In a nutshell, I just got unexpectedly divorced and moved out of our house. I own a motorcycle, but she kept the car. I am finding out very quickly that for me, having only a motorcycle is rather inconvenient at times. For instance, riding in the rain (like yesterday and today) kind of sucks. Also, grocery shopping is inconvenient. And buying large furniture (which I need to do for the studio I just leased) requires borrowing or renting a car.
So, I want a car. But due to the costs of moving out in a hurry, I don’t have much cash. I don’t have terrible credit (I bought a house six months ago), but it isn’t stellar, either. What I’d really like to do is lease a car for a short period of time until I can save up enough to buy something (or decide that I don’t really need to own a car afterall).
I read a really good article on Edmunds about car leases, and I’ve decided based on their comparisons that leasing actually does make sense for what I want IF I do a short-term lease. Ideally, I’d like to lease a car for about a year, but I don’t see any dealerships that do that. Most are three-year leases.
However, I’ve started reading about being able to take over other people’s leases, and this seems like a really good deal. There are all sorts of downsides for the person who is giving up their lease, not the least of which being that they’re often still at least partially liable for the car. But there didn’t seem to be much in the way of downsides for the person who takes over the lease.
There are actually websites out there for people who are trying to get out of their leases to look for prospective individuals to take over the payments, and I’m seriously thinking about trying to go through this process. It allows me to get a lease at far less than the standard three years AND I don’t have to have a downpayment to do it. I just have to pass the leasing company’s credit check.
So I’m wondering if anyone here has any experience with this process, or any other commentary. I’d love to hear it.
I can’t help with taking over a lease, but you can lease from a new car dealer for any amount of time that you want. However since the depreciation is most in the first year, a one year lease will result in shockingly high payments.
That makes sense, and I’d prefer to avoid high payments, of course. In addition to that, if I take over a lease, I avoid the out-the-door payments associated with a new lease, so I don’t have to have any cash on hand.
Can’t help with the lease take over either, sorry, but have you thought about zipcar or a similar service? I know that it’s a totally different idea than you you are suggesting, and I don’t know if it would work for you because I don’t know where you live these days (I am guessing still southern california somewhere) but I had a couple of friends in other cities who used them as backups to their bikes and liked the service.
If you do go through with the lease take over, please report back. I would be interested to know how it worked for you.
Yes, still in LA (right on the border of downtown and Chinatown, in fact). Someone else suggested Zipcar to me, but when I took a quick look, it looked like their cars were all based around USC and UCLA, which makes sense, I suppose. There didn’t seem to be much of anything happening around downtown. I should probably give it a closer look, though.
That makes sense. The people I know with the most experience with it are not in LA so I don’t know how well it works here. There’s another similar service too, but I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me, and I don’t know if it operates in LA or not. So, I’m not a lot of help there.
Sorry to hear about the divorce, I hope you are doing OK.
IMO you would be much better off spending $1000 on an old beater and driving the motorcycle as your primary transportation and using the car for the occasional inconvenience (rain, furniture shopping, etc.) Leasing a car can cost you a bundle and the insurance costs will be very high whereas with an old crap car you pay almost nothing for insurance and when your done with it you can sell it, scrap it, or freakin’ set fire to it if you really want.
I can save that money in time. However, my need for a vehicle is more immediate. Now is when I’m in the process of trying to stock up on groceries and buy furniture for my new place while I only have a motorcycle. Yes, I can wait three or four months to save up a downpayment (or enough to buy a beater), but the inconvenience during those few months is what makes taking over a lease now so attractive.
In this situation I would highly recommend furniture delivery and Fresh Direct for groceries. If you do end up taking over a lease though let us know what you think of the whole process!
This is only one of the websites that you can use.
I did this once and picked up a car for 9 months. At that time there was a startup cost around $500. I didn’t care what kind of car it was, I was looking for the cheapest monthly payments available with the 9 month term in the city I was in. I ended up with an Alero for about $220 a month.
So, since you have the experience, tell me about the process you went through. How long did it take to get approved? How much intereaction did you have to have with the leasing company versus the individual who was trying to give up the lease? How many miles did you have left available to you for those seven months? Did you have any hassles returning the car at the end of the period? Anything else I should know?
The car I picked up was actually at a dealership. The owner had turned it in early and the dealer was filling up the remaining months. I showed up, filled in some paperwork, they ran a credit check. I gave them a check for the deposit and off I went. Turning it in was just as easy. Drop it off, sign a paper, bye bye. It would seem to me that no matter how you got into the lease, you would turn the car in at a dealer.
Now, granted, because of your transitional state you might have to do a little more talking to your prospect. If you’re employed the rest of the stuff shouldn’t be an obstacle.