Never buy your car rental from the dealer

Several years ago, my wife’s Toyota Camry lease came to an end and the purchase price was substantially lower than its Blue Book value, making her purchase a no-brainer.

So he went back to the car dealer in New Jersey, where he had originally negotiated the lease, and told them he wanted to buy the car.

When they unfolded the financial documents, she politely told them no, she wanted to pay cash, no financing.

They then told him that before he could buy the car, they would first have to have it appraised. When he told the merchant that he was not going to pay any assessment, they simply told him, “Don’t worry, there is no charge.”

After waiting 25 minutes for this “appraisal”, the financing document was finally presented and the cash purchase price looked like this:

Toyota Purchase: $10,815.54

Preparation of Documents: 195.00

Sales Tax: 770.74

Cash Needed: $11,781.28

However, before my wife went to the dealer, she got a different number of $10,850.38 which, including sales tax of $709.84, was $930.90 less than what the dealer wanted.

Looking at his financial sheet, he noticed that they had added $675.00 for an “inventory fee.” He made it clear what the “assessment” was about. They wanted $675 to put the car in inventory and then sell it to my wife. To add insult to injury, they added $195.00 to prepare the document which I mentioned took less than half an hour. An observer will notice that because of these merchant additions, his sales tax was $61 higher.

So my wife left the dealership, called Toyota, faxed a purchase document and sent a check for $10,850.38, no document preparation fee, no inventory fee, no additional tax on the new inflated amount. Total time spent on the phone, completing faxed documents, mailing check: 9 minutes. Savings: $930.90.

The casual reader may think to himself that this was just an isolated incident from a greedy car dealer, however I have since been alerted to similar incidents.

In California, a telecom customer of mine wanted to buy his car on a lease and was told by the dealer that before he could buy the car they would have to inspect the car to pass a Toyota Used Car Certification, at a cost of about of $500.00. The truth is, if you are the original lessee, you do not need a Toyota Used Car Certification. So that? You know the condition of the car, what is the probability that you are trying to screw yourself?

Some dealers will tell you that you can’t buy a lease until it’s smog-certified, for a small fee of a few hundred dollars, because in certain states such certification is required by law before you can buy a used car.

Some dealers insist that a safety inspection is required, again at a cost of a few hundred dollars.

What these dealers will not mention, however, is that all state laws provide a specific exemption for smog or safety certification in the transfer of ownership if the transfer “…is between the lessor and the lessee of the motor vehicle, if there is no change in the lessee or operator of the vehicle”.

The easiest and least expensive way to buy your car on a lease is to call the manufacturer, request a buyout document, and send a check. You don’t even have to get out of the driveway.