3rd party buyout ($ for your lease pt 3)
The last method is the lease 😉 obvious way of making money from your lease. Many people are not aware that they can have another party buyout their lease. Other parties can include dealerships or private buyers for your vehicle. The biggest advantage of this method is that the next buyer pays the taxes on the vehicle buyout and not you. In the case of Ontario, this saves you 13% immediately. For example, if your vehicle pre-tax buyout cost is $30,000, you just saved yourself $3,900 by having a 3rd party buy out your vehicle.
Of course, this method still requires you to find your next buyer. To do so, you can list your vehicle on marketplaces such as AutoTrader or KijijiAuto. Alternatively, due to the supply shortage of used cars, dealership are now paying top dollars for used vehicles so you may get very competitive offers from them. There are now many dealers that offers a hassle free experience and helps guide you through the entire lease buyout process. Some even offer vehicle pick-ups from your home and electronic payments. If you end up “selling” your lease to a dealership, make sure you ask about all the fees involved and also understand who will be ultimately paying off the lease. You want to make sure that the lien on the vehicle is cleared of your name.
Bare in mind that most dealers that leased you your vehicle now charges between $500-2,000 in administration fee for 3rd party buyout. The best way to know exactly how much the cost will be is to reach out to your dealer directly and ask them for a full breakdown of the buyout cost. They should itemize for you the vehicle buyout price and fees. If you are interested in estimating your lease buyout “cash back” amount, you can use our calculator here.