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Old 08-17-2017, 11:01 PM   #1
WRXrB
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Default Leasing a Subaru question...

So to preface this, I’m currently half way through a 3 yr lease on a 2016 subaru WRX CVT with pretty much every Factory add on to be had include eyesight, upgraded stereo, yadda yadda ya...

I never really considered the MT versions for some reason. However, after driving around in my friends Miata RF MT and his Mazda Speed 3, it got me thinking about considering moving over to the master race of Manual Transmission subies just because of how much more engaging it is and how I feel more in control of what the engine and car is doing...

So here comes my question: has anyone had experience with swapping over a lease mid lease with the same dealer? Do they consider cutting you any sort of deals for returning?(I know this is more subjective but I’m just trying to get a feel for it). Im really thinking of just asking to test drive them next time I’m in the area to really verify that’s the route I want to go, but just want to arm myself with any knowledge before even asking to test drive..

In the end, I may very well go on with my lease and figure out what to do when it closes out... perhaps STI afterwards? Lol, But I’d like to hear from you guys and if anyone has had any experience with terminating a lease or closing one to open a new one before the end date...

Thanks in advanced for your insight.
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Old 08-18-2017, 06:19 AM   #2
JRowland
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Read your contract, probably twice since legalese is difficult to understand. A dealer is going to tell you it's no problem because they want to sell cars (and take in low mileage trades). You will be penalized unless Subaru sends you an early termination offer in the mail. The higher than average resale vales for these cars may let them buy out your lease and write another for the same monthly payment. Just make sure to understand your obligation and maybe study how leases work so you aren't fleeced by the dealer. I've never done a lease on a Subaru (either as an F&I manager or consumer) but I'd imagine that most of them that go to term have an equity situation, meaning the vehicle is worth more than the agreed upon residual. You can call the financial institution and get a 10 day payoff at anytime. That will give you an idea of exactly what you're responsible for before you let a dealer muddy the waters.
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Old 08-18-2017, 06:49 AM   #3
rtv900
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WRXrB View Post
it got me thinking about considering moving over to the master race of Manual Transmission subies just because of how much more engaging it is and how I feel more in control of what the engine and car is doing...
Master race. . . . .good description.

as for the lease, a dealer will make anything "work," it just depends how much money you are willing to throw at it, period.

You could swap a lease every 3 months if you really wanted to.
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Old 08-18-2017, 08:17 AM   #4
ZacT
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The magical land of lease termination... We actually just went through this to get my girlfriend into a BRZ. It was far from simple. While not through Subaru (she had leased a Prius C from Toyota, prior to discovering her love for speed, handling, happiness, etc.) the process may transfer over, so I will share what we did, and if it help, then great!

From the beginning we negotiated a killer lease, 0 down, and $250 a month for 36 months. The cap cost was negotiated down to something like $21k (from 23 and change) and the end of lease buyout worked out to be about $12k. This was great at the time, as she was basically paying for the depreciation and not much more, it was something like 3-4 bucks a month that weren't paying for the depreciation. This was a good lease, she knew that at the end it likely wouldn't be worth the 12k and by then she would have paid 9k to depreciate the car more like 11-12k, then stick Toyota with the car.

12ish months later she wanted out. She was a bit over her rationed miles as we used the Prius a bunch while I was waiting for my WRX (this would have evened out had she stayed with the car for the duration of the lease).

She started with the Toyota Dealer. They were happy to let her out early, all she had to do was make all remaining payments, plus a 200 dollar early termination charge, drop it off and be on with her life ($6200). Literally the worst option ever... at that we could have parked the thing and simply used it to keep miles off of her next car... not a good choice.

From there she looked at buying it out (finding someone to). Called to get the 10 day buyout. It was in the ballpark of 17-18k (Basically it was cap cost - monthly payment*months leased). She was way upside down as the best she could realistically get in a private sale was around 14, 15 if she was really lucky. So while it was better than turning it in it still was going to cost her 3-4k. Seemed unlikely.
This seems like a likely situation to be in with a lease. If you are leasing with the intention of dumping the car at the end, your goal is basically to be as upside down as possible. This makes selling it mid-lease nearly impossible.

The last thing we looked at was swapping it. Her lease specifically mentioned it was allowed, something we made sure of when we leased it, just in case. However, it wasn't exactly simple. The dealer had nothing to do with swapping, for that you dealt with the big guys at Toyota Corporate, fun...

