2012 G37x base

I am looking to get out of my 39 mo lease early ($385 a mo for 39, I have 12 payments left for a total $4,620). I can do this no problem if I trade it into a dealer. The problem is the payoff amount is $28,890 and most dealers are offering around $22-23K over the phone and one dealer in person offered me $22K.

Therefore I listed it for Sale privately. I have someone interested and is looking to give me around 27K for the car. I called IFS and they told me in order for me to purchase the car I have to do it through a Infiniti dealer.

I called the Infiniti dealer and the finance guy told me there is a $150 buyout fee, $299 doc fee and a $179 DMV fee. He told me I would need to get the car registered (it already is) and pay the tax on the $28K. Then I sign over the title and the guy that purchases the car off me has to pay tax on the amount he purchases the car for. This seems a little wacky.

In the end I am going to end up paying

• $28,897 - payoff
• $2,018 - NYS tax (8.125)
• $299 - Doc fee
• $150 - buyout fee
• $179 - DMV fee
• $31,543 - final purchase price

Then sell it for 27K and take a 4K loss. Which is fine because that is a little less than the remainder of my payments.

Can't IFS send the title the 3rd party buyer? Do I have to register it? When the dealer takes a trade in on a car off lease do they have to pay Tax on it?

At this point selling the car on my own seems like more work than it is worth. I wonder if I should just fish around for a dealer at least willing to give me 24K for it and I will eat the 4.9K as it is about the remainder of my payments.

This will be the last time I lease and the last time I make the mistake of letting the Infiniti guy negotiate the monthly payments instead of the price of the car. Ugh. Any help or options would be appreciated.