End of lease? What are you doing?

[arbywon]

My 2014 lease is ending late March. My buyout is $16,200. I will have 12,000 miles on a pristine car.

We are both retired so to and from is no longer an issue. My wife and I share the car for around town. We have an Infiniti for longer trips and when we both need a car. I don't think we have ever gone more than 30 miles in a day in "Sparky" so current range is more than adequate although my honey still has range anxiety during the winter months. We actually like the car quite a bit and would consider keeping it. Still $16k+ seems like throwing money away when trade in value is less than half that.

It seems my options are:

1. Pay a lot and keep the car.

2. Lease a new FFE.

3. Turn it in and get something else.

What are you doing and why?

 

[michael]

Definitely don't pay $16K. If you can get a pristine for half that, maybe OK.

I would either get a super-cheap lease on a new car (2016 FFE? Spark? Fiat? Leaf?) or get a Volt or Bolt. Little reason to get an 80 mile car today unless you can deal with it (sounds like you can) and it's almost free.

Fiat is advertising, for example, $149/month plus $2k due at signing. If you're in California, for example, the state $2500 will more than repay the upfront, your TCO maybe $6k over three years. I imagine similar deals available on other 80 mile cars.


I'm getting a Bolt for sure.

 

[Robert123]

I paid 12.5 for a 2015 with 3k miles on it. 16 is way too high. Good chance they'll make you a very good deal if you negotiate.

 

[jmueller065]

Note that if you lease a new one you'll be getting a 100 mile car, not an 80 mile car (not a lot but it may be significant).

When I turned my lease in I leased the C-Max in my signature.

 

[EVA]

What a great question Arbywon.

I can tell you what I did.

We faced almost the same situation as you do. I'm retired. My wife will retire in six months. Our FFE lease was up a few weeks ago. I struggled forever on what to do. The big problem was absolutely needing a car for a six month commute for my wife.

I spent months researching what to do. Went through all kinds of scenarios. And fortunately, nobody was offering any kind of good lease at the time. I was super close to leasing a BMW i3 - the dealer just couldn't figure out how to get the numbers right.

My final position was turn the leased car in and buy a used FFE. We will just drive the new car into the ground - when the battery dies, well that's life, four or five years from now. In the meantime, I have a car I absolutely love and love to drive.

Here's what I found - Ford dealers have a good number of used FFE's. Except they price them at outrageously high numbers. In Chicago area, $12,000 wasn't uncommon for a 2012 or 2013. I found a used car dealer that does very strange cars. He had a 2013 FFE for $8,500. I bought it. Cash money, no stinking lease or loan, just bought the thing. Easiest purchase I have ever made. And because I have AAA with the RV addition - I had the car flat bed towed to my house. Made things even easier.

If you are retired, put no miles on the car, and have a long distance car - there's no need for a longer range car, or a brand new one. Just find a good solid California FFE used. There are plenty of them on the market. And only pay in the $8,000 range. And by the way - get rid of that ICE Infiniti, and go buy a Tesla. You deserve a retirement present.

You really don't care about the mileage. The only real concern is tires - you'll probably have to buy a new set. Other than that - buy the used car. I wouldn't recommend a newer FFE. You want one that has lived three years on lease. A newer car might be a lemon buy out. For that $8,000 you will get the best darn car in the world, that won't cost you a dime in maintenance (besides the tires) and it will last you at least 4 more years. $2,000 a year for a car - darn that's good.

That funky used car dealership, they had Leafs and electric Smart cars - in Chicago. Go figure.

There is almost a 100% chance that Ford won't negotiate that end lease buyout number. It isn't up to your dealership - it is up to Ford on what they do. We asked many times, there was absolutely no budging on that contract price. None. So they took a nice FFE off to auction and got 1/3 of the residual price. I'm guessing they also get a big old tax break on losing money on the deal. So that's why they don't negotiate.

 

[arbywon]

So here's what I did:

Used FFEs are limited in the Chicago area so dumping my pristine FFE and buying someone else's to save $4k or less didn't make sense to me. BMW i3's are way to expensive. Bolt and some others are not available in this area.

I ordered a 2017 FFE!

 

[fbitz777]

Did you lease or buy this time? I'd assume that based on your experience you leased again and the leases are still great (like around 200/mo)

Congrats on going to 2017! My dealer has still not been able to find a way to order one.

