Opinions wanted

[Chuck Saporito]

The lease on my black 2002 limited is up next month, I'm looking for some experienced opinions. The truck has 70000 miles (34000 over limit)and is in great condition. The dealer said trade in is about $16,500 so he can't hide the milage when terminating the lease. What's it really worth?

My options in order of my preference:

1) Get 2005 Excursion.
This is complicated by the extra milage which has severly limited my bargining power. I have a pin for "A" plan, but need to creativly cancel out the extra miles (approximently $7000 worth) so the dealer will only get creative without using "A" plan. In other words, He'll term the lease and take it as a trade if I pay a normal price for the 2005.

2) Buy the 2002 for $21,000
Got stuck rebuilding the trans on my '96 10 months after purchasing it, don't want to do that again.

3) Extend the lease.
Not real appealing

[ExcursionPSD]

got 154k on mine, haven't repaired any of the powertrain. Runs great.

Just put on my third set of tires. 72K on my Bridgestones is pretty good, they had about 6/32" of tread left.

[Bruce1954]

This is why I do not lease any more

Possibility is to buy it and sell it take a look

Similar X sold on Ebay

I have been watching them since I want to trade but I am at 100K

Bruce

[AXTINC]

CS, It sounds like you are going to loose $7k if you turn it back in or trade in against full price with the dealer as the dealer is not going to eat it. It might be more cost effective to try and buy it out cheaper, sell it privately and then go for the cheapest cash deal you can get. The last vehicle I leased (36 month) was a 2000 Expedition and we were within the allowed mileage. Not sure who you leased with but mine was not Ford. Here is what happened, I called a few weeks early for payoff and it was in the $26k range so I blew it off and bought my wife a new car thinking that I would just turn the 2000 Expedition back in. Then 3 days prior to the lease termination and dropping it off the lease company designated dealer they called and wanted to deal. I wound up buying it our for less than $18k total and turned around and sold it to my neighbor for $19,500. If you have already told the leasing company you are over mileage you might loose you bargaining ability. Not sure what the market is but the leasing company will get no more than the current low wholesale value and they know it. When I asked why they did not make the offer(s) earlier they said they were not allowed to for some strange reason. You might want to try and negotiate for it like you aren’t over mileage (if you have not already informed them), don’t care and will turn it back in to see where you can go. It will help if you have an accurate wholesale price for your area. It worked for me but that was a few years ago now.

[FamilyRide]

You should be able to sell it easily and cover the milage. Or, a $21k, that's not a bad buy if you like the Ex.

As far as the dealer not working with you using A plan, they're right. It ties their hands because they cannot offer any concessions on a plan deal. You buy theirs for A plan price, they show only what they can actually give you for yours. I think they can do better than $16.5 but, I don't know their market, and they may not be able to move them as fast, thus having to reduce whct they can put in it buy what they est. their holding cost to be.

People who lease really need to make sure leasing is right for them. Leasing gets a bad rap (really got a bad rap back in the 80's when dealer used leases to screw people to the wall) whne leasing is awesome for someone whos needs fit a lease. The vehicle is a big part of that too. I would never lease an Ex. due to the depreciation. A new hot model that has a really high residual is perfect because you really do se a much lower payment if you match the term and residual right. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]