It is not a secret that most car dealers love leasing. One of the reasons for this is that they know that consumers will be back in a couple of years to lease a new car. Many leasing customers ask the dealer if they can “trade-in” their current vehicle for a new one. And this is when the vehicle leasing scam happens. This is a good opportunity for the car dealer to get you into a new lease, while hiding all the early termination fees and penalties in the new lease.
One thing that most consumers don’t know is that there is no such thing as “trading-in” with a lease (unless your lease contract specifically mentions trading-in your vehicle for a new one). To lease a new vehicle you will have to terminate your old contract and thus pay early termination fees, penalties, and unpaid depreciation that are mentioned in the contract. The dealer may promise to take care of your old lease, but he will simply add all that payments to your new contract.
You will be able to prevent the lease trade-in scam happening to you if you just don’t enter into a new contract until your current lease is over. This way you will be able to avoid the early termination fees and penalties on the current lease.
