Anyone ever use Leasetrader?

vegasX5 · #1 03-12-2008, 12:14 PM

My girlfriend wants out of her lease because she now has to drive a long commute and doesn't want to go over in her miles. I told her the most reputable site to transfer a lease was Leasetrader, but really that's the only large site like it that I know of. Does anyone here have any experience dealing with the site? The fees are a little high to Leasetrader (around $650 in total it looks like), but it would be worth it as long as the process is smooth.

The car she has looks like it will be priced very competitively, and right now she's way under in miles. It's a 2007 Honda Accord coupe with every option you can get with 20k miles and only 18 months left on the lease and a total allotment of 45k miles. Her payment is only around $320 whereas anything even comparable is around $400 and way over hers in miles and not nearly as clean. I think it should work out to transfer it, but I also encouraged her to look into selling it outwright and just payoff the lease (payoff is less than $20k). Any comments or ideas?

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rickp · #2 03-12-2008, 01:08 PM

My buddy has used swapalease.com for two cars already and has been satisfied.

Thunder22 · #3 03-12-2008, 05:01 PM

swapalease and leasetrader are the 2 best.

BUT, and this is a big BUT.... Does Honda allow the lease to be assigned to a new leasee and your gf to be removed from the lease responsibility? If not, dropping the lase onto someone else might not be a good move for her as she'll still be responsible for it if the new leasee defaults.

B-Line · #4 03-12-2008, 06:08 PM

Your GF is not going to save anything by swapping out her lease.

Based on the scenario you have stated I would instead, encourage her to pre-buy miles Honda. Call Honda and ask how much they charge per mile if you are over at time of turn in. Also ask if you can PRE BUY miles. This usually needs to be done 12 months prior to lease turn in.

Usually, Honda for example, will charge .25 mile for overage. But you can pre-buy at .20 a mile.

but lets just say your GF puts an extra 10,000 miles on the car. At lease turn in, that would be a $2500 penalty. First off, even if you own a car, if you put 10,000 more miles than average on it, when you go to sell it, the buyer is going to price down the car by nearly the same amount, call it $2500. So your still paying for the mileage.

Second, it will cost a lot more money to get out of the car and into a new car. Tax, title, registration fee's, finance fee's, etc.

The number that most car companies charge for overage is not excessive. For the extra wear and tear you put on the car, those .25 mile covers it, there's not really "PROFIT" built into those numbers.
If it is profit, your talking about a few cents a mile. Lets call it .5 cents. So for 10,000 extra miles, they are making $500. That's less than a bank finance fee for a new car.

Now lets just say you can pre-buy miles. Sometimes it's as cheap as .15 a mile to .20 a mile. Now if your over by 10,000 miles now your talking about $1500 (10,000 x .15) to $2000 (10,000 x .20). Which again, is very close in depreciation, what you are going to lose, if you own a car, and put on excessive mileage.)

Point is, if you drive a lot, you pay for it one way or another. The actual cost difference is not significant especially if you calculate the cost and depreciation of buying a new or low mileage car, which will cost you much, much more, than keeping your lease and paying overage or prebuying miles.

B

vegasX5 · #5 03-12-2008, 06:42 PM

Great advice! I have not been able to help her look into much yet as I have been busy with work and she's doing an internship on an opposite side of the country, but I will take both of these points and help her calculate what alternative is better.

She is tired of the car and wants something nicer, which is her main motive for wanting out of lease I think. I'm trying to convince her to keep it, or if she really does get rid of it, to buy something for cash that's inexpensive and realiable at least until she's done with school and can truly afford it. The problem is that I would always let her take the X5, and now she's obsessed with X3's and wants one!

B-Line · #6 03-12-2008, 06:55 PM

I'm going to save you and her a good deal of time and money. You can take my advice or leave it but I can guarantee you 99% I'm right on this.

Unless your GF doesn't mind losing a ton of money. SHe should keep the car she is in till the lease is over. She will not find anyone to take over her lease at a reasonable price and she will lose a ton of money.

I can explain why, but I don't have the energy.. Tell her she is stuck in the car for 18 months and that's that. Unless of course, she has more money than brains.

B

Derek · #7 03-12-2008, 07:41 PM

No way will she come ahead or even in this deal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by B-Line

I'm going to save you and her a good deal of time and money. You can take my advice or leave it but I can guarantee you 99% I'm right on this.

Unless your GF doesn't mind losing a ton of money. SHe should keep the car she is in till the lease is over. She will not find anyone to take over her lease at a reasonable price and she will lose a ton of money.

I can explain why, but I don't have the energy.. Tell her she is stuck in the car for 18 months and that's that. Unless of course, she has more money than brains.

B

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