Lease end options?

My lease on the Volt comes to an end in a couple months and I'm wondering about my options. I'll start out by saying I've loved every minute with the car, and would happily re-enlist (although not at the same price, because they've gone down). But the monkey in the wrench is the 2016 which comes out in late fall.

My wife has also come around to seeing the light, and she's fallen in love with the thing. We're moving next month, and the Volt would be the perfect vehicle for her new commute.

We're also well under the mileage limit for the car.

My IDEAL solution would be to get some sort of one-year extension (at a much lower rate). Then when that ends, I can make a decision on a 2016, or probably get a screaming deal on a leftover 2015. Is that even thing?

What other creative lease-end options exist besides just giving the car back and walking away (which I would also be happy to do. and just wait until i can check out a 2016 for real).

You can sell it. As long as Chevy gets their pound of flesh, they don't care. Actually, they'd rather you sell the car so they don't have to deal with selling it themselves. Or, ask for a new lease on lower terms. They can terminate your present contract and write a new one. After all, it's a used car now.

Most leasing companies should be happy to extend the lease, but I'm not sure you can renegotiate the rate if you do that.

How does the residual value look compared to the "street price" for the car? Is there some money to be made there? If yes, why not buy it at the end of the lease, run it for a year and then sell it, hopefully making a little money in the process or at least drive it for free for a year?

buy, drive it then if you decide that you want to 2016 (or wait til the 2017 model year for the price gauging and early adapter mark ups to subside) sell it and upgrade.

My last lease car had a residual value $2000 less than the market value.

so I bought it and ran it 8 more years.

Jerry From LA wrote: You can sell it. As long as Chevy gets their pound of flesh, they don't care. Actually, they'd rather you sell the car so they don't have to deal with selling it themselves. Or, ask for a new lease on lower terms. They can terminate your present contract and write a new one. After all, it's a used car now.

You can't sell it. You don't own it.

Just recently we had discussed that used Volts were selling for very low prices.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-used-chevy-volt/99472/page1/

I would be sure to look hard at what the residual value of the lease is before actually buying this Volt.

Also, GM has stopped production of the current Volt model early because they have such a glut of models on hand. More that 200 days worth, on hand.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2481179,00.asp

All this combined, I would think it would be a bad time to try to personally sell a Volt.
I think this leaves you with your best option to be; walk away.

There's a joke in there about the lease running out before the battery does, but I can't work it out.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

gas isn't going to stay cheap for long. Wait til 4th of July weekend, suddenly GM won't have 60 days supply of Volts left and the used market will go back up 20%

JohnRW1621 wrote: Just recently we had discussed that used Volts were selling for very low prices. <snip> All this combined, I would think it would be a bad time to try to personally sell a Volt. I think this leaves you with your best option to be; walk away.

Or go an try to negotiate a 6-12 months lease extension for cheap. That would buy peace of mind and enough time to see what the 2016s are like.

The 2016 is going to be a much nicer car. The value of the early models will crater for sure.

iceracer wrote:

Jerry From LA wrote: You can sell it. As long as Chevy gets their pound of flesh, they don't care. Actually, they'd rather you sell the car so they don't have to deal with selling it themselves. Or, ask for a new lease on lower terms. They can terminate your present contract and write a new one. After all, it's a used car now.

You can't sell it. You don't own it.

Yes. Yes you can. You don't own it but the company doesn't want the car back either. If you buy it or sell it, all they want is the already-agreed-upon residual value.

But... you have to buy it first, then sell it, no?

Duke wrote: But... you have to buy it first, *then* sell it, no?

As I understand it, and granted I've never done it, it's the same as selling a car with a lien on the title.

And that's not hard at all.

I was thinking you could enter it in a WRL race to make up some of that milage.

Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to iceracer: Yes he can. If the residual is $10k, and the market is $12k, he can sell it for 12, payoff the 10, and keep the 2. I've done it a few times.

True but you have to own it first

iceracer wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to iceracer: Yes he can. If the residual is $10k, and the market is $12k, he can sell it for 12, payoff the 10, and keep the 2. I've done it a few times.

True but you have to own it first

Dude read what others have said you don't ever have to own it. same as if you trade it in before the lease ends.

JG I would wait til summer and ditch it value will go up.