What do you pay at the end of a car lease?

[abomgardner417]

I don't have any experience w/ leases other than my dh got one 2 years ago (I did not handle finances then or it wouldn't have happened ).

We have 10 months left on our lease and we will be well under our mileage when it comes time to turn it in. The car is in excellent condition, little wear and tear (right now, who knows in 10 mo!) and we've kept up with the maintenance. My question is can we just drop off the car and walk away or will there be other fees to pay. We will not need or be able to afford another vehicle so we won't be able to roll any fees into a new lease or loan.

Also, what happens if you just turn it in early? Is there anyway to get out of the lease all together if you can prove it's a hardship?
Thanks!

[xmysticprincessx]

all of this should be in the lease paperwork. sometimes there's something like a $250 deposition fee. or sometimes you stop into the dealership (any one of the same company, doesnt have to be the one you boug it from), turn in the keys, fill out some paperwork (basically saying that you're turning it in and that you know you'll be charged if there's anything beyond normal wear and tear). you can call the leasing company and find out.

as for turning the lease in early, you could technically turn it in whenever you want, but you would still owe for the remainder of the payments. you're under a contract, and you agreed to make 36 payments of $xyz a month. you could always call and ask if you could be let out of the lease early for economic hardship, but i highly doubt that they would do that. again, your dh signed a contract.

how about selling the car? call up the leasing company, ask them for the "10 day payoff," as in you want to completely pay off the balance on the car (which includes the remainder of the lease payments, plus the residual on the lease). ask what the residual is too, so that you can just add the residual to the total number of paymetns you have left (in case you get curious how much you "owe" on it between now and when the lease is over). then go somewhere like kbb.com, nada.com, or edmunds.com and get an idea of what the car is worth. (look at private party and trade in values. even though you rate your car as "excellent," compare "good" and "fair." its normally worth somewhere between those 2. no car dealership will ever give "excelletn" condition. when you hear about "fair market value" on trade ins, they're talking about "fair" condition.)

if your car is worth about what you owe on it, then try to sell it on craigslist or somewhere like that. if its worth about what trade in value is, try going to some local car dealerships and see if they will just buy the car from you. it sounds like a low mileage 2 year old car, so definitely something they could sell on their lot. this would be easier than selling it private party, but it all depends on what the car is worth.

what kind of car is it?

[abomgardner417]

It's a 2006 Toyota Tundra. We looked into selling it last year and it was worth less than what we owed :. It's killing us in gas and we'd have to find somebody really dumb to buy it with what it costs to fill it up. I'll have to dig up the paperwork and see what the contract says... if my dh didn't throw it out, which wouldn't surprise me!

[ustasmom]

I think it is all how the contract is written. I've seen some ads on TV where like $14000 was due at the end of the 2 year period.

[abomgardner417]

Well, I found our contract and from what I can tell we shouldn't owe anything as long as we are current when our contract is up. Under disposition fee is says N/A so I will fight that tooth and nail if they try to charge us. Hope it works out that way. Thanks all!