# Taking over a car lease



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Looking at used car ads on Kijiji I see a lot of offers to take over someone's lease on a car from a few months to 2 or 3 years old.

Has anyone done this, or looked into it? How would you put a value on such a deal?

I checked out 2 or 3, and it appears you would be committing to buying a car in 3 or 4 years for about what it is worth now, plus paying $7000 or more in payments in the meantime. Am I missing something, or did I happen to hit a few bad ones, or is this lease takeover a sucker play?


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Considering the the depreciation is steepest in the first 2-3 years, I think it's a fool's game to take over a lease or loan at that stage. Car loans always have negative equity and the lease was signed based on a new car, not a 2-3 year old car.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

I did think of an angle. Take over someone's lease on a car that is less than a year old. Drive it for a year. Run an ad, and get someone else to take over from you.

This gives you a nearly new car with no down payment, a small monthly payment, and you can pass it on for the cost of transferring the lease, whatever that costs. Just an idea so far, does anyone know what it costs to transfer a lease?


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

Why would anyone take over a lease that doesn't have a down payment? Might as well sign your own lease.

Good luck finding an ad where the other party walks away from a nice down payment.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

If you lease a car from a car dealer you have to pay a down payment.

I have seen ads where someone wants out of a lease so bad, they will walk away from the down payment, pay the transfer fees, and give you $1500 to $2000 to boot. Some of them are nice cars 1 - 2 years old, some less than 1 year old.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

GoldStone said:


> Why would anyone take over a lease that doesn't have a down payment?


Because someone is WAY under the km allowance for the lease and you can take it over and put a ton of km on a leased vehicle.

Because someone negotiated a great deal on a vehicle you are interested in.



GoldStone said:


> Good luck finding an ad where the other party walks away from a nice down payment.


Have you been on leasebusters? There are dozens of people willing to walk away from significant down payments.


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## lightcycle (Mar 24, 2012)

Just like buying a car, there are good lease takeovers and bad lease takeovers:

Good:

- low cap cost (big downpayment or trade-in, end-of-season/model-year manufacturer incentives or "trunk money"), high residual, low monthly payments
- car in good condition, lots of mileage left in lease
- Most manufacturer-backed leases have financial incentives that offer a low rate with a high residual

Bad (pretty much the opposite of the above):

- High payments because of $0 down, low residual
- perhaps open-ended lease - unknown residual at lease end (third party leasing companies often write these kinds of leases)
- excess wear and tear to the car resulting in additional costs on lease turn-in
- over-the-mileage or close to the limit, so the person taking over the lease is forced to pay for extra kms or watch the odometer closely


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

The best deals are almost at the end of their lease..........well maintained and low kms.

A GM executive driven vehicle can have a lot of discounts subtracted from the original price.........and the buyout price may be low.

A rental agency vehicle.........I would avoid.

Bear in mind, the ownership remains in the name of the leasing company, and that transfer of ownership at the end of the lease requires a safety check, ownership package, e-test, and sales tax in Ontario, as it is considered a "used" vehicle.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

Might be worth checking out http://leasebusters.com/en/default.asp or at least researching leasebusters for more info.


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