Clarity EV Lease Turn In

With the used car market being what it is you most likely have positive equity. With that said Honda Finance is only allowing Honda dealers to payoff a Honda lease. A lot of manufacturers are doing that now to help their dealerships acquire used car inventory. So Carvana or Carmax cannot buy your Honda lease. Only a Honda dealership can.
I would recommend contacting a few Honda dealers and ask about selling them your lease. Hopefully you get a dealership that will give you a fair price for it. Essentially if they value your car at $20k and the payoff as of that day is $16k you would be able to sell them the car and put $4k in your pocket. In normal times it is rare that happens. In this market it happens every day!
Look up the trade in value on KBB and compare it to your payoff. If the value is higher than your payoff then you should be able to get out of the lease early and possibly put some money in your pocket. Now if the car has a bad Carfax, been in an accident, has high mileage, is in poor condition, etc. the value may not be higher than the current payoff. With that said since the used car market started going up in February/March of 2021 almost every customer we have had has had positive equity in their lease. Used car prices are insanely high which is great if you are trying to sell a car or get out of a lease early.
I work for a Honda dealer in RI if I can be of any help. You can send me a PM if you wish.

 

I am sorry. I missed that you have an EV and not a plug in. I have no experience with them in RI. I don't know what your options are. I imagine the Clarity EV lease is similar to the Fit EV lease they had here in RI. Your options are very limited I imagine. Hopefully some local dealers will be able to help you. There is a possibility the dealers can't buy them as well. I would try to contact Honda Financial and ask for someone who specializes in the Clarity EV. There must be someone there that knows what your options are.

 

It sounds like you are getting responses that apply to "normal" lease returns. I would definitely call Honda Finance and speak to someone who is familiar with Clarity EV leases. I know the hold times can be long. Maybe try the lease maturity phone number instead: #800-708-6555.

If memory serves me correctly with the Fit EV leases all payments were due no matter what because it was such a sub vented lease. I don't know if that is the same with the Clarity EV but it might be.

 

We were starting the same juggle earlier this year, but would up selling our ICE hybrid (with the crazy used car market) and leasing an Ioniq EV and extending the Clarity EV lease. When we asked, it was pretty clear we were obligated for the original 36 mos.
The extension allows you to turn it in at any time. Bring it to any dealer, hand them the keys and walk.

 

I had a Clairty BEV that I turned in about 9 months early without penalty. It is in the contract that you have that right. You have to call Honda Financial and tell them you want to terminate the lease early as per the contract. They will tell you to send in a signed letter explaining your reasons. I wrote a letter attached to an email that due to COVID 19 I had no use for the vehicle as I was working from home. They confirmed the early return and sent a third party company to inspect the vehicle at my home. After the third party inspection confirmed there was no excessive wear or damage to the vehicle I scheduled a day to return it to the dealership. I happened to return it to the dealer I leased it from, but I can't imagine why you couldn't return it to a different dealership. This biggest hassle of this whole process that ended up taking a couple of months, was getting in touch with someone at Honda Financial. I often had to wait up to 45 minutes or more on hold to speak to a human.

 

Gabe,

I leased the car in California. I don't have the contract handy but it is in there. The email address was [email protected] . Here is my note...

Hello Honda Financial Services,

I am writing today to notify you of my intent to return my leased Clarity EV early. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, I have no use for this vehicle. I leased it as a commuter and my office is closed now, so the car is sitting unused. I would like to return it to Honda as soon as possible and cancel any further lease payments. I called Honda Financial Services last week and was told to email a written request to this email address.

My account information follows:

Cheers,
Brian

 

Gabe,

I remember now that one of the final hangups was they needed an actual signature on a document. So I had to resend my note above as a scanned attachment with a signature.

 

I also have had really terrible experiences with Honda financial. Like others have said you have to wait for up to an hour on hold before you can talk to someone, and then you just get some random guy in his bedroom who gives you answers different from the last random guy in his bedroom. They made a huge mistake on the payments for my clarity PHEV and it took me hours and hours and weeks before I was able to get an inside line to a single person. But even that single person seem to be clueless about the problem and had no authority to resolve it.

 

Gabe,

No they did not charge me for the remaining months and I don't recall having to pay an inspection fee either. They do send you a final statement after you turn the car in, and I remember now that they it claimed outstanding receivables for almost $1,800 which was the remaining payments of the full lease. When I called to complain they agreed that was a mistake since I had gotten pre-approval for the early return. So the past payment I show to Hondafinancial on thier website was in Sept 2020 for October payment. I got the inspection in late October and brought the car back to the dealer first week of November.

 

Greetings,

My 2018 Clarity Electric lease ends 1/4/2022. I am wonder if anyone had to pay the Disposition Fee? My contract list it as a "outstanding prior credit or lease balance" of $690. I am hoping not, as they are going to toss the car anyway. I know, wishful thinking.

Thanks,

GHTech

 

I did not have to pay a disposition fee. On my contract, "outstanding prior credit or lease balance" shows as $0.00, so I don't know what that is. As far as tossing the car, wishful thinking is right. They still do the standard final inspection and will hold you accountable for any excessive dings or scratches, and they pay a third party company a couple of hundred bucks to do it! All for a car that is just going to get tossed, as you say, in a couple of months.