There were a few sites the tried to match people up with a swap, they were sketchy, basically they wanted you to rent out your lease, but keep it in your name, on your credit report, but with someone else driving it every day. They promised if it was in an accident or over miles at the end or whatever, that they would hold the other guy accountable, and that legally he would be, this didn't seem like fun, even if they were legally obligated to pay, it could end up becoming a court case. What's legally yours is only your if you are willing to fight for it, at least it feels that way a lot these days. Other sites charged some fee to post your swap.

She plastered the thing up everywhere she could, surely someone would want this thing, it got 60mpg when she drove it to work, and at 250 a month, plus peanuts for insurance it was a great A-B car for the kind of person who want just that.
Facebook, Craigslist, The Local Paper, Toyota Groups, everywhere she could think of she posted it. Got tons of replies, mostly from people with terrible credit, people who wanted to BUY it for 250..., all sorts of ridiculousness.

Then along came the right guy, solid credit, wanted the car.

Then began the process... and PROCESS is the right word... All communication with Toyota had to happen through US Mail... no phone calls, no fax, no email. It was basically 4 rounds of forms, which in order to finish in a timely manner meant 4 meet ups with the swapper, as original forms had to be mailed back, both signatures were required on the forms, and mailing them back and forth before returning to Toyota would take time. After all that, 200 bucks is the cost to make the swap and then its up to you to transfer the car over to the other person (just meet up and hand them the keys, take your paper out, have them put theirs in).

Toyota made it a pain in the butt. They could approve or disapprove the swap for whatever reason, or renegotiate the price with the new guy (which would have meant even more back and forth in the mail). Basically it boils down to this, they have you on the hook for the payment each month, they have no incentive to swap to the new guy, it's work for them, with no real benefit. We discovered they weren't going to accept anyone unless they had a credit score that matched or was better than her score, this way the gain for Toyota is less risk. That is the key. Though this was tricky as we discovered that the demographic that saw a lease on FB or CL for 250 month and bit, often wasn't a group of people with good credit, she did a lot of filtering.

All in all it was a pain, but now she is in the BRZ and life is good, and it didn't cost 6 grand... just a bunch of hustling, and a bunch of time. She was lucky in that we had other means of transportation during the awkward paperwork phase, so she wasn't left to get the BRZ the day she got rid of the Prius (she actually chose to just have both for a bit as she learned to drive stick).

If your experience is anything like ours, a swap is the answer, so figure out the demographic that would assume your lease, then find the subsection of that demographic that has better credit than you, advertise to them, then buy a roll of stamps.

Your case may be different in that it is WRX-WRX but it may also be the same deal where the dealer really doesn't own/be in control of the lease the way they appear to.

Happy to answer any specific questions if you have them.
~Zac
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Old 08-18-2017, 12:31 PM   #5
WRXrB
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Hey Zac,

I can totally see that process unfolding. On one side I’m glad I went with the lease being as I can try it out and yes it ends up costing slightly more, but I can make sure it’s something I want to keep. Otherwise just enjoy it, when it ends, move on to something better. That sounds like a ton of hoops to jump through none the less. I luckily held my ground pretty good in the initial negotiations and dropped $5k down on starting the lease. I will need to check with the leasing institution, Chase, for an official buyout cost to determine where I truly stand. Excellent information all around, thank you!
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Old 08-18-2017, 12:33 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by rtv900 View Post
Master race. . . . .good description.



as for the lease, a dealer will make anything "work," it just depends how much money you are willing to throw at it, period.



You could swap a lease every 3 months if you really wanted to.


Yea, probably a lil hint at my background

And I understand there’s the flexibility, just wondering how Subaru hands those sort of swaps... I’m actually looking outside of the subie realm as well, just to really get an idea of what’s best... though the AWD and turbo is an awesome combo for sure
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Old 08-18-2017, 12:39 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by JRowland View Post
Read your contract, probably twice since legalese is difficult to understand. A dealer is going to tell you it's no problem because they want to sell cars (and take in low mileage trades). You will be penalized unless Subaru sends you an early termination offer in the mail. The higher than average resale vales for these cars may let them buy out your lease and write another for the same monthly payment. Just make sure to understand your obligation and maybe study how leases work so you aren't fleeced by the dealer. I've never done a lease on a Subaru (either as an F&I manager or consumer) but I'd imagine that most of them that go to term have an equity situation, meaning the vehicle is worth more than the agreed upon residual. You can call the financial institution and get a 10 day payoff at anytime. That will give you an idea of exactly what you're responsible for before you let a dealer muddy the waters.