 

[EVA]

Thanks for posting what you did.

Are you getting a brand new 2017 with the larger range and CCS charge port? Be sure that's what you are getting - there are 2017 cars that do not have the new battery.

By the way, I just randomly hit the FFE used car market search in Chicago, there are a ton of cars now available. Way more than a month ago when I was looking. Not sure how you searched, but you missed about a dozen out there. Including at least one California car.

 

[Jamez]

...there are 2017 cars that do not have the new battery...

Yikes. Where/how have you seen this? How can one tell (other than a draw-down test)

 

[triangles]

...there are 2017 cars that do not have the new battery...

Yikes. Where/how have you seen this? How can one tell (other than a draw-down test)

+1 I don't see it even as an option to not have the CCS or 33.5kWh battery???

 

[jmueller065]

I would bet if you plugged in forscan to one of those cars you could read back the battery size.

 

[MNEV]

I talked to the lease manager about 3 months before my lease was up. Ford was willing to drop the price to $11K and eat the last 3 lease payments (so it felt like I paid $10K). For me that was worth keeping it. I'll probable buy a longer range EV in a year or two and use the FFE for commuting.

 

[NightHawk]

Is it possible to extend a 3 year lease on a Ford FFE a few extra months?
Is that something a local Ford dealer can decide or is it Ford Credit that would do it if possible?

 

[EVfuture]

I'm fairly certain thats an option NightHawk. I returned my 2013 but I recall them saying that I could extend the lease if I wanted to, instead of returning or buying it.

 

[NightHawk]

My 2014 FFE lease ends at the end of this month.
Has anyone gotten the free 3rd party inspection prior to turning in their leased Ford car?
I'm trying to set that up now since I'd prefer to know in advance if they find anything to charge for, then be surprised after I turn it in to the local dealer.

 

[EVA]

My 2014 FFE lease ends at the end of this month.
Has anyone gotten the free 3rd party inspection prior to turning in their leased Ford car?
I'm trying to set that up now since I'd prefer to know in advance if they find anything to charge for, then be surprised after I turn it in to the local dealer.

Is your lease with Ford? If it is, they send out a person a few weeks before returning your car to do a complete inspection. They are very thorough. You really have to leave the guy alone, he doesn't want you around during the inspection. You'll get an email a few days afterwards with what they found and how much you will owe. There's no need to hire somebody yourself.

I seem to remember something about all the criteria are in some documents I got near the end of the lease. Dent size was the key thing. We had a dent that was just barely over the limit of normal. Had to pay $210 at lease end. Not unhappy with that price. And they don't care or won't charge you for only one fob. We only turned one fob in - lost one of them a long time ago.

 

[NightHawk]

I discovered I needed to call Ford Credit up to get the inspection info, and they were able today to look up my Ford lease account and determined the 3rd party that does the lease end inspections for them tried to contact a month ago. Maybe they called my home number when I wasn't home and didn't leave a message.

In any case I was able to get the phone number from them for the inspection company and called it today and was quickly able to get an inspection appointment to be done at my house next week. They told me there are only two time blocks to select from for the appointment, either 8am-12pm or 12pm-5pm and you get a courtesy call 30min before they will arrive. They told me you are encouraged to hang out with the inspector during the inspection that takes about 25min. They also warn you to make sure if you have any pets to keep them locked inside the house during the inspection - no problem there, my cat is afraid to go outside the house...

 

[EVA]

Good thing you got to the inspection thing settled. It isn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be - the guy was super nice, he did a great job. It isn't like an IRS audit or going the principal's office.

I left the guy alone when he did the inspection. That's pretty much how he wanted it. I think my wife offered him coffee or water.

 

[EMP40]

I will likely look to find someone to take over my lease about 15 months early in Feb/March. My 2016 will have tons of miles/month available and with the insurance on the condition it should be a good deal for someone.

BTW: I am in Sacramento area

 

[EastWestBrothers]

The lease on our 2014 Focus Electric ends in about 4 weeks. While I was originally contemplating extending the lease to wait and see about the Model 3, but after much debate and consideration, we moved on something sooner.

We have about a month of overlap between the Focus Electric and the new car so expect a comparison soon.

In the meantime, still waiting to get my lease end inspection done. Anticipating getting charged mostly for other people's mistakes (e.g. door dings) but we shall see.