I hope this is the correct forum to post this question. I did a search and could not find any recent information. Long story short, the wife and I leased a 2013 Prius Three January 2013. We feel like we got a great deal on the lease. Honestly we love the car. Quiet, smooth, beautiful blizzard pearl color. 50mpg!! Realistically, our circumstances have changed and now we would like to explore the option of terminating the lease early and we're not sure how to go about this. We have such "buyer's remorse" and are feeling very anxious about our purchase. Please no lectures about how we should have thought more about purchasing the vehicle before "changing our mind." We can afford it, but don't want to keep it. There doesn't seem to be much information online about terminating a lease early. Toyotal financial has a blurb that there may be "substantial costs in ending a lease early" but no specific details. I've read a little bit about swapalease and leasetrader, and even Carmax, but not sure if anyone will want to pick this lease up since it's so new. We've only put a little over 4,000 miles on the car. I know we are probably going to be penalized with some type of large fee, but just hoping someone has some insight and advice to offer us? Thank you for reading and I hope this is the appropriate place to post this question.
If you are is really interested, it's because we are trying to start a family and have recently decided to cut as many costs as possible. Truthfully, we are lucky enough to be in a position to get by with only one family car, which is a paid off 2009 Lexus IS250. We've considered selling the IS and buying a used 2010 Prius. We can carpool to work, since our respective offices are only 5 miles apart from each other. We are doing well financially and that's why we thought we would "splurge" and get the Prius. Now we have major buyer's remorse and are willing to pay a penalty to get this lease off our hands. Also, since we don't drive that much, I don't think we NEED a 51mpg vehicle. We have 19 years left on our Mortgage payment and have also recently (with the incredible interest rates) considered refinancing the mortgage down to a 15 year payment plan at an interest rate of 2.635%. This would increase our monthly payment by $375 a month, which is just slightly more money than our Prius Lease payment, which is $342 a month. We are realizing that we don't need the "luxury" of having two cars, when we usually only drive one car anyways. We've become extremely debt adverse. Not trying to preach or anything. To each their own but we see the light and don't want to pay to borrow this car (no matter how incredibly awesome it is!). Hope this makes sense. But back on topic...
You likely got a good interest rate on the lease that you won't be able to duplicate on a used vehicle. Also, there are the usual doubts about the history of any used vehicle. My suggestions: - Sell the IS250 privately. While the Lexus is a nice vehicle, a Prius is a better family car and, being a 2009 IS, it will require non-warranty repairs. Save the money for a future car purchase. - Keep the 2013 Prius and plan on buying it after the completion of the lease using the funds from selling the IS. You will know how the car has been maintained. If it turns out to be troublesome, turn it in at the end of the lease and get something different. If you drive extra miles, it would probably still be cheaper to continue the lease. A lot of Ramsey-esque families eschew leases, but other intelligent people will point out that they want to drive a new car and view leasing as the most economical way of paying for this depreciating asset. Every time you change vehicles you are paying extra taxes, reconditioning/repair fees (either from the seller or you), and, if done through a dealer, their costs & profit. If you already have a vehicle, it is usually cheaper to keep what you have rather than change it out early, either lease or purchase.
First thing to do is call the lease company that financed the lease of the Prius to get a "payoff". That is what you will owe if you terminate the lease. It doesn't matter if you purchase the car, turn the car in to them, or sell it on your own, the payoff amount will apply. I think you will find that you will owe more than the car is worth at this point, even with the low miles. I like the idea of selling your Lexus IS250 and keeping the Prius. Financially it makes better sense. Selling the IS and buying a 2010 Prius while getting rid of the 2013 Prius doesn't make a lot of sense. Run the numbers - if you're going to suffer the penalty of ending the lease early, why not just buy the one you already have?
Thank you for the very insightful replies. We do like the idea of keeping the Prius as our one family car - a LOT. It really is great vehicle. I'm sure if we kept the gas guzzling IS, our fuel costs would be going up quite a bit. Right now we're mostly just driving the Prius on longer trips while the IS sits in the garage. True, the IS it is out of warranty. It has about 56K miles, financed new and paid off 1 year ago. Will have to continue doing research, like finding out the payoff amount. The one thing I know for sure is that we do not need 2 cars.
You used Toyota Finance. Have you signed up for electronic payement, you can simply use the website and you can get that payoff information which is good for 10 days. I am financing with them not leasing but that must be the same.
Makes sense to sell the IS and keep the prius. Also if you really want to get rid of the Prius, is there someone you know that might be interested in it. Take over the lease. We did it once on a Honda Accord. After we leased it we found that it just didn't suit our needs. One of our daughters was in need of a new vehicle so we signed it over to her. She liked it so much that when the lease was up she bought it and kept it for a few more years.
Every statement we receive from Honda Finance has the lease buyout figure on it. It seems as if the buyout value doesn't really start to go down until you're in the last year (or less) of the lease. So my guess is your buyout is probably going to be pretty high (i.e. at least the # of months remaining * monthly payment amount.....and probably more). I bought my new 2012 a few weeks ago, and traded in a paid off '07 ES350 with just over 70,000 miles. As much as I loved the car (was my father's before he passed), the realities of my new daily commute paired with the potential of things going wrong with the Lexus made the Prius purchase a sound decision.
