Leasing Question

I am through a year with my '03 cab lease. At this point I have put 8,000 miles on the car (my lease allows me 15K/yr). Is there any way I can get into another car (turbo - would consider pre-owned) without taking a huge hit or can I only do that with Porsche premiere financing? The car is leased through Porsche financial.

How long is your lease term?

39 mos.

look at swapalease. com--i doubt that porsche will be much help but i would certainly check with the dealer on the off chance they are trying to move a used turbo

I agree with Swapalease. I have used it a few times and it works great. You'll get killed if you try to turn it in early.

You will probably get killed getting out of the lease early and there is probably nothing the dealer or Porsche Financial will do to help. The key is the amount of your current buy-out price, which you can get from PF with a quick phone call. I am trying to move my 2001 Boxter S now, which has 2 years to go on a lease, but the buyout is substantially more than the current market value (in my case Chase will take a hit on the car when they get it back in 2 years, but right now they won't take that into account to make me a better deal). On the other hand, when I got out of my 1997 Targa lease in 1999, the buy-out compared to market was favorable and I actually had some equity out of that car. It all depends on what your buy-out price is. Good luck!

Best bet is to get someone to assume your lease. swapalease.com is a great way to advertise that. Did you put a bunch of money down on the car? If you did that will make it even tougher to recoup.

There are 3 ways to get out of a lease: 1) Find out what the buy out is of your lease... your dealer will be able to get this information for you, and you're going to want your dealer to do this because there are tax implications on the car if you buy out the car yourself. Let's assume the book value for you car is $68,500 (KBB). Now let's assume that your buyout is 75K - this is a scenario you might like because it will only cost you about 8 grand. If you can negotiate a few grand off a new vehicle (which you can now) the whole thing might only cost a few thousand. 2) Pay the remaining payments - this is not an option for you because you have so many payments left 3) swapalease - however most people avoid swapalease if there are many payments left and you would have to sweeten the pot to get someone to take over the lease. My guess is that this is going to cost you more than option 1. Rob

I guess I'll just ride out the next few years and figure what I'm going to do at the end of the lease. I was pretty set on a turbo at the end of my lease anyway. The new Continental GT and Aston Martin AMV8 Vantage may be plausible options at the end of the lease depending on the styling of the new turbo.

Who knows what anything is going to look like in 3 years It's one of the few disadvantages of leasing... you are bound to it. Rob

I had a similar question a few months ago. I have an '03 coupe that is leased through Chase until November '05. Thinking that I may want a sport sedan as my daily driver rather than my Porsche, I looked for ways to get out. My buy out price exceeded (exceeds) current market value. This is true for many vehicles (assuming you did not put a signficant cash cap cost reduction payment at signing). The only time this ever worked for me personally was on a BMW 540 - I actually came out ahead on that transaction because the cap cost of the car was extremely good and since the market held up on them, the market value exceeded the buy out including whatever cash cap cost reduction I put in when I bought it. That's rare, however, as one of the other posters mentioned. At the suggestion of this forum, I did post the vehicle on Swapalease. I received a numebr of hits. My monthly lease is $1100 and quite a few people were interested. Unfortunately, I did not do my homework sufficiently before posting. With Chase as a lessor, the lease cannot be assigned to another leasee. This means that I would remain liable under the lease for (i) monthly payments, (ii) insurance matters and (iii) end of lease term costs, if any. You should check with Porsche Financial to determine whether these are issues for your lease. If they are, it will be up to you and your comfort level on whether to take the risk of remaining liable. While there are a number of companies offering to "insure" one or more of these three issues, none cover them all. Generally, a company (including Swapalease themselves, who offer this product) will ensure that the remaining payments are made in exchange for an upfront fee (eg, one month's payment). I had one potential "buyer" offer to pay me all remaining lease payments in a lump sum up front. However, for me, the deal killer in general was the insurance and end of term liability. For example, I have no way of ensuring that the new lesee will maintain sufficient and proper liablity insurance in case of collision/injury. Similarly, what if they turn in the car at the end of the term with heavy excees mileage? Or damage? Or simply don't turn it in at all? While I may have a claim against them, I would still be primarily liable to the lessor, Chase. While again, it will be up to you once you find out from PF, I did have great responses from Swapalease and continue to occasionally receive queries from potential lessees. All of these problems were actually fortunate because, in the end, I actually came to my senses and decided that there was no way I was giving up my Porsche for a sedan right now! I am having too much fun driving it (squeeks, rattles, and all). I do agree with the other posters that it is worth a call to your dealership - depending on what they have to move on their lot, etc, you never know what kind of deal they migh tbe willing to make. However, the current market price on the '03s seems to be very low in terms of residual percentage. I doubt there's a deal to be made that doesn't involve a real $$$ loss. This all being said, I have been thinking of trading for a GT3, or a 997 when they come out, or a used TT... on and on...

I just hung up the phone with Chase 30 minutes ago and they told me clearly that they will do a full lease assumption to a qualified applicant, with NO residual liability to me. Haven't seen the paperwork yet but this is the second Chase person who has told me that, and leasetrader.com also says Chase does this. (Meeting my first prospective takeover candidate in an hour - wish me luck!)

