David, what's the upside of getting a car from them?
Is the monthly payment cheaper? Is there no down payment? Is it only worth it for higher end vehicles?
It would be greatly appreciated if u can elaborate a little bit on the maalos and chesronos.
thanx
I have done it a total of 7 times already. The bottom line is the following - for the most part, when someone wants/needs to get out of a car lease, there is usually a compelling reason for them to want to do that. A few times, I have taken over leases from people whose jobs were transferring them out of the country and they needed out of their leases, twice people wewre moving into NYC from the suburbs and the car was going to be too expensive for them to keep. Every aspect of the deal you negotiate to take over the lease is completely negotiable -- so it all depends on how badly they want out. The 'maalos' are pretty simple -- many people are pretty bad with math, and put large 'down payments' on lease in order to bring their monthly payments down. Many will try to get some of that money back from the person taking over the lease -- but quickly realize if they want out it won't typically happen. So I end up with a better deal than I could get leasing a new car, without paying anything at all to start the lease (again, negotiable items like a transfer fee can be paid by the first lessee). You can get great deals on high end cars or any type of car -- I have stuck with higher-end cars that come with full maintenance so that I am not worried about taking over someone else's car, and whether they have maintained it properly. That said, there are some great deals one can find on all types of cars. The 'Chesronos' are that you can't always find exactly the car you want in the color you want, and each and every car is its own unique deal -- each one is a negotiation that can fall through at any time, etc. The paperwork can take a few weeks to be processed, and required coordination between you and the other party. And finally, you have to go the the DMV yourself as the last stage, waste a few hours, and have them register the car in your name as the new lessee. It;s a far cry from going into the dealer (or to Wheels to Lease or similar), selecting whatever car and color you want, and picking it up from them without ever seeing a DMV office.