That’s what I’m hoping for. Definitely will call Chase today to find out the current cost to buy it out before talking at all to any dealer.
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Old 08-18-2017, 03:14 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WRXrB View Post
That’s what I’m hoping for. Definitely will call Chase today to find out the current cost to buy it out before talking at all to any dealer.
If you give me your miles I'll pull an MMR (Manheim Market Report) on your car. I just looked at another guys 2016 Premium and it was a $25,000 piece if I recall correctly. Your factory adds should be worth a little more. The 15's are starting to show up at auction more now but there isn't a ton of 16's or 17's. Rental companies don't buy these so most of them are off lease 15's or people such as yourself who trade out early.

ETA: I just looked for the post and it was

Wholesale value is $22,000 with 27k miles.

This was a premium not limited.
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Old 08-18-2017, 06:21 PM   #9
mrdirosa
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So my experience a few years back was different...I had leased a 2011 Outback 2.5i Limited, and really wanted the new 2013 Outback 3.6R Limited (refreshed and faster). The '11 Outback was about on par for miles at it's time 1.5 years into the lease, and with the great resale value the dealer simply took it as a trade-in, bought out the lease, and I owed nothing on it. I then financed the new Outback 3.6R, having learned my lesson on leasing high-resale vehicles. Had I sold the '11 Outback privately I probably would have spent even less on depreciation over the 1.5 years I had it.

The whole thing took a couple hours one evening, and was pretty much the easiest experience I could have had. Of course swapping a Subaru for a Subaru likely made it much easier, since they dealer ended up just putting my '11 Outback on the lot and selling it a few days later.

My advice is to get your buyout value from Chase, take it to the dealer, and see what they'll give you for it.

-Michael
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Old 08-18-2017, 08:55 PM   #10
shake-rattle-n-roll
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"Or, you can bring your car to CarMax and have them buy out your lease. CarMax regularly offers the highest offer for our used or leased car. They take care of all the lease-buyout paperwork for us. And if you have accumulated enough "lease equity", you might cash out with a small profit."
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Old 08-18-2017, 09:24 PM   #11
ctdmax
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shake-rattle-n-roll View Post
"Or, you can bring your car to CarMax and have them buy out your lease. CarMax regularly offers the highest offer for our used or leased car. They take care of all the lease-buyout paperwork for us. And if you have accumulated enough “lease equity”, you might cash out with a small profit."


I've experienced the opposite with Carmax..they've always offered a much lower price than the dealer.
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Old 08-19-2017, 04:18 PM   #12
WRXrB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRowland View Post
If you give me your miles I'll pull an MMR (Manheim Market Report) on your car. I just looked at another guys 2016 Premium and it was a $25,000 piece if I recall correctly. Your factory adds should be worth a little more. The 15's are starting to show up at auction more now but there isn't a ton of 16's or 17's. Rental companies don't buy these so most of them are off lease 15's or people such as yourself who trade out early.



ETA: I just looked for the post and it was



Wholesale value is $22,000 with 27k miles.



This was a premium not limited.


Just PM’d you. I’m running a limited with 20k miles to date.
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Old 08-19-2017, 04:20 PM   #13
WRXrB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdirosa View Post
So my experience a few years back was different...I had leased a 2011 Outback 2.5i Limited, and really wanted the new 2013 Outback 3.6R Limited (refreshed and faster). The '11 Outback was about on par for miles at it's time 1.5 years into the lease, and with the great resale value the dealer simply took it as a trade-in, bought out the lease, and I owed nothing on it. I then financed the new Outback 3.6R, having learned my lesson on leasing high-resale vehicles. Had I sold the '11 Outback privately I probably would have spent even less on depreciation over the 1.5 years I had it.

The whole thing took a couple hours one evening, and was pretty much the easiest experience I could have had. Of course swapping a Subaru for a Subaru likely made it much easier, since they dealer ended up just putting my '11 Outback on the lot and selling it a few days later.

My advice is to get your buyout value from Chase, take it to the dealer, and see what they'll give you for it.

-Michael


That’s what I was thinking... atleast if your swapping subies. The dealer I go to is fairly known for being accommodating and such.. however, this would be a first for me, so I just want to make sure I have all my information before even stepping foot in there.
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Old 08-21-2017, 12:34 AM   #14
hekler
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I leased a 15 wrx premium and after 15 months and 15,000 miles I talked to my very friendly dealer about trading it in on a 16' limited and they gave me great value on my trade and a great deal on my 16'

I don't think it would have been possible to the extint I got, with another dealer.

Good luck, it is possible
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Old 08-21-2017, 09:33 AM   #15
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Look at your lease pay off amount and KBB your trade in value in average condition. If those two line up you shouldn't be too far off from being able to trade it in. Ultimately, go talk to the dealer.
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