Buying after lease- good or bad idea

[iansriv]

The issue is that there are no longer any of the incentives Rivian was offering in 2024. A Dual - not a max pack, No performance no sound & vision costs $400/$500 more per month to lease/finance than my current cost for the Quad. A Tri is $850 / mo higher. The specs on the current Tri are the most equivalent to my current Quad (850 hp).

I have 2023 G1 R1S Quad that went in for the 22k service recently. The SC gave me a 2025 G2 R1S Dual for a loaner. I had it for about 4 days. The rattles were bad, the lack of power was evident and the car handeled very differently. This maybe an issolated issue but the point of my example is I know exactly what I have in my R1 and dont want to take a chance with a newer R1 that may or may not be better.

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[R1S88]

Looking at it from just a financial angle...If the residual is higher than the car's value, turn it in and go find a cheaper used one. If the residual is lower than the car's value, buy it out and then sell it and pocket the difference.

 

[bueller]

Residual on my 23 R1T quad is $55k. Current value $42k.

42? As far as I can tell, 2022's are selling for about 50 on average.

 

[R1S88]

42? As far as I can tell, 2022's are selling for about 50 on average.

I got mid50s for my 2022 LE, although it had low miles

 

[Time2Roll]

Not a dumb question and yes they extend the miles allowed. Just did mine

Does the residual keep dropping?

I have never leased a vehicle let alone extended.

 

[f1racer328]

Does the residual keep dropping?

I have never leased a vehicle let alone extended.

No. You know the residual value when you sign the lease contract. Mine is about 60k for a 2024 Quad Large Pack R1T.

 

[bueller]

Does the residual keep dropping?

No. You know the residual value when you sign the lease contract. Mine is about 60k for a 2024 Quad Large Pack R1T.

I've seen posts lately from people who say they just extended their Rivian lease, and they claim Chase did amend their residual. For example, https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/s/DuFXx4DBVb

 

[jackfu]

Does the residual keep dropping?

I have never leased a vehicle let alone extended.

There’s residual and there’s buyout. Residual is a set amount that is supposed to be the cost - depreciation of the vehicle over the lease period. You essentially pay for that amount financed to lease the car.
You can buy out the lease at any point before the end as well. That amount you pay is the buyout. The buyout = residual at the end of the lease. But during the lease they are different, and the buyout drops every month.

Right now my buyout is lower than my Carvana offer, so I have positive equity in the lease. A rare thing.

 

[Eric9610]

I got mid50s for my 2022 LE, although it had low miles

I have 40k miles on mine. They are actually moving in the mid to high 40s. In any case even at 50k still not a good value.

 

[Alan in Tempe]

"Fair market" is always a bit ambiguous. The fair market for auction, trade-in, private sell, or retail are all different, and there are differences by location. Assume you have a solid retail fair market for your area (close agreement with multiple apprasial sites such as kbb.com, nada.com, etc.). Further assume that fair market is, say, $10K below the residual. To the lease holder, the value of the car is no more than auction or trade-in value, which would likely be around $14K below residual. If you offer the lease holder $10K below residual to buy the car, you would save $10K, and the lease holder would gain $4K of profit over you turning in the car. Make them a "fair" offer that they shouldn't refuse.

My first lease was about 9K under residual, and the company agreed to sell it to me at fair market. My second lease, my current Mach-e had a residual $2K below residual, so I just bought it out.

Keep in mind that there are real leases, and there are pseudo-leases. The pseudo lease is a loan set up to look like a lease, with a stated residual and all, and was commonly used when the full $7500 tax credit could only go to the buyer and not to a lease holder, but the pseudo-lease holder did get the credit (since it legally was just a loan). I don' t believe Rivian ever used pseudo-leases like BMW, Ford, and others did. One significant difference is who holds the title (the lease co.), rather than a lein on the title (a loan co.). That difference shows up at lease end where document fees such as a title transfer go in opposite directions for lease/pseudo lease, or buyout/turn-in. Point being, On top of the fair market considerations above, there may be $500 or so in additional doc fees for a buyout, and those are likely legitimate (as opposed to the boat load of illegitmate fees often added by car dealers). Both of my lease buy-outs were on pseudo-leases, and that also let me avoid those extra fees since the title was in my name from the get-go.

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