They are owned by the Bank of Montreal as it's automotive dealer lease arm. They are no more difficult to deal with than any other 3rd party lender. They are used by Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki, Mitsubishi...for much of their lease portfolio's. Captive finance co's like Nissan Canada Finance, Toyota Canada Credit, VW Credit, Honda Canada Finance, GM, Ford CAN be easier to deal with but not always. 3rd party lenders tend to have strict lending criteria so if you are not A credit they likely won't lend. Any leasing co is tough to deal with if you turn your car in with big dents, dings, no maintence, bald tires. Most will stick to the template in regard to damage. When it comes to mileage, if your over well, too bad. You owe. If you stick with the same brand, most dealers will be able to roll the charge into a new lease. I have NEVER heard of a company over looking over mileage, the dealers for the most part suck it up with discount or roll it into your payment. Damage is another story. I have heard that ALL companies are MUCH more strict than they used to be. They are getting killed at the Auctions and therefore come after the customer to collect on the contract. Why wouldn't they? If your vehicle was within the bounds of the contract you have no issue. But if you have damage, well, dealers won't pony up to the residual and will deduct the cost of repair from what they will pay at the block. Somebody's going to pay one way or the other and it will be the customer. To avoid this potential scenario you could do a ballon payment loan. This is much safer from a customer point of view. In addition, you will be building trade equity. A lease is basically a ballon loan with the leasing company gaurateeing the end value. A ballon loan, you gauratee the end value. Anyone I know that has done a ballon has had it work out better than if they would have leased. So for example a 48 month lease, is really a 48/72 ballon. Meaning 48 months of payments on a 72 month amortization. At the end of 48 months, there's a certain amount left over to pay or refinance. BUT if you would like to trade, you can. If the ballon is say $5000, then dealer offers you $4000 because the car needs 4 tires, basically your only out $400 in neg. equity because of the tax savings. Conversely, if you had in the car on the lease, and the leasing co. determine's after the fact that it needs 4 tires. They will charge you for replacement of the OEM Tires that came with the car. An expensive proposition. IMO, unless your sure your not going to go over mileage, don't lease. Here's how the amortization breaks down:
36/60=60 month lease
48/72=48 month lease
60/84=60 month lease
72/96=72 month lease
When you do this type of loan, you can also opt. for any cash back amount. The problem is that you will be at bank rate financing. This could be good or bad depending on the model you purchase. Some will have higher ballon values vs. the lease residual. Hope this helps.
