Buying a lease return ???

[MIKE IN lINO III]

The wife is looking at buying a lease return. It seems like a decent deal. 2006 Ford Freestyle 27,ooo miles, very clean. $16,000

What are the ups and downs of buying a lease return besides the obvious???

Thanks,

Mike

[18 inch Crappie]

Still under warranty that's good, as long as it was not leased by a 17 year old and beat the thing you should be OK. And make a offer never pay asking price, Print off the Kelly blue book and if it is less show them and offer that price.

[Water Hazard]

I've bought two "one owner" vehicles, a 2002 Ford Escort and a 2003 Honda CR-V. The dealer didn't distinguish between one owner trade in or lease returns though, so I am not 100% certain which one my cars would fall into.

The Honda is a Certified Used vehicle which pretty well means it was inspected and has a built in extended warranty. The Escort didn't have the extended warranty, so I had to pay for that.

The problems I've had so far:

Escort (bought with 25k on it)

-new brakes (about 5k miles after I bought the car)

-new tires (about 10k miles afterwards)

-some part in the transmission (about 10k afterwards...covered by warranty)

-new belt (about 20k miles later)

CR-V (bought with 31k on it)

-new battery (25k miles later)

-new rear brakes (27k later)

-new throttle body (30k later)

The upside of the one owner vehicle is obviously the lower price. However, the cars are usually in great shape (physically anyway) since the people knew they'd get in trouble turning in something they beat up. Mechanically, the cars were probably not treated quite as gently as you might treat something you are going to own for a period of time. Plus, you can bet any major expenses (e.g. tires, brakes, 30k mile tune-up) were ignored since the first owner knew they would be returning the vehicle soon.

Now that I've bought two vehicles this way, I can say that it is the customer service at the dealership (not the sales area, but the service area since that is who you'll be dealing with from now on) that makes the biggest difference.

Hope that helps.

[18 inch Crappie]

Did not think about what Water Hazard has a good point at 30k it will need tires soon and maybe a tune up, a good reason to beat them down on the price.

[Jeremy airjer W]

A throttle body on a Honda?

That freestyle more than likely has double platinum plugs that should be fine for 75k or more. If it has the 3.0 DOHC I would call around and get some prices on some basic repairs. Tune-up (fair amount of labor involved to remove the upper plenum to remove the back three plugs), Serpentine belt, DPFE Sensor (you will replace at least one of these at some point). Besides the regular service items thats about all that we do on these.

[Shack]

I would look at the new/lease return Ford Edge!

A lease return is just like buying any other type of used car out there. Some were taken care of great, while others were not. It’s a crap shoot. They will all need maintenance at one point or another.

The ones I have learned to stay away from is "rental returns". These cars have been all over the page. You can to a history search on a car to find out if it was a rental return.

Some people think this is the cats meow, but I would not lease a new car. Buying a lease return is a total different story.

Good luck!

[Water Hazard]

airjer-

Yeah, a throttle body. Unfortunately, that is a problem for the CR-V. I guess there is a sensor of some sort that is bolted right to the throttle body. The sensor ($50) fails and the entire body ($800) has to be replaced.

I expected more from Honda, but what can you do?

[hamrej23]

Quote:

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Some people think this is the cats meow, but I would not lease a new car. Buying a lease return is a total different story.

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What? now, give me one reason why a person(s) should not lease a new vehicle??

[Doonbuggy]

Fyi, Ford is not making the Freestyle anymore...something to think about come resale time.

If it's a vehicle you really want to purchase I'd use this fact as a buying point since you can tell them that you're looking at buying a vehicle Ford doesn't even make anymore.

Carsoup (Contact Us Please) com will give you an idea of how your vehicle compares to the market. A quick glance says the miles and price are pretty good.

DB