Three years ago we leased a 2005 Crossfire Roadster with an option to purchase for $19,060. My wife wanted to have a fun car before the grandkids came.. There are no grandkids in the immediate future so do we purchase the car or turn it in. The car listed for $40,555 with leather seats, six speed manual transmission, side air bags, and navigation system. We only have 21,000 miles on it. The car is garage kept and is in excellent condition.. We have had zero problems except for a battery replacement under warranty. Is the $19,060 price a fair price considering todays market conditions? Is the price negotiable? My wife really loves the car and is undecided if she wants to keep it or find a new car. Any help from the members is appreciated..

 

Considering the current market. the buyout is probably more than you could buy one for. Though if the car is special to you it is always worth more than the wholesale prices being thrown around.

First choice would be to see if you can negotiate the buyout down. Though it seems like that has not be successful, maybe you can be number 1.

Sometimes they just have to take the car back without negotiating the buyout. If so, you may be able to cut a deal with the dealership to then sell you the car outright. There is a fair chance they may let you buy it for less. You can reason that if they take it back, they will have to prep the car and put money into it and probably sell it for less anyway. If they plan to auction it off wholesale, they probably won't get much more the $12-$13K (yeah I know it hurts). You could negotiate from there and again save them time and money of having to go through all of that.

Last choice is to just turn it in and do a little shopping for a nice used one. As another choice, you could probably find a new '06, '07 or even '08 for around $22-$24K.

 

SRT Six said it best...look to purchase a new one before turning it in, you might be surprised....

 

CudaFan, I too am trying to decide what to do. I purchaed my 2005 Limited Roadster for 42k. My car has never seen the rain, snow or salt on the roads. I don't even know if the wipers work (kidding, they work but never used). I have 13,500 miles on the car. My intentions were to do the smartlease and buy it out in the end for 23k. I never in a million years thought these cars would lose that much value in 3 years. I went to the dealer today to find out my options. They pretty much told me that Chrysler financial owns the car now and they have nothing to do with it. I started to speak with one of the dealers over there who handles the off lease cars. He told me that the car will come in and be picked up by the leasing company. It will then be auctioned off. I asked him how much the car is worth. He told me the book shows 13000. I almost fell off my chair. So now I face the same question as you. I love the car but do I buy it and take a huge loss? Also, they told me that Chrysler is going to re-engineer the Crossfire from the ground up. They said it will be the new Crossfire. I have not been able to find anything on the Internet to back this up.

I feel like I have not even broken this car in yet, so getting rid of it seems like I wasted a ton of cash for nothing. The one thing i thought of doing was to try and extend the lease and drive the snot out of the car. Maybe drive cross country or something. Or sell it to the highest bidder on ebay for what I owe. I just don't want to give the car to the Auction Devil.

If anyone has any other thoughts or knows of any other option, please let us know.

 

I know how you feel about your "baby". I don't know if anyone has tried, but, you might get in touch with the leasing company and offer to let them "auction" it to you through the dealer. Maybe offer them $15K and tell them that they will pick up $2K and not have the other expenses. A win/win for both you and them. Worth a try.