gk1

I was in a similar situation. Mileage was way north of the lease total allowed. The dealer worked with me a bit on the negative equity since I was a getting a new Audi from them but they could not absorb it completely which is understandable. I should have owed more than twice what I ended up if I had simply turned in at lease end. Since I wanted something new anyway it worked out, but buying out the lease as you're interested was my 2nd option.

MaxSport730

Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'll keep driving it with the idea I'll sort out the overmileage at the end. Maybe I'll buy it out to keep it or maybe I'll want a new S4 after 3 years and use that as leverage to help with the extra miles. Or maybe I'll just get an RS7 at that point. :-P

Dr Chill

Either buy it at lease end or sell it to a used car dealer like car max. They don't have to pay sales tax and they just buy it from Audi Financial for roughly the same as your buyout before sales tax.

AudiS4SD

How far in advance before lease end can you sell it?

P.S. that's a huge signature...

Dr Chill

Anytime during the lease. Last two cars I sold before lease end, I made $3000 and $7000 on. That's because Porsches and Audis give lower residuals on their leases than BMW/MB and have good resale value.

AudiS4SD

That's pretty good. How long did you have the vehicles and how many miles when you sold them?

How does this process work exactly? To expand from above: let's say you have $10k remaining to pay on the lease. If you sell to CarMax, they will take the lease from AFS and pay them Residual + $10k? Then where does the potential profit come from?

Dr Chill

Any car dealer can buy the car from the finance company that owns the car, just like the leaseholder can. Only difference is that the leaseholder must also pay the local sales tax. Sometimes the buyout is different for the lease holder than for the dealer.

Just call and get your pretax buyout from AFS beforehand so you know how much is owed when you go to carmax or equivalent.
If your buyout is less than your cash offer, then the dealer buys the car from AFS and gives you a check for the difference.

AudiS4SD

Cool, thanks for the clarification.

hiter202

@DrGP
I am new to the whole car buying/trading world. This is my first Audi S4 lease as of 2 months ago. I am not sure what you mean trade the car in for another car at the end of the lease, or even now. How would that work since it's a leased car.
Pardon my ignorance, but unfortunately I am a total noob when it comes to finances such as these.

RickFLS4

It doesn't matter that it is leased. Leasing is just a form of financing. You can buy it out or trade it in like any other financed car whenever you want. The dealer buys the car out of the lease, just like paying off a loan on a non-lease trade-in.