Update- turned in my lease and bought it back; saved $2k!
 

Buyout was $21.3k and the original plan was to do so. However at turn in time gas prices had done a number on truck prices and i could do a little better buying somebody elses truck.

So dealer takes truck back from lease, gets it Toyota certified (7yr 100k from new), cleans it up, changes the oil, etc. and sells it back to me for $17.8k.

Bad news is i have to pay sales tax but i still come out $2k ahead of the game. Not a bad deal at all!

Total amount you paid during the time of the lease including "upfront fee" + 17.8K + sales tax = ?

That is great news...

+1 here.
It is hard to agree with your statement on savings without knowing whole story...
or at least what is the car we are talking about?

He isn't talking about savings over the life of the lease etc. He is talking about savings vs the buy out.

Party poopers.

Good deal, especially since you know the truck, etc.

Bill

Yes the whole lease thing is not something i'll do again. Bill is right on the nose as well. When i first leased the truck we were in the market for a new house, had a new baby and my vehicle at the time was a std. cab Tacoma. Toyota had a smokin' lease offer on the Tundras and i jumped on it to get a 4dr Tundra without killing my cash flow. Long term it wasn't the best financial gig but it got us through a tight time cash wise.

The good news is purchase price + total lease payments is less than sticker was at the time AND i now have a 7yr/100k from new warranty. Not to mention the 3.9% financing i got on it.

The point of my post was really to let others know that there may be a better option that just buying your lease out right now.

The unique thing about a lease is you sometimes have an opportunity to get a "deferred rebate" at the end if you want to keep the vehicle. There's several other advantages which may or may not come into play as well.

I'd think you would have had to pay sales tax on the $21.3k residual as well, no? Did you pay sales tax on each monthly payment?