3 year Lease Expiring Soon....Worth it to buy the car outright?

[Spartyof83]

Hey all, I was once of the first to buy the 2013 FFE when they were first offered here in Michigan, and as my lease comes near termination, I am considering buying the car outright. I have several concerns however, and I was looking for some constructive feedback from fellow owners. Here they are:

 

#1. My "buyout" when the lease is done will be approximately $21k and I should have about 50k on the car at that time (roughly June of 2016). The car is in great condition, but would it be worth that kind of money?

 

#2. I typically keep cars that I own, not lease, for close to 10 years. My other concern is the battery life. I am not sure if the battery will be able to maintain its charging capacity that far into its useful life. Am I looking at a battery replacement if I keep the car that long?

 

Any feedback you can give me will be much appreciated. I love the car, the technology, the mileage, but ultimately would love to lease another one of these provided the 2017 version can get an extended range closer to the new 2016 Volt. 

[Russael]

For your question 1, what is your monthly lease payment?  How much will you have paid against the car (all of your payments plus buyout), and how close will that be to sticker?  If it's reasonable, buy it.  Ideally, it should be close to your sticker - 7500 - whatever ford incentive existed.

 

For number 2, if you only keep cars 10 years, then the Energi should satisfy you up until then, no problem.  Most vehicles still have perfectly functional batteries at the 10 year mark, for the hybrid market at least.

 

I've owned a pretty short list of vehicles, only one which was a lease.  The reason I didn't buy that one out is because I didn't like it much (it was a '97 F150 XL, which was barely a step above fleet).  If you love your car, all the more reason to keep it.  Yeah, you'll have a car payment for a period of time, but once that's gone, it's gone.  I can't wait to get the car note gone.

[Spartyof83]

My monthly payment is pretty high since I didn't put any money down on the car originally, ($529 a month payment).  I think the car stickered at $38K less the federal credit of $3,500. Another thing I may actually do is "stretch" the lease out another six months (Ford Credit hates this but that's exactly what happened when I was ordering the FFE after my 2011 Edge lease had expired and they were unable to deliver the FFE on time) and in doing so, will be buying down the payment that much more. So given all this, the buyout will still be relatively high (maybe $21K). So is a FFE with about 50K miles worth $21K is the real question?

 

As far as the battery life goes, I have heard many tell me that the lithium batteries in the FFE are good for the long haul, I just have this terrible fear of having the dealer tell me that I need to replace them for some ridiculous figure in say year 9 or ten. That would be the worst!

[lonzo71]

So is a FFE with about 50K miles worth $21K is the real question?

 

no, but check KBB and truecar

[Russael]

Hmmm...

 

All 36 payments would total out to 19,044.  A 21k buyout would be a total of 40k, and that includes your incentives, tax credit, etc.  Frankly, that's not a good deal to me, especially if you have to finance the rest.  You could've financed it originally for FAR less (as far as a grand total is concerned).

 

Do lease payments include sales tax?

 

If your car sticker was 38k, take away the 1500 ford rebate (typical), add sales tax, and then take away the 4007 credit, and the car purchase price would've been 34.6k (loan amount around 38.6k with no down payment).  My loan was 1.89%, so you would have paid about $2260 in interest over the course of a 6 year note, bringing what you would've paid for the car to 36.8k.

 

If you can talk them down to an 18k buyout, I think that'd be more reasonable and closer to what you would've had if you bought it.

 

What was your reasoning for leasing originally?

[Spartyof83]

To be completely upfront, it's a company vehicle that I drive, so you could make the argument that someone else was paying for it all this time, but in the long run, I would be taking over the payments of the car when it's off lease. I am not sure you can negotiate the buyout of the lease with Ford Credit/Ford Dealers. The car is in my name as well as the company's name just for the purpose of giving me the option of buying the car when the lease expires. Is anyone aware of the ability to negotiate the end of lease price? I thought it was fixed?

[Russael]

So half the car was paid for by the company you work for?  Heck, buy it.  If you were the sole driver and maintained it appropriately, etc (you know what you're buying), a 21k buyout isn't horrible for a car you've owned this entire time.

 

Some leasing companies will negotiate the buyout price, some won't.

