Hi gang, my wife's F-150 lease is coming to an end mid-March. It is an F-150 V6 FX4 Sport Ecoboost Lariat with a sunroof with only 50,000 kms, so pretty high spec with a buyout of only $39,000. We like the truck but would consider getting into an SUV hybrid since we do not use any truck capabilities other than plowing through Newfoundland winters. There looks to be some solid equity in the truck so we went to a non-Ford dealership looking at SUVs but they said in the last 90 days of the lease Ford will not allow you to trade in your leased vehicle at any other dealership, they basically have a monopoly on lease returns. Seems like our only option might be to trade on an Explorer if we can get some equity out of it but of course the Ford dealer just wants us to return the truck so they can sell it for $55,000 and get us to buy a new vehicle, which will not happen. When we asked about our options they didn't mention anything about trading the truck it was just return and buy new.
All that being said, has anyone had a Ford near lease end and traded their vehicle with equity into a new Ford vehicle, or is it just either buy out or return? There is no way we can just give the truck back with a $39,000 buy out.
Thanks everyone!