Early Termination Car Lease

Mondee

Hi,

So I am 31 months into my 48 months lease and I am looking to move from this vehicle for something more economical since my mileage has drastically dropped since Covid started and it's mainly town driving now.

I contacted the finance company (Leasys) and they gave me 3 options.

1. Buy the car from them outright
2. Pay the early termination fee
3. Transfer the lease to someone else

While the early termination fee was very reasonable, I thought I would just get the dealership of the new vehicle to buy it, which they were more than happy to do and Leasys didn't object.

What I don't understand is that Leasys now want the remaining value of the car + an early termination fee and I just can't wrap my head around that.

If I pay them the early termination fee on top of the remaining value of the car, I will be paying over the new car price when I got it.

Can anyone shed any light if this is right or if they are just trying it on? I have looked at the contract and there's nothing there that mentions this, only the early termination fee if handing car back early.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

DrEskimo

If you bought the car (option 1) would there have been an early termination fee?

If so, then I could understand this as the option to buy is separate from your contractual obligation on the lease. If not, then just buy it then sell to the dealer.

Mondee

This is what I was thinking, however apparently there is an early termination fee which would bring the total amount to 2k over invoice price.

Grumpy_chap

How is the early termination fee calculated?
Is it the amount of the remaining lease payments brought forward?