Unfortunately I am thinking about giving up/ending the lease on my car I just got about a month ago and I'm looking for some opinions.

I have read on these forums and else where about swapalease and leasetrader and I was wondering if anyone had dealt with either or gone through that process before? Opinions and/or advice? Or if they have gone the dealer buy / private party sale route too...

I got a 2008 Infiniti G37 Sport - Fully Loaded - only has about 1200 miles on it right now and got it in late June. Thanks for the comments!

 

From what I understand, if someone takes over the payments on the lease you are still at risk.

Even though you no longer own the car, your name stays on as a co-signer for the new owner of the car.

 

I have only sold my car as a trade-in to a dealer. You may want to check with Carmax to see how much it is as a trade in and compare it to your buyout. You will probably be taking a huge hit financially though. Another option is to buy out the car and sell it privately. But you'll have to have a lot of money to do that.
Never used any of the lease swapping services, I can't really advise you on that, you might wanna try calling them with questions.

 

From what I understand, if you take it back to Infiniti and trade for another Infiniti you'll get a break. Go anywhere else you're gonna get screwed out of atleast $3-5k depreciation. The car is too new so dealers don't have sales data to say "yes I can move this car in 60 days" so naturally they want some padding in there in case it takes them 120 days to move the car. $3-$5k under book value would give them enough padding.

About swapalease ... I don't think you are still on the hook for the money after the transaction. From my understanding Infiniti (or whoever the leasing company is) simply opens a new lease/loan for the new buyer and uses it to pay off your lease/loan. They call it a "lease transfer" but it's not really, they just use that term so they can charge you a "lease transfer fee." I don't know about Infiniti financial but MB charges $750. This is all assuming that your car, and the new buyer qualify under Infiniti's leasing terms.

 

I understand I will take a 3-5K hit, although it's rough to swallow, it isn't a problem. I am just wondering if anyone has any advice on the best way to go. Financially and liability-wise, thanks again for your comments!

 

where are you located and what color is the car and what options?

 

I'm located in Southern California, Thousand Oaks area...

2008 Infiniti G37 Sport - AT
Black/Stone
Navigation Package
Premium Package
Technology Package

Pretty much everything they offer besides the 4-wheel active steering, spoiler, and illuminated kick-plates. Apparently it was the last one west of Colorado and it was trailered in from Las Vegas, NV.

 

Whats your monthly payments if you dont mind me asking? I might be interested myself.

 

From what I have seen, car max is selling G37's as fast as they are getting them in. They are NOT lasting long there at all.

 

good luck trying to sell it privately. call up IFS at 18006274437, obtain a payoff quote and good luck trading it in somewhere

 

Sorry for the delayed response.

My payment is ~$690/m - 36 month lease..

 

Patrick,

$690 a month - for a three year lease - wow! Why so much? The MSRP should have been around $44.5K and invoice around $40K.

 

I had about $7K difference on the car I traded in... I put 5K down towards that and rolled the rest into the lease. I got the car for about $400 over invoice....

IE, my best option would to most likely sell the car out-right and take the hit. It was just a wrong move I made in the first place...just looking to get out of the mess.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear that Patrick, yeah I think your lease payments a too high so I don't think many people would be interested in assuming it. Specially since it's only 1 month into the contract. You had way too much negative equity, not to mention a less than desirable sale price.
I would recommend trading it in.

 

Ouch, you're in for a big hurt... your best play seriously would be to trade it in for a vehicle with $4k or more in rebates and buy it, not lease it. All the American manufacturers have these rebates, especially the Ford F-150, however their resell values are horrible later. Reason for the big rebate helping is that it will eat into and absorb as much negative equity as possible therefore reduce your amount financed. Going from a G coupe to let's say a truck may not be sexy, but you won't be a writing a check for $700 per month to the bank either.