Question on Car Leases
 

Hoping that someone familiar with car leases can enlighten me. :)

Suppose someone is leasing a car. Once the lease ends, he can either return it to the dealership or buy it out from the bank/lessor based on the residual value that was agreed upon at time of lease.

Now suppose that he kept the miles low and it turns out the market value of the car is a bit higher than residual value. Let's say $18K market vs. $17K residual.

My initial thought was that the car must be returned to the dealership where it was leased from, but now I don't think this is true because technically the bank/lessor owns the car.

So my question is, could the lessee take this car to a completely different dealership and use it as a trade-in? That is, get $1K towards the purchase of a new vehicle?

Thanks for the info.

I bought my fathers 4 year lease with 20k on it. It was a good deal at the time for an Acura RL with low milage.

And if I had then sold it private party, I could have possibly pocketed a few bucks.

In your case, trade in value will be less than your final lease purchase price. Sorry.

Additionally, the private seller market right now for 2013s is tough.

Look at 2013s in your area with comparable milage.

No you can not use a leased car as a trade in. You even said yourself that the bank?lease holder owns it. You would have to buy it out first and that then trade it in which would defeat the purpose of trying to save money.

Thanks for the info.

Just to clarify, this is not in regards to my FR-S. I bought the car used last year and it's paid off.