At the end of a car lease WWYD?

[tripleshot]

I have a 2013 Mazda CX5 that I leased for 36 months starting May 2012. It's up this coming May and I plan on purchasing a Toyota Rav 4.  I'm not sure if it's best to trade it in at Toyota or wait until May 23 and turn it in at Mazda. 

How does this work? What's the best way for me to handle this?  I'd like to do it as soon as I can w/o an early termination penalty but I'm not sure if that's at 30 days or 60 days or some other time prior to the end date. 

[illgetthere]

Can you trade in a car that you don't own?

[tripleshot]

Dec 18, 2014 18:44:24 GMT -5 illgetthere said:

Can you trade in a car that you don't own?

Yes

[badgergrl]

Isn't the question will toyota give you more than the residual value?

[delawarejen]

I wouldn't expect a Toyota dealership to handle the return of a Mazda leased vehicle. I'd call Mazda and review your lease paperwork. When you should turn it back in now or later depends on a number of factors (like, are you over the mileage yet? Will you be if you wait? etc.) Either you can buy the Toyota vehicle and then work on the lease return with Mazda, or you can return the Mazda vehicle to Mazda and rent a car until you get the Toyota purchase worked out. (Or you could buy out the lease and then use it as a trade-in, although it doesn't really make sense to do that and requires money.)

Also, I don't know that I would wait until the last day of your lease either way - sounds too risky that there won't be a snafu. I used to work at a dealership - there are lots of snafus. (Edit - I once saw one that involved a trade in of a leased vehicle that had been leased on the other side of the country, and we had no idea that it made a difference. We ended up having to pay to get it taken by flatbed back into the right region of the country to get the lease settled out, our side of the country's leasing group couldn't handle it. So if it's that difficult to resolve a lease with the same brand over something like location, I wouldn't risk it across brands.)

[tripleshot]

Dec 18, 2014 19:00:22 GMT -5 badgergrl said:

Isn't the question will toyota give you more than the residual value?

I agree. If they will, or even if they're close (not under), then I may go this route. They'll treat it like a regular trade in with a loan balance vs the value of the car. 
Eta: if toyota won't give me at least the residual value, then I guess I'll just turn it in to Mazda.