Lease is up!

[kevman]

Well I turned in the keys tonight to my ridgeline, 2 year lease went by super fast. I would of loved to keep it, but the buy out price was still a little steep. I also would of considered a new one but it would be like buying the exact same model, so I decided to part ways. I will greatly miss the functionality and efficiency of it. It was almost anything I could ever want all in one vehicle. My complaints would have to be the squeaky steering wheel that after 3 attempts never got resolved, the jerky transmission, and the kind of awkward angles that the truck had. I am looking forward to the mid-model change maybe we will see it in 09, might make me want to get back in to one. But it needs more power, a tilting steering wheel, and a front end refresh. Wish everyone the best with their Rigde's!

[Ridgeline2006]

My lease is up in March and I'll probably have to buy it because of the huge amount of excess mileage - should be more than 30,000 over by then!

[kevman]

WOW that would be a crazy bill at the end of the lease. I was under 3000 wish I could of got a credit!

[Ridgeline2006]

I've been leasing cars for a long time and never "had" to buy one before but that was mostly because I'd always trade it in on another car at the same dealership. I might try that this time, too. I tried to get them to do an even, no money out of pocket trade, for a new one a few months ago and they said no, but maybe when we get closer to the end of the lease and the pay off is lower they might be interested. I'd love to get another one.

If I have to keep this one I'll have no regrets. I could see driving it until the wheels fall off. I've never had such a utilitarian vehicle!

[Waterbug]

Lease milage can be a real sticky issue. If your milage is real low, you feel that you have to buy the vehicle, so that your not giving the dealer something for nothing. If the milage is toooo high, you have to buy the vehicle or pay through the nose.
Dealers never want to take a lease vehicle back early. Before I leased my Ridge, I tried to turn my Durango in early and the dealer wouldn't do it. When I offered to make the last three payments, he told me I could but he would leave it on his back lot for three months and then turn it in. I didn't want to be in the position of still being responsible for a vehicle that I didn't have in my possesion. (The dealer was a Dodge/Honda dealership) I ended up waiting the three months.

[Ridgeline2006]

My brother had the same situation years ago with a Mazda dealer who kept the vehicle on his lot for the remaining month - without telling him! He thought the dealer had taken title for it until he saw it on the lot and asked about it and was told that it wasn't for sale because it was still under a lease contract!

I've been very fortunate to have Acura dealers take leased cars back before the lease end but only when I take another new Acura off their hands! They pay off the lease and sell the car. I did get a notice from an Acura dealer several months ago about my wife's leased car and it said that they were in dire need of used cars and would be willing to buy the car back from us -- what a scam! They wanted nothing of the sort! All they were doing (and I guessed this before even going to the dealership) is sucking people into the dealership and trying to sell them new cars. We went anyway just because the car sits in the driveway unused because the wife is too sick to drive it. What a waste!

[Waterbug]

My Durango was a bank lease and the bank got hosed by the Durango's high depreciation. It was a 5 year lease with a residual of $16,000. The dealer had them on his lot for $12-14,000. The bank would be lucky to wholesale it off for $10,000, so they didn't really want it back. Turning it in meant that they had to write off a loss, so they didn't want to do it any sooner than they had to. They even offered me a 0% loan for the buy back. ($16,000)

[Ridgeline2006]

I bought one of my Acuras at the end of the lease because the buy out was lower than trade-in. It was (and is) a great car so I decided to just go to the credit union and borrow the pay off amount and buyt it. I still ended up paying a lot more for the car than if I had bought it to begin with, but I'm happy and I have the car with almost 100,000 miles on it and it's still going strong, and it's paid for.

[Cool Cat]

My lease won't be ending until March of '09 (48 months). It had a 48k mile allowance and I'm currently at about 62k miles. I'm driving it much less now than I was when we first got it, but we'll still probably hit 70-75k before the end of the lease. The idea of trading it in at the same dealership and not having to buy it or pay the mileage penalty to turn it in is new to me, I may have to investigate that. Although, I really love this truck and my plan all along has been to keep it forever. I guess I'll weigh the options when the time comes.

[Ridgeline2006]

By the time your lease runs out, it might be better to get a new truck with no mileage -- that's what I'd ultimately like to do but if not I have no problem keeping this one.