Can I negotiate the buy-out price at the end of my lease?

[tinaisis]

Hi,

I love, love, LOVE my 2015 SEL egolf w 19k miles and a battery that has held up quite well- no problems, whatsoever. I can easily get by on an 8o mile range. The lease is up in September and the buy-out is around 12k. Can I negotiate this price, or am I bound to some specific price somewhere?

Thanks for your input!

 

[johnnylingo]

You can try but I don't think I've seen anyone having success. The dealers want you to return your "$12k" car so the can flip it around and sell it on the used lot for $15k. There is no incentive to let it go for anything less than the agreed upon value.

I decided to buy my 2016 SE for $13.5k even though I already had the i3 as a replacement, because the residual was such a great price it made more sense to continue using it as a commuter car just to keep miles off the i3.

 

[stevestrange]

Yeah, I didn't expect it to work out this way, but used prices on the e-Golfs are quite high, despite the short range. Supply is fairly tight, and it is a great car. My lease is up in mid-Oct, and I'm leaning toward buying out the lease also, even if I have to pay the full $13K and change. Original plan was to upgrade to a 2017/2018 e-Golf lease (or purchase), but that's not looking very promising right now either (no cars!).

 

[johnnylingo]

I just saw it posted on the Facebook group that there will be no more e-Golfs sold in 2018. Even 2019 is looking spotty at the moment.

If I had to do it all over again I would have bought out the e-Golf lease last year, then traded it in on a 2018 Leaf. Great range, fair price, and much improved style and handling. But I have no regrets about getting the i3 (despite the insane price) nor keeping the e-Golf. Both are fun to drive and I think they'll hold up pretty well on the used market thanks to the Red HOV stickers being good until 2022.

 

[tinaisis]

Wow,

Thanks you guys! I didn't realize that used Egolf's were going for so much. I also didn't know that there were so few newer models. Crazy! I guess I will be even more happy with the 12k price.

 

[RonDawg]

$12k buyout is very good, especially if you didn't have more than 12k/year mileage allowance and/or you didn't put a hefty down payment.

Mine was slightly more than $13k and I had 10k/year allowance.

 

[egolfEr]

Mine is coming up soon, 2016 with 36kmi for $12k. Its been a great car...but it is time to move on. Has anyone sold their car prior to the lease expiration and made $1-4k?

 

[pheonix]

My 2016 SE lease will also be up in January, 2018. The car will have around 40k miles by then with a buy out of about $12k. I will probably end up with another brand EV as nothing to be in the pipeline for an eGolf. I will definitely try to see if I could get better trade in elsewhere if those prices are real

 

[tbier]

A 2015 eGolf with 25k miles on it sold last week at a dealer auction here in Portland, OR for $14,250. Thats before they pay $300-600 in fees. So I'd assume they plan on getting at least $17k for it.

 

[RonDawg]

A 2015 eGolf with 25k miles on it sold last week at a dealer auction here in Portland, OR for $14,250.

After I returned my Leaf to Nissan at the end of its lease, I found it for sale at CarMax for $9999, later dropped to $9699 before it disappeared from their website. It had only 27k miles and was in perfect condition aside from a small scrape in the lower front bumper (which the inspector missed) and a bit of wear on the driver's back cushion bolster and driver's carpet where it was not covered by a floor mat (neither of which I was dinged for).

The stated residual of the car? $16,700 Nissan tried to bribe me with $5k off that, but as you can see that's still too much.

Someone had posted on another thread that one of the reasons eGolf's command a surprisingly high auction price, besides their relative rarity when new, is that many of them are being purchased and re-patriated to Europe (Estonia?).

 

[miimura]

Some of them are also going to Ukraine and Jordan. Jordan in particular has very significant tax exemptions for EVs.

 

[mfennell]

A 2015 eGolf with 25k miles on it sold last week at a dealer auction here in Portland, OR for $14,250. Thats before they pay $300-600 in fees. So I'd assume they plan on getting at least $17k for it.

Wow. Thanks for that data point! Very few e-golfs in NJ but I've seen dealer asking prices of 16-18k for '15 SELs which seemed nuts. My buy out is $13 with no sales tax.