Free preview · from the dealership side of the desk
Life changes faster than a 36-month contract: a move, a new baby, a lost income, a car you hate. A lease is harder to leave than a loan, because you’re breaking an agreement the lessor priced on you keeping the car to the end. Walk into the early termination clause without a plan and it can easily cost several thousand dollars.
There are usually cheaper ways out. From the dealership side, we see people pay full early termination charges when a trade, sale or transfer would have cost a fraction of that, because nobody laid the numbers side by side. Free first step: call the lessor for your early termination payoff and fee, and ask whether the payoff differs for a dealer. Below: the math for all four exits, special cases, a side-by-side comparison with your numbers, and what to say.
Members read the rest · 8 more sections
In the full guide
- Start with your contract and a payoff quote
- Exit 1: early termination through the lessor
- Exit 2: sell or trade it
- Exit 3: transfer the lease
- Exit 4: keep it and wait
- Special cases
- Compare all four with your own numbers
- What to say
Knowledge Hub membership · $49/mo, cancel any time
Read the full guide — join the Knowledge Hub, $49/mo, cancel any time
Every guide, checklist and script we use with clients, written from the dealership side of the desk, with new material every month. Start with a free account; you land right back on this guide.
Read the full guide — $49/moAll Hub guides
Cancel in one click; no contract. Members also get the checklists and scripts that go with each guide.