Steps to sell your leased vehicle

1.

Contact your leasing company and get a payoff amount. Typically, the payoff amount is valid for 10 days.

2.

Send us a request for a sell/trade offer and see how much your vehicle is worth. You can expect your offer within 1 business day.

3.

Calculate your equity and decide if you want to sell.

If your equity is below zero, then you'll need to pay us that amount. This can be worthwhile if your vehicle is damaged, for example, to avoid damage fees. If your equity is above zero, congratulations! This is the size of the check you can cash.

Offer - Payoff Amount = Equity

4.

Accept your offer and set up a time to hand over the vehicle.

Before you come in, we'll contact the leasing company to confirm that we can buy it from them for the payoff amount. At handoff, we'll do a quick check to make sure it's the right vehicle and as described, and close out the necessary paperwork. That's it!

Our dealership is located right in the Twin Cities at 3350 Hwy 61 N, St Paul, MN, 55110.

Why sell my leased car?

If the car you leased is worth more now than what your lease payments were based on, you can have a significant amount of positive equity in the car. Sometimes we see $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 in equity. This means you can sell the car, and get a check for the balance!

On the other hand, if you're facing big charges for going over mileage or damage to the vehicle, you may be able to avoid these bills by having us buy the car out. Even if you have negative equity or just scrape even, it's better than having to pay up hundreds or thousands in cash.

If your leasing company won't allow us to buy the car

Even if you get a payoff amount, your leasing company (such as Volkswagen Credit or U.S. Bank) could refuse to sell us the leased vehicle. (That's right, they own the vehicle, not you.)

In that case, there is a way around. As the lessee, you (almost) always have what's called "first right of refusal." This means that you have a right to buy the vehicle you leased. You can choose to first buy the vehicle yourself for the appraised value (paying sales tax as necessary), then sell it or trade it in to us for another vehicle.

For example, if we appraise your leased vehicle's trade-in value at $20,000, and your payoff amount is $18,000, and you want to trade it in for a vehicle costing $25,000:

• You pay the leasing company $18,000 and pay sales tax on $18,000
• When you trade in and buy the 2d vehicle, you pay sales tax for just $5,000 ($25,000 - $20,000 = $5,000)
• Total, you paid sales tax on $23,000, and you got a $25,000 vehicle for just $23,000!

Who owns my leased car?

When you lease a car, the car is actually owned by the leasing company. Most commonly, if you leased a new car from a dealership, the leasing company is a "captive" financing branch of the manufacturer. For example, American Honda Motor Co., Inc, leases vehicles through Honda Financial Services.

Sometimes, new car leases are also through banks. The most common banks that do auto leases in Minnesota are U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. In that case, the bank owns the car. More rarely, they can be through an independent company that just does leases, like "Bob's Vehicle Leasing MN."

Because the leasing company actually owns the car, we need written agreement from them to confirm that we can buy it.

In the past, say around 2010 or earlier, many manufacturers did not allow off-brand dealers to to buy a leased vehicle. For example, if you owned a Volkswagen, you would be able to buy it yourself, or return it to a Volkswagen dealer; those were the only options. Most manufacturers nowadays are pretty good about allowing any dealership, regardless of make, to buy a leased vehicle.

We always need more used car inventory. Is your car next?