much sense to me. You should just buy the car at your buy out price and be done. It sounds like getyourcarback is making $400+/hour.

jstjohnz

I don't think it's such a bad deal to be able to buy a car for $1,200 over the auction price. Now there's some unanswered questions here. Like if they don't find a vehicle that you want for the price you want to pay at the first auction, do they keep going to auctions until they get your vehicle?

Do they give you a list of recent auction sales of LS460s so you can see what they are typically going for?

LindsayLex

I spoke with Debbie at Get Your Car Back and she said that I will bid on my car at a dealer only auction. The car will go for wholesale value. She said she can not control other peoples bids on my car. She said that cars usually go for what they are worth do to the fact that dealers do not want to lose money. That said there is a chance that I am not the highest bidder. She said that if this happens, I can bid on any car I want at auction till I get the car I want at wholesale price. In the end I will end up with my car hopefully but if not I can get another at the auction. I am happy with that. My concern right now is protecting my cashflow. The meltdown in real estate hit me and I need to cut back. I have thought about this and I think it is a good deal considering I went to my dealership and they initially said no way then they said they wanted 1,500 to go to the auction for me. For $1,200 I get some that is going to try to solve my problems before auction ($400) but if it goes to auction then I will have to pay 800 more. A total of 1,200 to bid on my car at auction. Knowing my cars history is worth over a couple of thousand of dollars to me.