Lease Transfer Market? (Another Buy vs Lease Thread)

[megapixel]

Does anyone have a sense of what the demand is for short term leases for Tesla model S?

I have a reservation for a M3 and decided to order a MS in late June. Car is in transit now *excited*. Yet, I'm still struggling on whether I should buy or lease the car. My plan was to switch to the 3 when it's available to me hopefully in 12-18 months. I know it's a terrible financial decision to order a new only to swap out in such a short term... I'm trying to decide on the lesser of the damage between buy vs new. Since I'm not sure how the next gen AP and the introduction of the lower priced M3 will affect the MS depreciation in that time frame, I'm leaning towards a lease. Problem with the lease is it's 36 months, which means I'll need to find someone to assume the rest of the lease. I've never leased a car before so I don't know how easy it is to find someone to pick up on the lease if I wanted out of it...

Some research on LeaseTrader and SwapaLease as well as the "for sale" section of this forum doesn't show much lease transfer activity...

Any insight on this is appreciated.

Ordered a Model S60 white, pano roof, and Autopilot. I'm a low mileage driver as well. I'm super excited but stressed at this financial decision at the same time.

Thanks

 

[javawolfpack]

I'm in the position you are kind of... I am planning to push out my M3 delivery until the end of my MS lease vs jump as soon as the M3 becomes available. No real need to be the new kid on the block with a M3 if I already have a MS on hand, plus this will give them time to resolve any issues with the M3 at launch (as there will likely be bugs with the early models if history teaches us anything).

There are also factors about the M3 that likely won't be answered until they are available that might lead to me wanting a future MS instead at that point. Plus good chance of a 100kWh+ battery and level 3 autonomous driving by the end of my lease, possibly for both vehicles.

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

I looked into the Lease system, as have many threads on this forum. You give up the $7,500 tax credit, follow the leasing company predetermined depreciation, perhaps have a lease buyout fee. I can find NO reason to ever personally finance a car through a lease (there may be a corporate lease that fits, but not personal). Just bad long-term economics. Perhaps if you look ONLY at monthly payments... not long term finance..there is a case, but in my opinion, its never a good financial decision to Lease.

 

[DCGOO]

I looked into the Lease system, as have many threads on this forum. You give up the $7,500 tax credit, follow the leasing company predetermined depreciation, perhaps have a lease buyout fee. I can find NO reason to ever personally finance a car through a lease (there may be a corporate lease that fits, but not personal). Just bad long-term economics. Perhaps if you look ONLY at monthly payments... not long term finance..there is a case, but in my opinion, its never a good financial decision to Lease.

For a personal lease, I don't disagree. But if you are self-employed, it can immediately reduce your income by the lease payment. I operate as a single-member LLC, IT consulting practice. It is absolutely a no-brainier in favor of leasing. The only thing you have to be careful of is badly blowing out the mileage limit. So far, I am okay on that front.

 

[ABCCBA]

I searched Leasetrader.com and swapalease.com. I found a 2015 85D with 3,000 miles for 895/mo lease takeover. All I had to pay was $500 to US Bank for the lease takeover application and transfer cost. I have 25 months remaining, which should be enough time for my M3s to be ready. If the M3s are not ready then, I will do another lease transfer. I would recommend the lease takeover process to anyone.

 

[megapixel]

I looked into the Lease system, as have many threads on this forum. You give up the $7,500 tax credit, follow the leasing company predetermined depreciation, perhaps have a lease buyout fee. I can find NO reason to ever personally finance a car through a lease (there may be a corporate lease that fits, but not personal). Just bad long-term economics. Perhaps if you look ONLY at monthly payments... not long term finance..there is a case, but in my opinion, its never a good financial decision to Lease.

