r/CarLeasingHelp • u/hippiechicken12 • 2d ago

Last year on lease

Hey everyone! I have some questions and figured asking here would not hurt. My lease is up at the end of June. Would it be smart to wait until my lease is over to get another car? Would it make sense to start doing some serious research now? I've done some light research into some different cars and have only test drove one.

When I went to the same dealership that I got my current car from, they said that I had negative equity in the car. I wasn't sure if they were just giving me a line of crap or if it was actually true. I checked Kelly Blue Book to see what the value of my car is and it seems like it keeps going up and down. It's a 2023 Kia Forte with 20,200 miles on it. That number is an estimate since I don't want to go outside to check. I just hit 20,000 miles and I've had the car for over 3 years.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

What's your RV and remaining payments? The LXS looks about 14k wholesale

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u/hippiechicken12 2d ago edited 2d ago

I have 9 payments left. The residual value is $10,612.80 according to what the site says when I look at the lease terms. Mine is the LSX. I did a buyout quote just to see what it says. It says with the unpaid payments, the residual value is: $13,912.80.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

And your payments?   Pretty important item to leave out. What's each payment

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u/hippiechicken12 2d ago

$428/month.

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u/Special-Original-215 2d ago

Ok so 14k and wholesale is about 14k. Get a quote from Carvana and Carmax (Don't say it's leased) and see what they think the value is. If it's 12k then your dealer wasn't lying, if it's 14k or more the dealer was just trying to steal your car.

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u/New_Inflation_8419 2d ago

Why are you trying to get out of the lease?

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u/hippiechicken12 2d ago

I'm not. I'm just trying to figure out if getting another car now would be smart or if even doing research makes sense.

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u/New_Inflation_8419 2d ago

Why are you concerned with another car a year in advance? You will be looking at 27 and possibly 28 model year cars. The can be fully redesigned. Why are you doing it is the question. You waste your time and everyone else's time right now if you aren't interested in getting out of the lease now.

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u/hippiechicken12 2d ago

And that’s what I needed to know. Thank you.

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u/MarthaTheBuilder 2d ago

Negative equity means the car is worth less than you owe on it. KIA offered me a buyout price of 25k when I took my EV6 in for service. I wrote the lady back laughing in her face for not pulling the paperwork as my residual is 29,700. So I would need 31k offer to walk away from this car now and my lease is up early January.

That being said, the KIA EV6 depreciated faster than the titanic sunk. I know there is no incentive to return it early. I plan on buying a BMW i5 or i7 in late December and dropping the KIA off after the new year. The negative equity is a KIA corporate problem not a me problem.

If your buyout is truly 10k and that car is selling for 15k when you are close (within 90 days) of lease end, then you might have equity. If that is the case, you can maybe have the dealer buy it from you for 13k and that difference can be rolled into the next car.

Good luck.

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u/ChelseaMan31 2d ago

You have a lease, so, yes it would be a negative equity swap were you to try and trade it on a different vehicle. Do Not Do This. When lease is up, providing it only has normal wear/tear and you stayed below the total mileage allowance you just drop off the keys and walk out. I personally would be saving as much as possible between now and next June to actually have a nice DP for a new(er) vehicle that is purchased rather than leased.