June 12, 2014 | In: Trivia

Can You Break the Lease on a Car Before Delivery?

Note: This post applies to Canada and the United States. I don’t know about the rest of the world.

I have signed a lease on a brand new car yesterday (note: the brand is not Toyota), I thought I was getting a pretty good deal on the car. However, when I got home, I noticed that the salesman has played with the deal to make it better, while, in reality, it was the same. In short, what he did was that he gave me a $2,000 discount but increased the rate by 2%. I ended up getting a deal worse than the one that they offer to just any customer.

That, of course, made me a bit angry, so I went back to the dealership and I explained my frustration. The executives were sympathetic but they were clear in pointing out that I can just choose not to have the $2,000 discount and have the lower interest rate, or have the $2,000 discount and have the higher interest rate. They offered me some perks on top of my purchase, but not enough, I wanted at least to have the discount and the lower interest rate. Eventually, the dealership manager sat with me, and told me that they offered me the best that they can, and, if I’m not in agreement with the lease rate as it stands, then they can’t do anything about it, and all that they can do is to refund me my security deposit and break the lease.

That’s what I did, but it was done in a very friendly and professional way, which made me want to buy from them again (the same dealership) when their interest rate goes lower.

So, if you just signed the lease on a new car and did not have your car delivered yet, and if you want to break the lease, then the car dealership will have no problem doing that for you. I’ll be a totally different story though the second you drive that car out of the dealership garage. At that moment, your only option will be to find another sucker who will buy your lease.

This article (as well as all other articles on this website) is an intellectual property and copyright of Fadi El-Eter and can only appear on fadi.el-eter.com.

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