I've run some calculations so many times now (my head is spinning ha), I end up about the same whether I buy or lease... Assuming a 18 month duration, including the $7500 in the buy scenario, assuming a 30% depreciation on the buy scenario, and using the latest lease payments on the tesla site. Both scenarios come out roughly $19k. The buy scenario is definitely better the longer the duration would be. The biggest unknown is the depreciation by late next year... :-/

 

[javawolfpack]

I looked into the Lease system, as have many threads on this forum. You give up the $7,500 tax credit, follow the leasing company predetermined depreciation, perhaps have a lease buyout fee. I can find NO reason to ever personally finance a car through a lease (there may be a corporate lease that fits, but not personal). Just bad long-term economics. Perhaps if you look ONLY at monthly payments... not long term finance..there is a case, but in my opinion, its never a good financial decision to Lease.

Tesla's lease factors the $7500 into the depreciation for lower lease payments; however, if you want to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease you effectively have to buy it at $7500 + depreciated value at the end of the lease. So there is absolutely no reason to lease to eventually buy at the end. Also even with a personal lease there was only a marginal difference in cost over 3 years compared to financing. Yes you don't have any principle/ownership of the vehicle but at the same time you can get a Tesla at less down and lower monthly cost than financing. Arguably for me it's a wash, and the main point for leasing for me is that the VW TDI compensation will be effectively my lease down payment and will be $300 less a month than financing & requires 1/2 or more less for a down payment... that's money I can save for the next vehicle, and with how fast Tesla's change compared to traditional vehicles harder to sell long term ownership.

 

[megapixel]

I'm in the position you are kind of... I am planning to push out my M3 delivery until the end of my MS lease vs jump as soon as the M3 becomes available. No real need to be the new kid on the block with a M3 if I already have a MS on hand, plus this will give them time to resolve any issues with the M3 at launch (as there will likely be bugs with the early models if history teaches us anything).

There are also factors about the M3 that likely won't be answered until they are available that might lead to me wanting a future MS instead at that point. Plus good chance of a 100kWh+ battery and level 3 autonomous driving by the end of my lease, possibly for both vehicles.

Part of the reason why I went ahead with the MS was to bump my priority of the M3 to try to ensure I wouldn't miss out on the $7500 tax credit on that purchase. I'm afraid pushing it out will get me/us in at the lower phased out tax credit or none at all :-/

The other part of the reason was my 10 year old 335i constantly having leaks and issues. It was time to abandon ship. Ha

 

[javawolfpack]

Part of the reason why I went ahead with the MS was to bump my priority of the M3 to try to ensure I wouldn't miss out on the $7500 tax credit on that purchase. I'm afraid pushing it out will get me/us in at the lower phased out tax credit or none at all :-/

Makes sense, I'm still thinking there is a chance the tax credit might be phased out before the M3 actually starts rolling out in volume so even with a MS priority bump, might not get it before the end. So many unknowns, and there is so much about the M3 that is unknown still. I'm curious if you'll be able to put a roof rack on it or an accessory hitch... the smaller size means I can't put bikes in the back. And I got the pano roof on my MS so I could put a roof rack on top for bikes.

 

[mikec518]

Tesla's lease factors the $7500 into the depreciation for lower lease payments; however, if you want to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease you effectively have to buy it at $7500 + depreciated value at the end of the lease. So there is absolutely no reason to lease to eventually buy at the end. Also even with a personal lease there was only a marginal difference in cost over 3 years compared to financing. Yes you don't have any principle/ownership of the vehicle but at the same time you can get a Tesla at less down and lower monthly cost than financing. Arguably for me it's a wash, and the main point for leasing for me is that the VW TDI compensation will be effectively my lease down payment and will be $300 less a month than financing & requires 1/2 or more less for a down payment... that's money I can save for the next vehicle, and with how fast Tesla's change compared to traditional vehicles harder to sell long term ownership.

 

[mikec518]

I have a 2012 VW Passat TDI that I am returning as well . Interesting that we are both looking at MS as
a replacement. TDI has 600-800 mile range vs 200, obviously a big difference. I am considering keeping the
TDI as having both is the best of two worlds.