Early return of leased Honda

Due to his deteriorating eyesight my 89 year old father is having to return
his Honda after 3 years of a 5 year lease.

It has low mileage (18K), but I get the impression he is going to be facing
a pretty hefty amount when he returns the car.

Can someone advise us as to approximately what his cost will be for only
using 3/5 ths of the lease?

What are his options? Can he sell the car? Can the leasing company and/or he
find another party to assume the lease?

As you can see I am a novice when it comes to this leasing "stuff", so any
help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. After all it is difficult
enough for him to have to give up his license after all these years - much
less take it on the chin from the leasing company.

Thank you for your time.

Michael T.

 

I don't have encouraging news, I'm afraid. I was considering leasing a car
once when I read an article about leases. It indicated the typical lease is
usually just about unbreakable - he is probably required to make the
payments as specified no matter what. The article indicated leases are
usually enforced even when the lessee dies. If that is the case, he is
responsible for 5 years lease payments no matter what.

Read the lease contract to see what options there are, but actually
returning the car is probably the least attractive option. I doubt the
leasing company will help you in any way. I'm sure he can't sell the car,
since the leasing company owns it, not him. Perhaps a family member will
take on the car and lease payments for the remaining 2 years - it would be a
bit of a sweetheart deal for them anyway since the car has such low miles on
it now.

Mike

 

Go to the dealership and speak with the sales manager there. He is the
person you need to be asking these questions. Asking us from all over the
world, isn't an efficient method to find the accurate and correct answers.

Brian

 

http://www.leasetrader.com/e/home.asp

 

: Due to his deteriorating eyesight my 89 year old father is having to
return
: his Honda after 3 years of a 5 year lease.
:
: It has low mileage (18K), but I get the impression he is going to be
facing
: a pretty hefty amount when he returns the car.
:
: Can someone advise us as to approximately what his cost will be for only
: using 3/5 ths of the lease?
:
: What are his options? Can he sell the car? Can the leasing company and/or
he
: find another party to assume the lease?
:
: As you can see I am a novice when it comes to this leasing "stuff", so any
: help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. After all it is
difficult
: enough for him to have to give up his license after all these years - much
: less take it on the chin from the leasing company.
:
: Thank you for your time.
:
: Michael T.
:
I can't picture myself signing a five-year lease at age 86, assuming I last
that long!

Paul

 

When you visit the leasing company, ask if you have an option of buying
the car at this point in time. If it turns out to be the best option--buy
the car and try to sell it. You could use the money you make from the sell
of the car to cover any fees related to ending the lease two years too
soon. You might end up with some money if it works out well.

 

actually, he faced a pretty hefty amount when he signed the contract
that got him the car.

The contract said that he agreed to pay $X amount of money, probably in
monthly installments, and that in return he was allowed to drive the car
Y number of miles. He could then return it in good shape to fulfill the
contract. He also had the option of paying $Z amount of money to
fulfill the contract, at which point he did not have to return the car.

The point is, he entered into a contract to pay a finance company some
amount of money. That he doesn't want the car anymore doesn't
invalidate the contract.

READ THE CONTRACT. The contract has all the terms in it. No one here
knows what that contract says. The contract spells it ALL out. If you
are unable to comprehend the contract, I suggest you contact an attorney
to help you.

He has paid some amount of money. He owes the balance of the total.
You can sell the car and give the finance company the amount remaining.
No big deal.

Or, maybe the contract spells out what happens if you want to return the
car early. No one here knows that.

Only the contract will tell that. But keep in mind: it's a financial
contract, with monies and duties owed by both sides. At any time, he
can fulfill the financial end of the contract by paying what the
contract says he owes at this point. There are probably two
calculations: the amount he'd owe if he gave the car back, and the
amount he'd owe if he kept the car. The contract will spell it all out.

Well, he's not "taking it on the chin;" if anything, he invited the
punch when he signed the contract. At this point, there's only a signed
contract to fulfill. It's not about some "big, bad leasing company;"
it's about the agreements he entered into and the fulfillment thereof.

If you don't understand what your options are, consult an attorney.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! RUN FAR AWAY from this advice.

The dealership is a sales instrument. They don't finance cars. They
may have acted as a sales instrument for the lease portion of the car in
addition to the car itself, but they don't handle any of the lease
details.

A car dealership is there to sell cars. It's a one way street. They
move it, forget about it, and move on. No salesman has any interest in
this situation.

 

I was just discussing such a situation with the Honda dealer the other
day - he told me that from what he knew it takes about 3 years on a 4
year lease to break even - that is when the physical depreciation
catches up with the calculated depreciation on which your lease is
calculated - in other words if you sold the car after 3 years you
wouldn't lose too much when you had to square things out with the
leasing company. Of course if he was bamboozled into adding long term
warranties, life insurance, health insurance, upholstery protection
etc. etc. that's another story.

Find out what the buy out is and see if you could sell it for that
amount - I've also heard of people taking over lease payments but I
don't know the intricacies of this. Just be thankful it's a Honda and
not a Taurus or Impala which depreciate a lot in 3 years.

Around here a 3 year old Accord is still getting around $17,000 to
19,000 depending on the mileage and model with the Civics getting
close to that as compared to some American makes going for around
12,000 -13,000 - quite a difference.


Worse case scenario is sell your own car and take over the payments on
the Honda.

Good luck

Robert

 

This is especially true since it is obviousl this person just bought his
last car. Dealerships are willing to end leases early without penalties,
or forgive the extra mileage charge, but only on the condition that the
person leases/buys another car from the dealership in exchange. Even
then, it must be less than 1 year or 10000km. Anything over that, they
won't even consider it.

Cosmin

 

Maybe in your end of the world, my advice wouldn't work, but here it does.

 

What you say may be true where you are, but not here. I'm speaking from
experience, not speculating.

 

In general, he'd have to buy it before he could sell it.

But that's a difficult thing to make work for you, because the leasing
companies always ream you on the purchase price. A dealer is extended
a price at least 10% better, simply because they are in the trade.
What you want to do is find a dealer who will buy the lease and the
car out from you. If it's low miles and in good shape, and you find a
reasonable dealer, you should be able to break even.

Or, if you have another relative who would like the car, you might
make an intra-family deal of some kind, maybe the leasing company
would transfer the lease for some token payment, I've never tried
that.

Good luck.

J.