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Lease ending before Model 3 arrives, what to do?

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Twiglett

Single pedal driver
Oct 3, 2014
4,428
5,497
Austin
Hey folks, my lease is up on Leaf next May which is just the wrong time relative to Model 3 arrival.
I was one the 115K loonies who stood in line before the reveal-part-1, so theoretically should be able to get my car before the end of 2017.
The big question is what the heck to get for the 6-9 intervening months?
After driving electric all this time I really don't want to go back to ICE again and don't want to invest a whole lot in a car I'm only going to use for a short time.
Anyone have any bright ideas?
 
You've got quite a few options:
1) Buy out your lease. You can usually get quite the discount (sometimes as low as $10k) and shouldn't have too much trouble selling it later when your 3 arrives. My boss is in your exact situation (except his leaf lease ends this summer) and will be doing this.
2) Extend your lease. You can try extending by 6 months, but you might have better luck with a year. Either way, you'll likely end up turning in your lease early.
3) Long-term rental. Rental car companies do long-term rentals at cheaper rates than day-to-day rentals. This could be rather costly though as you'll be paying around $400/month for a crappy ICE car.
4) Buy a used car. Buying a used car (probably an ICE) to tide you over until your 3 arrives will be pretty cheap since you can sell used cars close to what you buy them for over a short enough window (assuming nothing goes wrong).
5) Borrow a car. Sometimes people have friends or family that have a spare car that wouldn't mind loaning it to you (sometimes at a small cost).
6) Other transportation means. If your situation allows, you could skip a car altogether for the half a year and bum rides/use public transport/uber or lyft/carpool/etc. You can always pay for rides with promises of rides in your fancy Model 3.
 
You've got quite a few options:
1) Buy out your lease. You can usually get quite the discount (sometimes as low as $10k) and shouldn't have too much trouble selling it later when your 3 arrives. My boss is in your exact situation (except his leaf lease ends this summer) and will be doing this.

Also a good option, but be sure about what your buyout is. Depending on when you leased your Leaf the residual could be crazy high. For my Leaf it ended up being like $9k more than the car was worth, if I remember correctly.
 
Also a good option, but be sure about what your buyout is. Depending on when you leased your Leaf the residual could be crazy high. For my Leaf it ended up being like $9k more than the car was worth, if I remember correctly.

And most likely Leaf resale value will drop significantly after Model 3 is released. I agree with others to pick up an used ICE car for a few months.
 
You've got quite a few options:
1) Buy out your lease. You can usually get quite the discount (sometimes as low as $10k) and shouldn't have too much trouble selling it later when your 3 arrives. My boss is in your exact situation (except his leaf lease ends this summer) and will be doing this.
2) Extend your lease. You can try extending by 6 months, but you might have better luck with a year. Either way, you'll likely end up turning in your lease early.
3) Long-term rental. Rental car companies do long-term rentals at cheaper rates than day-to-day rentals. This could be rather costly though as you'll be paying around $400/month for a crappy ICE car.
4) Buy a used car. Buying a used car (probably an ICE) to tide you over until your 3 arrives will be pretty cheap since you can sell used cars close to what you buy them for over a short enough window (assuming nothing goes wrong).
5) Borrow a car. Sometimes people have friends or family that have a spare car that wouldn't mind loaning it to you (sometimes at a small cost).
6) Other transportation means. If your situation allows, you could skip a car altogether for the half a year and bum rides/use public transport/uber or lyft/carpool/etc. You can always pay for rides with promises of rides in your fancy Model 3.

I think that buying the Leaf at the end of the lease is probably the easiest option, as long as the price is acceptable to the OP. Extending the lease may be the second best option. The OP really wants to stay with an EV, so sometimes it's better to just keep the car you know vs. buying and keeping a completely different one for a short period of time.
 
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I would not plan on 6-9 months from May. It could be, but it could be quite a bit more.

At least in Colorado, Nissan is advertising 2016 LEAF S lease for 36 months for $2000 down and $200 a month. You could consider that deal and then a lease transfer when ready.

Or pick up someone else's lease in May
 
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The lease was just up on my Cadillac Escalade and since I wasn't sure how long before I actually got my Model 3 I refused to sign another lease.

I briefly considered a two year lease but then I'd be hoping that the cars were delayed just so I wasn't making two car payments and only driving one car.

I chose to buy a very cheap pickup truck that I will just keep once my Model 3 shows up. I can use it to haul things or pull a boat, etc.
 
We can extend our lease with a year (The netherlands). 4 to 5 year an ICE car.
That will be from june 2017 to june 2018 hopefully that will fit, otherwise we must find a other solution.
If that is to early we going to lease occasions. (shorter time and cheaper).
 
wow, thanks for the fast responses!
I had indeed considered the crappy ICE option for that reason, I'm still trying to convince myself that its worth the pain though :)
To stay EV I was also considering a lease buyout, but Nissan are allegedly bringing out Leaf 2 next year which will really put a dent in the resale on current leaf, but maybe NMAC will be even more keen to do a deal. I dunno though, how low can they go?
The Leaf really does seem to still be only viable EV for a reasonable price though. I really appreciate your ideas.
 
And most likely Leaf resale value will drop significantly after Model 3 is released. I agree with others to pick up an used ICE car for a few months.
This is what concerns me - if I get a used Leaf its value will drop as soon as I'm able to get my Model 3.
Unless of course it makes all EV's more popular - hey you never know....
 
Honestly, once the price of the Leaf falls below a certain point it can't fall much further. At a certain point, people will buy it just because it's a new working car. If you can get it at enough of a discount at the end of your lease, there really shouldn't be much loss of value over a few additional months.
 
I would buy out the lease instead of extending the lease. When you extend the lease, you get no breaks and pay the same high lease payment like the day it was new. Naturally Nissan would love it if you did extend the lease. I recently paid $8500 for our 2013 Leaf with 29k miles on it- out the door. You can then sell the leaf when you get the model 3 or keep it. You might see if you can buy the Leaf now and save even more money if Nissan is still giving the buyout deal or wait until February next year when the deal may become available. With the model3 coming out, I think it will be even harder for Nissan to get people to buy their old Leafs or lease another Leaf.
 
wow, thanks for the fast responses!
I had indeed considered the crappy ICE option for that reason, I'm still trying to convince myself that its worth the pain though :)
To stay EV I was also considering a lease buyout, but Nissan are allegedly bringing out Leaf 2 next year which will really put a dent in the resale on current leaf, but maybe NMAC will be even more keen to do a deal. I dunno though, how low can they go?
The Leaf really does seem to still be only viable EV for a reasonable price though. I really appreciate your ideas.
Good luck. We tried negotiating the buyout of our small ford SUV and they refused to budge at all. Even after I explained to them that I could go down the street and buy the same vehicle for a few thousand less and that they would need to discount it on the lot to sell it anyway (or worse send it to auction). They wouldn't budge so we went and bought a 2 year newer model for almost the same price they wanted for the buyout.
 
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Well at least I got my wake up call that decided me on NOT getting a used Leaf, or buying out my car.
Two years and 26K miles in and I've just lost my first bar, which apparently is 15% capacity loss.
Pretty darned pathetic.
Looks like when my lease runs out I'll be driving a cheap ICE-er until my ☰ arrives. . . . .
 
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