http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../708070342/1148 That was really smart of this person to buy a >5000 lb. behemoth in the fist place... 'Livonia's Ron Abraham posted his Lincoln Navigator SUV on the site in May. He bought the vehicle for his wife, a homemaker, to drive around town. But as gas prices rose, he began to feel the $700-a-month truck wasn't worth the expense ... "I'm paying more than $1,000 a month for fuel -- it's just not practical," Abraham said. "I can get something very nice at a lot less. They're giving away cars right now."'
You have to be pretty desperate to begin with. You have to sweeten the deal by offering, say, a $2000 cash bonus and give the website a cut and a lot of the leasing companies still hold you liable so if the other guy crashes it without insurance, you're in deep trouble. To get out of the lease, buy your way out, it may cost you $20,000 so the few thousand that swapping costs you may be worth it but it sure makes me glad that I don't have one of those gawdawful SUVs to begin with.
A $700/month lease? That's OVER A DOLLAR AN HOUR for that sucker, *just* for the lease payments! Add his gas bill into it (not insurance or maintenance) and it's nearing $2.25/hour! I'd guess that insurance and maintenance would take it to nearly $3.00/hour...just for the "privilege" of driving the thing! Too rich for me!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Aug 8 2007, 04:07 PM) [snapback]492586[/snapback]</div> $700 a month on a $60,000 vehicle is actually a very good lease. I'm thinking about leasing a Lexus LS460 and I'm looking at $1100 payments on a $68k car with 20k miles a year. If I were going to lease a new ES350 the payments would be almost $700 and its only $45k. That has to be a Lincoln subsidized lease special. The cost beneifts over traditional financing are not as much as you would think a lot of times, it depends on what your individual tax situation is. I can write off the payment, so I really have to lease. Sometimes manufacturers will subsidize leases like they do financing (0% etc) to move vehicles, most of your foreign luxury cars don't really do that (Lincoln does, they have to since the poor residuals make leasing impossible otherwise).
Around the time I bought my second Prius I became a member of leasetrader.com and swapalease.com, as I thought I could take over a lease on something like an Infiniti G35 or Acura TL from someone who was desperate to get out (leaving the country for a new job, etc.). What I found was that many of these people were making absolutely ridiculous lease payments every month, either due to (horrendously) bad credit, (unimaginable) stupidity, or both. Even at several hundred dollars off theith monthly payment it wasn't worth it (Infinity G35 coupe with a monthly lease payment of over $700 - ridiculous).
