Buying Out a Lease Vehicle---Anything to Look Out For?

My cousin has a GMAC lease on a GMC Terrain that's ending soon and I'm thinking about buying it. I assume the basic sequence is for him to buy it at his buyout price, then I buy it from him. I've never done this before and am interested in anything I should be aware of or look out for. I realize the dealer will try to steer the deal into a retail sale but I want to avoid spending extra money if possible. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks...

lmiddle of 2022 when used car prices were crazed, my son's lease on his 2019 arcadia was up - he used 18k of the 36k miles on the lease... was absolutely unmarked, not a ding nor scratch ... the buyout was 26k (plus tax in ny) - so the buyout was near to 29k - the bluebook was 36k - i called the dealer and asked what deal can we do , as we have a lot of equity in the car... he said according to the gmac lease agreement a gm dealer cannot buy the leased vehicle - so i called a few place i found doing an internet search - the local volvo dealer said he would take the car off our hands (we had paid all the 36mos payments), and give us 3500 cash... it turns out that a dealer does not pay the ny sales tax - i told the gm dealer i was selling the car to the volvo dealer , and would probably buy a ford suv or a jeep -

somehow the gmc dealer gave me 3500 bucks as a downpayment for my sons 2022 arcadia.... didn't ask how he did it, nor did i care...

moral is there are no rules....

I have done this a couple of times. He needs to buy out the lease, get the title in his name, and then sale the vehicle to you. The dealer will not give you a break, they to make the monies on it.

Exactly!

what does the dealer have to do with the buyback??? - the lease is between you n gmac, or whoever the finance co. is...

Exactly ... AVOID using the dealer as a go between if at all possible. I got hosed buying out a Ford leased thru Ford and using the dealer. I had a Jeep lease that was thru US Bank , I paid less to buy it straight from the bank vs. using the dealer. It's very hard to trade your lease to a different car maker, the lease companies make it hard, if not impossible. I tried to sell/trade the Jeep and no one would take it because of the lease.

Call GMAC directly , or go online to his account? , and see what the direct buyout is and get the financing on your own.

i called gmac direct... they told me the price is in the contract... and to add the tax, which i think in ny is 8.625pct in ny.... the lease co's have all the bases covered...but they did not anticipate the pandemic and the increase in used car values last year....

I agree, that's the best way to do this. We leased our 16 Jeep Cherokee and bought it out within the last 6 months of the lease (still have). Just turned over 100,000 miles and it's been very reliable, my wife loves this one. Had one coil go bad and was replaced under warranty, along with the oil filter housing (leak).
We leased up and until we did the buyout. Dealership finance manager did some work to get it done, but did so and we got a great payoff.

JS

It was a few hundred cheaper cheaper for me to bypass the dealer to buy out the car.

interesting... when i called gmac , they told me the buyout is in the lease... add your tax , n u got the buyout price.. same thing my dealer said...

when did u buy out the lease cheaper then the contract price??? ... i have another lease up in aug and the buyout is under the present market value... but when i add the tax... the deal losses most of its appeal...

I live in NH so the tax maybe why I got a better deal ? The dealer was in mASS , US Bank allowed me to bypass the dealer and deal directly with them on the buyout.

My wife is on her third Acura RDX lease and the buy out price is always way to high for the miles and age of the vehicle. So it's always cheaper to just lease another one in our case anyhow. We could afford to just buy it in the first place we just chose not to at this point in our lives , her lease is up in July we will probably lease one more time then buy one after that as she will be retiring. Years ago we leased a 95 Blazer ( not the full size one ) we were going to buy it off the lease ,I took a loan from my K plan to buy it we brought its to the dealer to be serviced and checked out before our purchase. It had less than 25,000 miles the dealer service department gave use whole list of things wrong which would have been expensive to fix , thats all we had to hear forget that ! So we didn't buy it the salesman was upset but " oh well "

The buyout has generally over the years not been attractive. Usually, if the lease has an incentive , the buyout isn’t a good value. If the lease doesn’t have an incentive, chances are better buying it out might be more attractive.
A previous poster mentioned trying to find out exactly what the buyout is. As someone mentioned, it’s right on the contract you signed and got a copy of the day you leased the car.
It is fixed, never changes.
Usually, the buyout figure is called the residual value on the contract. That value, plus tax and fees are what you can buy the car for at lease end. It doesn’t change.
If ( as has been the case the last several years) that the car is worth a good bit more on the market than what the buyout is, buy it and flip it, and pocket the difference.
I have seen stuff two and three years old( typical lease contract length) be worth as much as it was day one, or darn close, especially on heavy duty trucks(2500 and up)

Thanks for all the advice and comments. We crunched the numbers and when you factor in double sales tax (one from GMAC to my cousin, and then another sales tax when I buy it, plus whatever other GMAC fees may pop up) the deal doesn't work for us.

We'll keep looking.....

gmac and the other finance co's, ain't in bizz to lose $$$.... there r a few times when they lose... but most times its a win for them...

one suggestion for u... not your cousin... if your buyout is less then the market value, u can call around and there will be dealers who will buy out the lease, and give u some $$... they don't pay the sales tax... as stated my sons buyback last may on his 2019 arcadia was 26 and change, plus for us the 8.625 sales tax which brought the total to 29k, BUT.. the value was 35k.... so there was a vig in the middle... i found an outside dealer willing to give us 3500 in cash for the lease... all our payments were already made .... i could have bought the car for the 29k, and then resold it for 35k, making maybe 6k, but opt'd to take 3500 , not to have to deal with the pita selling it...

I would have bought it out and listed it for sale $40,000, you probably would have got it or very close back then. Friend had a 2019 H-RV that was worth $10,000 more than the lease buy out, she was just going to return it until I told her what was up, she bought it, sold it and made 10K

not sure about 40k, as saw other 2019's from 34/36k, but there was def a 'vig' in there - but i got 3500bucks from the dealer, prob would have gotten 5,maybe 6k if i sold privately - to me it was well worth the couple of grand to drive the car into the dealer, and drive out with the new vehicle, and not have to deal with people...

i have another lease expiring in june... n yesterday it was reported that used car prices on their way back up - up 4% last month...

I buy cars weekly( I am a dealer), I haven’t seen anything but consistently high prices for well over 2 years now

i have a 2020 infiniti qx60... u know the one that looks like a hearse.... its the cheap one...black,17k miles, no dings/scratches etc... the buy out is a touch under 25k.... make me an offer... dealers don't pay any sales tax...

i used to be in the business years ago when i owned a junkyard, so i try to keep up with today's trends, and i see the same thing.
if i can find something to do a little work on and flip, i jump on it. super, super, hard to do these days.............

I was thinking in Ohio you could transfer a vehicle to a family member and not pay sales tax. Maybe a cousin wouldnt qualify??

Nothing I would be interested in. We deal primarily in 10k to 20k Subaru stuff. They sell real well up here.
For what your car is worth, I can buy/ sell several cars, with same money tied up.

If your car is the LUXE it’s doing 32k-33k ish at dealer auctions in good shape with those miles..assuming AWD….PURE?….A little less

yep lux... awd... i'll start shopping it around in april...

My neighbor recently bought his buddies lease! All he had to do was ad his name to the lease and he was able to purchase the truck. I had no idea this was possible and I have no idea if it's doable on a GM lease.
KID