Car leasing articles, stories, knowledge, education and more.
The new vehicle leasing market is heating up as leasers offer more options and new car sales decline due to rising interest rates.
Zero percent financing and large cash rebates were the bait that brought car shoppers into dealerships the past few years. Now, instead of cut-rate financing, cut-rate leases are the attraction. Read the rest of this entry »
North America’s largest and fastest growing car sharing service — today becomes the largest car sharing service in Illinois as its fleet of nearly 100 Zipcars is launched in 14 city neighborhoods. The company will significantly increase its fleet by the end of 2006.
Zipcar also announced that it will match a $25,000 State of Illinois grant, announced today to encourage car sharing in Illinois. This will mean a combined total of $50,000 in savings to be passed along to new Zipcar members. The first 1,000 members to sign up for the Zipcar service will each receive a $50 driving credit. In addition, the City of Chicago has exempted car sharing from its tax on rental cars, demonstrating the city’s desire to help keep Zipcar’s rates affordable. Read the rest of this entry »
So what happens when you lease your new auto, or take over an auto from a swap a lease, and the last thing on your mind is the idea of possibly losing your licence? Didn’t think of that did you?
It could easily happen to you - whether you lose your auto license from a DUI incident, or a medical condition prevents your from driving, or many other person reasons that could put you off the road for a temporary, or permanent amount of time. If any unfortunate incidents put you off the road or an indefinate amount of time - you’re still stuck with you auto lease payments - month after month. This leaves you two options - either return the vehicle back to the leasing company or dealership and break your lease and pay the stiff penalties - or find someone to swap a lease.
Get out of a lease early, or terminating a lease early, simply means you pay the difference between the total remaining car lease payments and the market value of the car. And with the lovely affect of depreciation, leaves you in the hole for a large sum of money. So, the best financial option would be to find someone to take over the lease. Finding someone to swap a lease can not be as difficult as you think. With a few online leasing marketplaces offering the services to find someone to take over auto leases, the option to break your lease early by swapping the lease to another consumer is easier than you think. Some of these auto leasing marketplaces include Auto Lease Breakers, Swap a lease, Lease Trader, Lease Busters. If you’re interested to learn more about auto leasing and swap a lease, take a read of our section on how to get out of a lease, or download our free consumer oriented ebook on how to swap a lease (printer friendly pdf file 
).
In this situation, the first thing you should look at before leasing an auto is if you can purchase “walkaway protection”, or “deficiency insurance” . Some leasing companies offer this as extra protection against your lease agreement. While each walkaway insurance may be different, as a new leasee it’s important you look into this. However, in the case you don’t have this insurance, or your situation doesn’t fall within the guidelines of the insurance policy (ex. typically the walkaway insurance covers loss of driving ability through no fault of your own - so DUI may not cover it), your next best option for your auto lease is to swap a lease.
Walkaway (http://www.walkawayprotection.com) is a Toronto-based firm with a unique form of insurance that allows consumers to end their car lease or loan painlessly should an unforeseen circumstance befall them. While traditional credit insurance has been around for years, it covers only death or physical disabilities. Walkaway covers a plethora of additional real-world situations, including: involuntary job loss, critical illness, loss of driver’s licence due to age or deteriorating health, international employment transfer, and personal bankruptcy of the self-employed.
Remember, bad things can happen to good people, so in the case you don’t have walkaway insurance or any other insurance policies to cover unforeseen circumstances, be sure to seek out the options of swap a lease to get out of an auto lease. Trading a lease to another individual to take over your auto lease is a great alternative to breaking a lease without inflicting the leasing company penalties.