Edited June 29, 2015 at 05:38 PM by Russael

[Spartyof83]

Yeah I kinda figured as much. My financing is with FMC and I don't know if they will negotiate the buyout or if it's a fixed number. Any idea about FMC's policy?

[Russael]

I don't, but maybe someone else does.  Or, just call your dealership and ask them if they'd be willing to negotiate the buyout price.  Tell them 21k is too high, but you could consider 18 or 19k.  If they refuse to budge, well, then you have a potential 21k buyout.

[Hybridbear]

The HVB will lose capacity over time. Some owners with far less miles that you have are noting that capacity loss in under 5% per year, but still noticeable. The major factors for HVB health are: charging pattern, discharging (driving) pattern & temperature. Did you charge with L1 or L2? Did you charge multiple times per day? How many miles are EV miles of your total miles? On trips longer than the EV range did you exhaust the EV range first and then let the ICE come on or did you use EV Later to keep the HVB at a higher SOC longer?

 

If you have access to an Android tablet or phone & a OBDLink MX BlueTooth scanner you can assess your HVB health.

[Spartyof83]

Typically I exhaust the battery's range before using the ICE. Seldom do I save it for later, but on occasion, I do. I will install that app on my android phone now. Any way in particular to use it to determine the battery's overall health?

[Hybridbear]

Typically I exhaust the battery's range before using the ICE. Seldom do I save it for later, but on occasion, I do. I will install that app on my android phone now. Any way in particular to use it to determine the battery's overall health?

You can look at the ETE with a full charge as reported by the BECM. You can also look at the cell voltage variation. Check out this thread for all sorts of info about how to assess your HVB performance.

[meyersnole]

I don't, but maybe someone else does.  Or, just call your dealership and ask them if they'd be willing to negotiate the buyout price.  Tell them 21k is too high, but you could consider 18 or 19k.  If they refuse to budge, well, then you have a potential 21k buyout.

 

I have never leased before, but this is the car that I wish I would have tried. The truth is that these cars are harder for them to sell then a standard gas powered car that everyone already understands. (I still love this car and plan to drive it for 7-10 years).

 

Just think about all the questions that you have as the owner of the car vs some random Joe off the street that is uninformed. I am sure that the dealer/leasing company would LOVE for you to execute the buy on this contract, but is probably willing to negotiate again.  Just look at the residual values of the Nissan Leaf, you can get a low mileage Leaf for about 11K... and they are everywhere. Pretty sure their leases were not written to account for that much depreciation. 

 

Given the amount of change that is going on in the market, I probably should have considered leasing... just don't really understand the concept too well. I also usually drive new cars much longer than a used car... just too much early depreciation for me to consider eating. This car's MSRP has already been adjusted down (twice really if you count the gas mileage rebate), I would be surprised if the estimate residual is equal to the buy out, but check that like lonzo71 suggests.

 

That was the financial response, the emotional response is different. If you are comfortable with the car (you know its history) and you think its worth it...buy it! Most of the battery studies I have seen is that the batteries are aging better than expected. A caveat to that is warm climates might have a more adverse affect than thought -- but if your region is correct on your status that should not be a problem... I would also consider everything that Hybridbear shared above.

Edited June 29, 2015 at 08:54 PM by meyersnole

[seadiel]

Yeah I kinda figured as much. My financing is with FMC and I don't know if they will negotiate the buyout or if it's a fixed number. Any idea about FMC's policy?

From my research FMC normally wont negotiate on the lease buyout amount. But since this is not like a traditional gas power vehicle ford normally sells, maybe they will negotiate on these 2013's.

 

I am interested as well in buying mine out but I have until 10/2016. Let us know what FMC says if you ask or attempt to.

[Spartyof83]

According to my dealer, FMC doesn't negotiate the buy out price, but I wonder if I can with someone directly at FMC? Either way, it's not going to come up till around April 2016, so I don't need to worry about it until then but I will certainly look into it.

[Fat Fusion]

I leased my 99 F250, and bought it when the lease was up.  IIRC, the price to buy it out was about 19k, but I negotiated that down to about 15.5k.  Not sure if it was FMC or Wells Fargo at the time...