Intro to "Calculate Your Car Lease-End Options"

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Buying vs Returning the Vehicle

For the lessee (renter), the end of a term on a car lease means it is time to make a decision regarding the vehicle and the residual value written on the contract. There are four different actions the lessee can take on the vehicle at the end of a term; buy it, return it, trade it or extending the contract if the owner allows it.

Note that the lessee has an important choice to make essentially when it is a closed-end lease. When it is an open-end lease, the lessee guarantees the value of the vehicle at the end of the term, so he has to pay for the difference if the vehicle is not worth what it was established in the agreement, or, on the other side, he will receive a check if the equity is positive. The different impacts between buying and returning the vehicle are more similar in an open-end lease.

With this calculator, we can compare side by side the financial consequences of buying and returning the vehicle at the end of a lease. You can calculate the potential profit or loss with the two options when entering the specific data for the vehicle and the type of lease. Therefore, we can put a financial value on the two options and compare them, which will help orient your choice at the end of your lease.

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