St3phen

In 2006, my wife was leasing an 04 A4 when she fell in love with an 06 A6. She still had several months left on the A4's lease. The Audi dealership appeared to simply "end" that lease as she began the A6 lease. In fact, it was a non-issue.

Now, the 06's lease won't be up until March 09, but she's going to hit her mileage limit in the next month. So, tonight, we went to go see about leasing a new Q7 for her, and the Audi dealership made a huge deal about her having 8 months left on her lease and how the difference "needed to be made up somewhere." This isn't a freaking loan that she's upside-down in or something. It's a pre-calculated payment schedule with pre-calculated residuals and, as a result, pre-calculated monthly values of the A6, right?

So, if the dealership tonight is shooting straight, how was she able to just "walk away" from her A4 lease in 06?

We'd heard that as long as you "kept it in the family" getting a new car that Audi, Audi Financial, and the Audi dealer couldn't care less about the fact that you're ending a lease early.

Anyone in the know about this? Thanks.

Egil A64.2s - S6

which allowed them to do a deal. With the A6 there is probably a loss and the dealer does not want to absorb this. Audi finance is independent of the dealers and is a profit center unto its own.

8 remaining payments would add up to a few thousand dollars, where will the dealer find this?

NOLAessate

Since I don't know about all of your circumstances, I'll try to comment only on those aspects that I am familiar with as a result of my own lease experiences (4 since 1999 and having asked some of the pertinent "can I get out of my lease early" questions).

1) Early lease turn in. There seems to be a big difference between turning a car in during the last 90 days of a lease and earlier than that. If you hit the last 90 days, technically you have fulfilled the lease (other than 3 remaining payments, of course). In most cases, with a payment of $400-$600/mo, your upside-down is only $1200-$1800 and somewhat easy for a dealer to absorb on the delivery of a new car, particularly one that isn't moving off the lot too fast (as was probably the case with the A6). Using the same payment guidelines, with 8 months left, your upside-down is considerably greater ($3200-$4800) and therefore more difficult to absorb.

2) Pre-Calculated monthly values -- Your end of lease residual is calculated at lease onset. Any other value prior to lease end will be the current market value of your car (whatever book or auction value your dealer is currently using), and there is obviously a problem if your car is worth significantly less than your total of remaining payments (this is quite possible given the somewhat poor resale of some Audi models, and may be exacerbated if you are already at your end of lease mileage allowance, meaning your car's current value may be dinged for excess mileage). Someone is going to have to make up the difference and (unless your new vehicle is the ugliest duckling that has been sitting in the back corner of his lot for three model years or you are his best bread-and-butter customer and he doesn't want to let you go to another dealer) it is unlikely to be the dealer. After all, you are the one who agreed to the terms of the lease and have underestimated the mileage you would use (not throwing stones here -- I normally have to pay for some extra miles at lease end as well).

HTH. Leases can be very beneficial, or can be a gigantic pain, depending on your circumstances. Good luck.

schnellmb

there isn't a way to get out of a lease without some money to kill off the old one.

there's probably incentive money on the Q7 to wash out some of the old A6's lease inequity.

the depreciation on Audis have been very bad, and no doubt you're upside down...but not too bad being 8 months out.

they are factoring some back into your monthly payment.

the only way to go clean is to get the payoff and subtract it from the dealer's trade in offer and strike a check.

then see how much the dealer will negotiate any trunk money....

either way you're paying.

clangjr

My dealer told me that a few years ago, approximately when you moved into the A6, Audi had an incentive to dealers to get people into new cars. This was specifically designed for people in your situation and probably aided you in making the previous car go away.

Absent of one of these promotions, you're going to pay for it somewhere somehow. It's just a big game of moving around debt, equity, incentives, and discounts.

The dealership can certainly make your A6 "go away" but it will be at your expense.

Bundyman

ST3phen,

Think of it this way. The payments were calculated by determining the "value" of the car at the end of the lease. The car depreciates at a declining rate. As soon as you drive it off the lot, it is worth much less and as each month goes by (and miles put on) it is worth less. The early months it looses more and the later months it looses less. This is why longer leases have a lower payment. You are spreading more "lower" month's depreciation accross the early "higher" month's.

The earlier you want out, the less lower month's depreciation there is to spread-out and reduce the monthly payment. Therefore you will have to make up the difference.

robbie22

milage hit and move on?

neusinc

you might need to wait for 4 more months and try again and see what the dealer say.

April

you turned it in far later than you are trying to do with the A6. NOLAessate sums it up best.

St3phen

to have to wait. She leased the car when we lived in San Francisco and she drove about 600 miles a month, so we only bought 10,000 miles a year. Since we moved to St. Louis 18 months ago and her promotion meant visiting each of her 4 branches every week, she's been racking-up the miles and it's simply been incompatible with her lease. *sigh*

Thanks again.