getting out of a car lease

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: rshaw125
Unemployed people do not qualify for leases on a $50,000 car. Something else going on here. If the dad co-signed what a fool. He should take possession of the car and make the payments.
Nothing really to do with the son at this point.


That is what I was thinking. There's no way a company will lease a car like that to someone who can not produce verifiable record of income or employment. It must all have been on the father.

If I had a son that tried that, I'd probably end up in the hospital with cardiac arrest from laughing too hard.

 

[surfstar]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Originally Posted By: stockrex

... it is a bmw 3 series,


Park it in South Central for a couple days?

Plenty of options near UCLA too. This would be the simplest and quickest solution!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
There's no way a company will lease a car like that to someone who can not produce verifiable record of income or employment. It must all have been on the father.

And I'm guessing the father's income wasn't all that good either and that's why the dealer asked for a $10K up-front, which is probably non-refundable. So, even if he can't make the payments, the dealer can just take the car back and still not lose on this deal.

 

[threeputtpar]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Sometimes I feel like we are intentionally not being taught the value of living within our means because that would slow down the economy. After all, it's all the people buying the things they shouldn't be buying that help the economy.

I think this is the truest statement that will ever be typed on the interwebz.

My wife teaches a personal finance class at the technical college she works for, and I've met some of the winners that have gone through the class. It was not out of the ordinary for any student to have in excess of $20k of credit card debt before they were albe to legally buy alcohol. The credit card companies don't care if they are credit worthy or not, they only care about how much the mark can charge up and produce transaction fees to pad the company's bottom line with. It's obvious that the fees and resulting interest on past due balances produce far more income than the paltry amounts that they end up having to write off as a result of bankruptcy.

The one good thing about the class was that it was a requirement for anyone who was elegible to receive financial aid. I know that when I went to UW, they didn't care if I was financially respobsible or not when awarding me financial aid.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: stockrex
Originally Posted By: Astro14
What is a "national scholar" anyway?

Are we talking about a National Merit Scholar? That would be the top 1% or so on the PSAT...and that's a high school thing...

So, is this kid in high school? or college? beyond?


college, national merit, full ride...obviously book smart,
reminds me of my co-worker who paid 550$ a month in insurance on prelude cuz he had to have it. Dunno, I guess only live once.


So, he's in college, then? As a student, I cannot believe that he would be credit-worthy (and lo, and behold, he is not...).

But National Merit Scholarship only pays part of college, it's a score on a test taken in High School, not a full ride...the two aren't synonymous...and I am still struggling to understand this kid's situation...not that it matters, except for my curiosity on how he got a lease in the first place!


BMW was running a special in my area where if you were graduating college in 3-4 months and had a job lined up they would lease you a car.

Young professionals in my area love entry level luxury cars, its like a right of passage once you get a job in Stamford or the city to get one.

 

[stockrex]

it gets worse,
insurance is 400$ a month for the kid,
you are correct hattaresguy, it is a right of passage for some.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
it gets worse,
insurance is 400$ a month for the kid,

LOL! Were the son and the father drugged by the dealer when they signed off on this? I mean, which sane person would do this?

And how much is the actual lease payment on top of this $400, and for how many months?

 

[fdcg27]

Sounds like your buddy just got himself a BMW to drive until the lease is up.
He won't need to worry about maintenance, either, since nobody does on leased BMWs.
Outside of the lease payment and insurance, he'll only need to put gas in it.
Never co-sign a flash car for one of your kids. A basic car, maybe.
Live and learn.

 

[surfstar]

Is it a white BMW and do they live in Glendale?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
it gets worse,
insurance is 400$ a month for the kid,
you are correct hattaresguy, it is a right of passage for some.


Wow! The payment on my Focus and insurance on both of my vehicles, combined, is less than his insurance! Nuts!!

 

[crazyoildude]

if you are creative enough you can qualify for anything

 

[rjundi]

Typically there is a lease buyout figure. If the car holds its value well you can sell it and pay off the lease company. Especially with $10k into it already.

Fell bad for parent making a poor choice.

In all reality its a mistake and not that big of a deal. Pay it off and move on.

 

[jimbrewer]

"The one good thing about the class was that it was a requirement for anyone who was elegible to receive financial aid. I know that when I went to UW, they didn't care if I was financially respobsible or not when awarding me financial aid"

Now that's a good idea. it doesn't seem to me that that should be a college level course, but then we generally didn't have easy access to credit back then. Also, we were taught this stuff in high school. It seemed pretty basic even in high school, but then I came from an educated,middle class family and minimizing car expenses over the life cycle instead of focusing on payments was something that Dad automatically did.

rjundi is probably right, though. They can probably get out of it without writing a very big check.

 

[Joe1]

WOW! This is one of the more egregious examples of poor financial decisions that surface on BITOG.

I am often amazed when I go to the gym and see the a large proportion of the 20's to early 30's generation driving around in late model luxury makes such as Acura, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Mercedes, Infiniti etc. I wonder how they can afford these status machines.

I had a friend who did the perpetual BMW lease every three years starting in the mid 1990's. He used to mock me for driving base model Japanese econo-boxes with manual transmissions. I used to laugh at his sky high insurance premiums, poor fuel economy, high lease payment, mileage overcharges and all of the other hidden costs associated with leased vehicles. I could only shake my head when he complained about the cost of servicing the vehicle at the dealer.

 

[jimbrewer]

I'm disinclined to lease a car, but I'm not willing to categorically argue that its always a bad idea.

Leases are a way to get people into cars that they cannot otherwise afford, but they are also a way for manufacturers to offer hidden discounts on their products. If the numbers work, they work. Some people are expected to drive newish cars or otherwise trade in their cars every few years. Compared against depreciation costs for the first few years, I can see how a lease might be a better deal. I can see how a lease might be a hedge against spotty quality. These days you take a real chance when you buy a Mercedes Benz, VW and many BMW models. Even a person of means might consider a lease as a hedge against that.

Most of us do stupid and uneconomical things with our car purchases. Most of us, me included. For example, almost everyone who has the means will buy too much car. Probably we would better off getting a car that covers 97% of our needs and then renting three or four times per year, but how many of us do that? Anyone with usage of less than 10,000 miles per year would probably save quite a lot of money by buying a six year old Chevy Cavalier or Hyndai Elantra than any other car. How many people do that, unless they have to? No doubt the young man made a bad car choice, but let's restrain the sanctimoniousness.