taking over a lease....

[greg123]

never leased a car, but now im looking for a second car and got my eyes on the 2007 Civic Si, the problem is the interior/exterior color combo i want have to be ordered and dealer is telling me i gotta wait 3-6 month...

on leasebusters.ca i saw someone is looking to get rid of a lease 54 month left... if this car is in perfect condition what are some of if any negative sides to taking over a lease oppose to starting a brand new one??

he said he will pay lease transfer fees, do i have to pay taxes on a leased car when i register it to my name in Ontario?

i used the honda lease payment calculator and his lease monthly price came out exactly as the calculator result, so im guessing he didnt negotiate much, which is pretty hard since these cars go easy....

thx

[greg123]

any insiders know how much bargain room i have vs the numbers from the honda calculator on the 2007 civics? all the info im getting from civic forums are useless since 99.9% of them are in the US market...

[thephenom]

When you take over someone's lease, you should always try to squeeze out more incentives in addition to paying transfer fees. ;)

No taxes on it I believe, since for a lease, the tax is added to each individual payment.

The best leases to take over are the ones that has a down payment. :D

[Pete_Coach]

It sounds like you want specific colours and not a specific car.
Firstly, and being a lease holder, I do think that there is a good place in the market for leases but, for short terms and for valid reasons.
A 60 month lease is not smart, and taking over a 60 month lease with 54 left on it is, well, in my opinion, a real dumb thing to do. If you want to make payments for that long then at the end, you should at least own it, especially an inexpensive car like a Civic.
If you cannot get satisfaction at that dealer (or salesman) you went to, go to another, you would be surprised at what they may be able to do for you. There are tons of Honda places around. Many a car salesman will just not want to make an effort for you because he knows he can sell a car to someone else with a lot less work to do. He makes no money until you walk out the door with the car. If it ain't on the lot, why bother?

[Spud72]

Agree with the above post.

Long term leases are almost always a bad idea. They're designed for someone so desperate to get into a shiny new car, but they really can't afford it and shouldn't be looking at it in the first place.

Hey Mr. New car "owner" - you've been paying for your car for 60 months now - all you now need is to give us another $15K buyout and it's all yours? What? You couldn't save $15K over the 60 months? No sweat - either lets start the whole process again from scratch with a new car, or we'll finance your $15K for oh, another, 36 months. That way, you're paying on your civic for 96 months! Yay!! :)

A lease takeover is great when there isn't many months left and the buyout is attractive. Generally, the buyout should be substantially less than the going used-rate is for the vehicle. Example: Let's say you were in the market for a 2004-ish pick up. Used prices are anywhere from say $28K-$33K (depending, of course).

However, someone is looking to dump their lease that has a few months left @ $450/month and the buyout is around $23K-$25K. That would probably be worth looking at.

Or, if you genuinely only wanted a car for short period of time and don't want the hassle of buying/selling used, you can see what is left for takeovers with only a few months or so left.