Buying a car coming off a lease?
 

A friend of mine leased vehicle, and the lease "matures" in a couple of months. She can either turn the car in or purchase the car when the lease matures. My friend is moving to Europe and will not be taking this vehicle. I have always liked this car, and mentioned that she should sell it to me. She is willing to sell it to me for the payoff amount. I have never leased a car and am not familiar with how it works.

The car is a 2013 Civic LX, with 35,000 miles it has been serviced by Honda and is in like new condition. The payoff amount will be $11,000 which appears to be very close to the trade in value for this car. Full retail price appears to be $12,775.

1. If I pay her $11,000 can she then payoff the lease, and have the dealership transfer the title to my name? Or could I just pay the dealership?
2. I assume I would have to pay sales tax?
3. Anything else I need to know about this type of transaction?

Larry

I would guess it varies from state to state. Here it would go like this.

You give her the $ and she purchases the car. Dealer puts car in her name. She then transfers the title into your name.

You are correct about the taxes. We once had a car come off lease and we purchased it. I had forgotten about the taxes and it turned the deal upside down on us. Good luck.

Jeff

I've never leased nor bought a car coming off a lease. Only reason I'm commenting is to give you a thumbs up for buying a Honda! Very wise purchase.

2013 has a very low amount of complaints.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Civic/

If she soaked her car in any way, make sure she discloses it to you.

Absolutely agreed. I had a '90 Honda Accord and drove it as a work car up until about 5 years ago. I sold it to my brother at that time and it had over 450K miles on it. He wrecked it shortly thereafter :(