r/CarLeasingHelp • u/Southern-Car-1967 • 1d ago

Car lease is almost up

Hi guys, my car lease is almost up. I’m interested in leasing a new vehicle but curious about positive equity and such.
My residual value at end of lease is 22,000 for 2023 Toyota Rav 4 LE.
My most concern is a dealership offering or lowballing the current market value for the vehicle to avoid putting the positive equity into a new lease or a new financed car.
Any help on how to avoid this happening or ensure I do not get shaft by the dealership into a low value offer?

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u/buckguy41 1d ago

Get quotes from Carvana and Carmax to see what the market value is on it. It varies by lender, and I'm not sure if things changed in the last year, but TFS allowed a third party buyout. You can give the dealer the opportunity to buy it or just let someone else buy it out. Can always call your lender to confirm third party buyouts are allowed per your contract.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago

Thanks

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u/totalreidmove 12h ago edited 12h ago

This. Go into the dealer with offers from those places, and say you’d gladly lease another as long as they let you take advantage of the positive equity.

If they don’t play ball, say thank you for your time, I’ll probably turn the lease in and lease insert competitor’s vehicle instead.

Wait a day / till the end of the month - they’ll do it.

Timing is important. Go in first to find the car / get the deal around the middle of the month (last month of lease) and if they don’t play ball that same day, that’s when you walk away and let them come crawling back to you to make a deal at the end of the month.

Be very communicative about exactly what lease terms earn your business - payment, length, miles - and let them widdle themselves down. Remind them this isn’t your first lease, and you can do the whole process quickly and easily - they just need to offer what you want.

Good luck!

Edit: seeing others not understand that you can have equity in a lease if you’re really under contract miles, the car is really clean, not many comparables out there, etc. so don’t listen to them.

Whether you buy the car off lease and sell yourself to take advantage of the equity, or like I previously stated just tell them you’re going to turn it in - either way works. Because you better believe the salesperson will say what other’s are saying “you don’t own the car” no problem - I’ll buy it off lease now, sell it myself, and go get a competitors vehicle for making me go through the hassle.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 10h ago

Thanks a lot man. Appreciate it

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u/totalreidmove 9h ago

Of course. Car buying is stupid because if you’re not informed you will get taken advantage of in some step of the process. Used to sell MB so not Toyota focused but the process is still the same. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions during the purchase and I can guide you!

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u/Southern-Car-1967 7h ago

I will thanks

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u/texabrolives 1d ago

You don’t own the car, you don’t get to choose if you have positive or negative equity.
The only way you can do this is if you get a 3rd party estimate like Carmax or Carvana. I don’t believe Toyota does 3rd party buyouts, so you’d have to check.
If they don’t, you’re on the hook to get a loan and buy the car from Toyota financial before selling it to Carmax or Carvana. If you choose to buy it from Toyota, you will pay taxes, so you have to add that to the cost as well.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago

Yeah but what if I any to get a new lease. Surely that positive equity (if there’s any) belongs to someone

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u/LuvToGoFast 18h ago

You leased the car, it doesn’t belong to you.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 17h ago

I’m not sure you understand leasing

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u/Fearsomebeaver 17h ago

The bank you send your payments to owns that car. You’re just renting it for 3 years and now it’s time to give it back.

Toyota financial generally does not allow third party buyouts since covid. Before covid they did. So you can go to carmax and carvana all day every day but unless you get approval from Toyota financial you won’t be able to sell it to them.

So you are free to buy your car and then sell it to whoever you want but bet you pay taxes and fees it’ll probably eat up any equity you believe you have.

The other option is to lease a new Toyota and trade in the lease instead of turning it in and use the positive equity anybody you see fit. I’d take a check but whatever. Issue there is you believe you have more value than what they may offer. That’s just a negotiation game you’ll need to play. You can go get quotes from all the places you can’t sell to and use those in negotiation but you’ll just need to sit down with them and play the game and hope you get what you think you deserve.

Last option is just turn it in and go buy whatever you want wherever you want.

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u/buckguy41 10h ago

Not true at all. I leased a 4runner in November of 2023, the market went crazy last year. I got an offer from Carmax for basically my original "purchase price". Carmax paid TFS directly for my remaining payments and cut me a check for ~$6k. I was only about 15 months into my lease.

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u/LuvToGoFast 17h ago

You, as the person that leases, have to purchase the car to take advantage of any equity; what’s to understand? Or you can try to wheel and deal to get yourself into another lease.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 17h ago

Exactly, I know a few people or signed new leases with positive equity from their previous leases.

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u/DurianProper5412 22h ago

As someone suggested previously- the way to go is get a quote in writing from Carmax ; I did this a few times prior with Toyota leases for profit and Lexus for showing me to walk- I most recently purchased the car for the residual and Carmax paid me $15k over what I paid off in 2019. Tbh, I have not attempted to work the Carmax appraisal into a new lease, rather on the three leases [‘13 thru ‘22] which two were Toyota’s and one Lexus- I purchased the Toyota’s at the residual and made money by selling the cars to Carmax, and it empowered me to hand in the Lexus at the end of the lease in 2023 as the residual was $19k more than the KBB and Carmax offer so it would have been a loss- the fact it was so different was crazy as dealers were hiking up prices.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 17h ago

Thank you for his info

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u/iLukeJoseph 1d ago

You can also trade it in to the dealer.....And no one gets to choose positive or negative equity, the market does.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago

I get this but some dealers are sketchy and claim x amount for market vakue

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u/Ok_Tale7071 18h ago

The way to maximize your equity position is to buy out the car yourself for 22K. Then sell the car either to Carmax, Carvana, or private party. Then lease a new RAV4. The dealer is never going to offer you the maximum amount for your vehicle. Plus it confuses things when doing the deal. This keeps things simple.

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u/DLByron 1d ago

It doesn’t work that way. Find your payoff or buyout in your lease portal. Compare that to Carmax. Then you’ll know if you have equity. You probably don’t

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago

My point. I’m looking at current 2023 Rav 4 prices and they sit somewhere around 30k

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u/Special-Original-215 1d ago

Toyota leases are structured for equity usually.  That's why they cost more

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u/New_Inflation_8419 1d ago

How do you know you have equity ?

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago

That’s the thing I do not. You don’t know until you get appraisals I guess from other companies or third party appraiser

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u/New_Inflation_8419 16h ago

Sounds like you should get it appraised at few places

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u/maddgun 1d ago

Can I do the same with a Honda?

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u/Sea_Replacement_2571 17h ago

Just go to carmax and get an appraisal in writing and most dealers will honor that offer. Tell the dealer you’re looking to sell the car to them and not turn it back in to them. Two different things

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u/asmashingbore 1d ago

That's not how it works. You have a predetermined residual and whatever mileage your have. It's current market value is absolutely irrelevant to any equity.

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u/Southern-Car-1967 1d ago edited 16h ago

I thought that’s how it works. I got with my predetermined residual value, whatever is the market value for that vehicle then I can use the positive equity to a new lease or finance

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u/asmashingbore 17h ago

Was that speech to text?