Jim, This is total news to me. I had an express discussion with them some months ago and they told me differently. As I mentioned, it was enough to put me off the idea. Please keep us (me) informed. I am very interested to know how this comes out for you. Maybe I'll be thinking of walking early myself again... Eric

My 2001 C4 is leased through Chase and I'm in the process of having someone assume the lease. Couple of points, 1) if you live in NY you can't assume the lease to someone else in NY - have no idea why. 2) It friggin takes forever, i swear those people are clueless, it's taken two months so far. Other than that there were no problems with Chase and having someone assume the lease. Rob

Just to be clear - when I inquired about this, I was informed that: 1. Chase will permit a qualified individual to assume the lease. While Chase is typically stringent about who qualifies with them in the first instance, they suggested that they are significantly more so in evaluating an assuming lessee. I was told by Swapalease that this is to discourage a process which does not provide them additional revenues; however, that seems shortsighted as the origianl lessee (me) is likely to be leasing another vehicle with Chase, thus generating additional revenues, but whatever). 2. In addition, and most important to me, although Chase permits the assumption, the original lessee remains liable for the lease payments and end of term lease costs, if any, including return of the vehicle in acceptable condition, and remains liable for third party injury, etc. Simply because someone else has assumed the lease obligations, does not relieve the original lessee (me) from liability. My recollection is that I would remain primarily liable (meaning, among other things, they can go after me first and do not have to exhaust their remedies against the assuming lesee). I just want to clarify that when you are talking about a permitted assumption - as two of you seem to be - that we are talking about you being relieved from all lease obligations. If this is the case, I was badly misinformed and passed up multiple Swapalease transactions. Again, I'm happy with my 996 so this is not a big deal, but I would love to clear this up and ensure that those of you considering this have all of the right info! Eric

If anyone has more info re Chase, please post it. I have someone ready to take over my lease as of an hour ago (hope they qualify), but there is no way I want to be on the hook for anything once this deal is done, and that would be insanity for anyone to live with that potential liability (payments, damage, total loss, etc. - what if the transferee let his insurance lapse!). Still, I believe leasetrader.com and Chase were both pretty clear about a "full" assumption and no residual liability to me.

Jim, I would trust no one other than Chase themselves. If they tell you you will be fully released, then clearly you should be. Perhaps you ought to ask them to send a sample assumption/termination contract for your review? If you don't want to lose the potential buyer, then you could go ahead and commence the process with the buyer with the express understanding that it's conditioned on Chase fully releasing as they say they will do. Hopefully, the person you spoke with at Chase gave you accurate info. It shoudl be fairly straightforward to confirm - I just want to suggest that you do so since I agree completely that anything other than a full release is too risky for my blood. Again, please let me know what you find out - I am mroe than a little curious. Good luck Eric

To your first point, I'm not really sure if Chase discourage lease assumptions or not, it never came up with them. To your second point, once you sign over the lease to the new party, you are completely out of the lease including all obligations to that lease. The lease assumption is a complete lease transfer and you no longer have any obligation to the car, or the leasing company, once both parties sign on the dotted line and it's finalized through Chase. If the person that assumes the lease from you never makes another payment it has nothing to do with you. If they total the car it has nothing to do with you. It's just like selling the car, once you sign over the title anything that happens after that is not your responsibility. Did Chase give you that information? Rob

Rob, I spoke with Chase and with Swapalease some months ago when I was misguided enough to think about getting rid of my Porsche. Both said that I would not be released from liability. Again, perhaps I would only be secondarily liable and they woudl have to go after the new lessee first for costs, damages, etc., however, that is not what I understood. Swapalease in particular said they were very familiar with this problem with their clients who are Chase lessees. This was one reason they came up with their own "insurance" product, whereby for a cost equal to one month lease payemnt, they insure that the new lessee will make all requisite lease payments for the remainder of the lease term. However, they also acknowledged that other types of liablity (wrecking the car, third party injury, outright theft of the car at the end of the lease term - however unlikely some of these may be) are NOT covered and that with Chase I would remain liable despite the purported "assumption" by the new lessee. At the time, I understood that the assumption was not a full legal assumption and I passed. Two possibilities: One, I was misinformed. Two, Chase has changed their policies since my 12/03 lease. Rob - did you actually do this with Chase? If so, was your paperwork clean on the assumption?

I will post more info as soon as I get paperwork from Chase but might be next week. Chase tells me it takes about 4 weeks with mail back and forth and I am very worried about the timing as it will probably be very frustrating for the buyer, knowing my own impatience when "new Porsche" is in the air.

I received the paperwork from Chase, Swapalease never mentioned any of that insurance stuff, however, I would certainly not take their word for it. Speak to Chase directly. I will call them tomorrow and post what that conversation is like. So far this process has taken much longer than 4 weeks. More like 8 weeks, really ridiculous.... I'll keep you posted. Rob

Per swapalease website since 10/1/03 Chase no longer holds original leasee reponsible in any way.

I am surprised that you could lease a car from chase in NY -- It was my understanding that they would no longer lease to NY residents because of the court cases holding the leaser responsible for liability. This is a growing problem not just in NY. The balloon loan is the way around bank liability -- I would think this is the problem with a NY to NY lease flip.

i agree with er996, and i think that his advice is correct. at the same time, i do not think that riad is completely correct. there are lease assumptions where the leasor reserves the right to go after the original leasee. i have transferred the lease of a bmw motorcycle to a good friend and am involved in just that type of transfer-since it is a good friend who will never be uninsured, i decided to take the risk-if it was a stranger, i would never have done it. as er996 says-speak to chase, and get it in writing that you are absolved of all responsibility when the lease is transferred. otherwise, you will have to decide what level of risk that you want to accept.

I spoke to Chase today (third call/person there) and again it was stated clearly that I will be completely off the hook. Though I didn't ask specifically, the way they talked made it sound like this was in fact a recent change in their policy. I'll have the initial paperwork in a couple days and will check further.