2016 Spark - Can't trade lease, need advice

[LeavingLosAngeles]

I am the very happy leasee of a 2016 Spark EV, with about 6500 miles on the odometer out of 36000 for the lifetime of the lease (and HOV stickers of course). I was lucky enough to get an amazing lease deal on the car, $2500 down (canceled out with CVRP), and about $95 a month monthly payment after incentives. I am leaving the Los Angeles area (South Bay) for the NYC metro area at the end of the month, with about 11 months left on my lease. My living situation is not totally clear on the NY end, so it may not make sense to keep/ship the Spark. My original plan was to do a lease transfer via LeaseTrader or Swapalease - however I didn't factor in the fact that GM Financial does not allow lease transfers within the last 12 months of the lease, which I am in as of 4 days ago .

I am trying to figure out my options. GM Financial says the buy-out price on the lease is $11,400, which is roughly the price that KBB states for a private-party sale. So I figured lets go see what Carmax says, maybe I can get out of this with only a small hit.... they offered me $7500. I'm not ready to take that beating just to get out of a lease. So here are my options as I see them (in order of preference):

1. Call around to all Chevy dealers in the area and see if any of them will work with me on a pure sale (no trade-in). I contacted Martin Chevrolet (where I got the lease) last weekend, and they lost interest immediately when I explained I would not be interested in buying another car from them. I will try again tomorrow, I need to get a hold of whoever is dedicated to used car sales, instead of whatever salesman was on phone duty that day. I plan to repeat this for as many dealers are in ~75 mile distance

2. Private party sale. From what I have read it can be difficult to buy out the lease and transfer to a third party without paying sales tax twice? The few stories I was able to find mentioned folks needing the assistance of a dealer to deal with GM Financial and sign the car over, in order to avoid the double tax. And even then I may not have enough time to jump through the hoops with the DMV- I'm moving in 4 weeks.

3. Ship the car to NY. I only state this as the least desirable option because Im not sure what my actual living location will be - I will be house hunting for a couple months while staying with relatives. I was initially hoping to live a metro only life there, but if I cant shed myself of the lease, spending the $95 for another 11 months plus around $1200 for shipping seems like the last best option. My only main concern in this scenario is what dealer I could return the lease at? Could I take the car to any Chevy dealer in the NY metro area? Or would I need to trailer it down to Maryland and find a authorized dealer?

Really looking for some help here, as I have put myself in a bad bind and really want to avoid taking a few thousand dollar hit on what was originally an extremely budget lease Any tips or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[JPL]

What colour is it?
Doest have DC fast charge?

 

[LeavingLosAngeles]

Should have mentioned in the original post:

Black (Granite)

No DCFC

Cosmetic damage on rear bumper (I was rear ended several months ago, other drivers insurance payed me $650, but I haven't repaired it. CarMax inspection confirmed it's purely cosmetic and the HOV sticker is not on the affected panel.)

 

[Redpoint5]

Buyout is way to high. Bolts are going for around $9-10k on the west coast.

Eating the $1,100 isn't that bad in the scheme of things.

Then again, there is some chance used EVs appreciate in the future when federal tax credits phase out.

If it were me and I had a long period of time to make the move to NY, I'd probably take the slowest roadtrip ever across the country. Never pass up an opportunity to explore.

 

[LeavingLosAngeles]

Tbh if I could sell it for 10k ASAP I would. Hopefully i can find that kind of buyer at a dealer where I can avoid sales tax issues. I’m hoping the low mileage will help.

 

[Chris101]

I wouldnt' worry at all about resale in NY. People all over the country have Spark EVs now (some of which is clearly evident here actually).

I am living in Illinois (Chicago area) and am 1 of 2 people I know to have a Spark EV in the area. Servicing at either one of my local Chevy dealers is a non issue because of the Bolt and trained technicians for both. If anything, you will find a nicer resale later in NY given the rarity and desire/demand from people who do their research. I had bought mine out in Phoenix, AZ and had it shipped back. BTW: For shipping, make sure you google car shipping and get yourself a bunch of quotes and choose wisely. I ended up with 11 quotes ranging from $500 to $1800 to ship from Phoenix, AZ to Chicago, IL and ended up going with a $550 quote (didn't care for the 'spanish first' communication problem with the $500 quote when I tried to call and talk to them). If you have some time on your hands, you have the advantage for waiting on the best quote. $1200 MIGHT be the best quote to go completely across the country like that but it might not be. I paid $750 to get a car from LAX to Chicago without realizing I could do the quote thing and later found out I could have done it for $600 instead. ...just food for thought.

 

[LeavingLosAngeles]

Has anyone had any experience returning a lease outside of the approved dealers? If I ship the car I'd ideally like to keep that open as an option.

 

[Chris101]

Has anyone had any experience returning a lease outside of the approved dealers? If I ship the car I'd ideally like to keep that open as an option.

I have never leased so that would be a question to call your lease 800 number and ask. I know a friend of mine had a leased Ford and had no problem returning it at end of lease in Hawai'i (stationed there) but that's a completely different car company of course.

 

[JMenacker]

We leased a Volt from a dealer in VA and returned it to a local dealer in WV. Leased Spark EV can be turned into any Chevy dealer.

Joe M in WV

 

[Arktctr]

You can just turn it in early and pay the rest of the months left off (i.e. if you owe 12 more payments at $100/mo, you would just pay $1,200 + lease termination fees (if they apply)). I did this with my 2015 Spark EV at the 30 month mark so I didn't risk having to pay back any of my CA rebate. I have a 2016 Spark EV I will be turning in early as well at the same 30 month mark. Just call GM Financial and tell them you want to turn in early, they will arrange for an inspection, and then you pay the account off and turn it in. It was a pretty simple process from my perspective.

 

[SparkE]

You can just turn it in early and pay the rest of the months left off (i.e. if you owe 12 more payments at $100/mo, you would just pay $1,200 + lease termination fees (if they apply)). I did this with my 2015 Spark EV at the 30 month mark so I didn't risk having to pay back any of my CA rebate. I have a 2016 Spark EV I will be turning in early as well at the same 30 month mark. Just call GM Financial and tell them you want to turn in early, they will arrange for an inspection, and then you pay the account off and turn it in. It was a pretty simple process from my perspective.

Out of curiosity, why would you pay off the lease (pay all remaining) and turn it in early, instead of simply driving it til the end of lease?

 

[NORTON]

Out of curiosity, why would you pay off the lease (pay all remaining) and turn it in early, instead of simply driving it til the end of lease?

Yeah?

I would never do that with a rental car....

Which is basically what you have....