Lease Swap - 2015 Sonata

[PeteBrown]

I thought I'd see if the Pelican universe has any insight.

My mom's husband passed away a month ago and now we are stuck with three years left on a four year lease for a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited. The car is loaded with nav, moon roof, leather (tech package) and has 13,500 miles on a 60,000 mile allowance. The monthly payment is $367 and no one in my family wants the car.

Hyundai says we can:
1. Pay off the vehicle in full - $13,000 for the lease payments, plus $16,000 for the residual for a total of $29,000. The car is worth maybe $15,000 so that doesn't make sense.
2. Transfer of Equity - it's a lease, so N/A
3. Assumption - we don't want the car
4. Credit Life Insurance Claim - not purchased so not an option
5. Voluntary Surrender / Early Termination - turn the car in and then get billed by Hyundai for the remaining balance of the lease - $13,000.

Other car companies usually have a death forgiveness clause but not Hyundai. So aside from writing a check for $13,000 to give the car back, I think my only option is to try to do lease swap. I presume we will have to provide some sort of capital buy-down to make the lease more attractive or competitive.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Rot 911]

Did you or your mother also sign the lease? If your mom's husband is the only signer of the lease, he is the only one they can go after. Or his estate.

[Seahawk]

I have never done a lease swap, at least I don't think I have. I am by no means an expert, but we assumed the lease payments from an employee when he got cancer.

He had leased a loaded F-150 and could no longer get in the truck comfortably. He was on year 1 of four year lease. We took over the payment because we did actually need the truck and the yearly mileage allotment was 19K, perfect for us.

The lease was from Ford so they had us submit our financials and she soon assumed the lease.

We helped Henry a bit on his down but frankly he was delighted to get out of the lease. He was close to whole on the deal.

You guys will lose some money but I bet there are folks who would snap the car up. If it was a Santa Fe I'd take it.

[john70t]

Is there any business that needs to hire a company vehicle for daily operations?
(side logo/stickers/advertisement will probably be required)
It will remain a liability...

"..a total of $29,000. The car is worth maybe $15,000 so that doesn't make sense."
Yeah that doesn't make sense.

[wildthing]

Swapalease.com

No affiliation.

Reviews are mixed.

[Steve Carlton]

This doesn't make much sense. $367 doesn't sound like an unreasonable payment for a 4-year/15,000 mile/year lease, especially if the cash up-front was minimal. Was there a car traded in that had a payoff substantially higher than its trade-in value? Does the $16,000 residual include sales tax? Normally you'd expect to be able to sell the car for some number not more than say $3-7,000 short of the payoff. What is the payoff on the lease right now NOT including tax? There's no way the car is only worth the residual right now one year into a four lease. Is Hyundai not offering a straight-out payoff with or without tax being charged? Assumption possible by a third party with proper application? If so, does your step dad's estate remain secondarily liable if the party who assumes the lease flakes? You need that to be the case.

[gshase]

Park it with the keys in it.

[PeteBrown]

Thanks for all the comments. My mom's husband is the only signatory so Hyundai can pursue his estate which has enough assets to pay off the full amount of the lease.

Unfortunately, Hyundai does not provide a payoff mechanism for terminating the lease without paying off the remaining 33 months. In other cases outside of Hyundai, the finance company auctions the car and the leasee is responsible for the difference between the auction price and the current residual value of the car, resulting in a $1,000-$10,000 obligation. This car has depreciated nearly 50% in one year so the difference is about $13-15,000.

No car was traded in and there was no negative equity applied to the lease. In contrast there was a $4,500 capital cost reduction because I think the car was a demo with 5,000 miles on it.

In the end, Hyundai wants to be paid the full amount of the lease, including all interest and depreciation. I find it interesting that the car has depreciated in the market the full amount it was under-written to experience in 4 years and 60,000 miles later.

I will keep you posted with what we do.

[Arizona_928]

Crash it

[porsche4life]

Can you try to sell it to Carmax or a local dealer?

[maxnine11]

Slam it, Yo.