US Car Lease-Anyone end their lease early to move to UK????

I have a 2009 VW and my lease is not up until December 2011. I want to move over to England in 4 weeks (I just got my Spouse Visa 3 days ago!) and am nervous about turning my car in early. I will be handing it in 6 months early. I know I have to pay the remainder payments and Im sure there is a penalty fee. Has anyone been thru this? If so can you tell me how you went about it and what the fees were? Need moral support!

This is just a suggestion, but if there is going to be a penalty fee as well, do you have someone who could park it in their garage until December and just turn it in for you? You'll still have to make payments obviously but maybe you could get around the penalty fee?

Why on earth would there be a penalty fee when you are paying the rest of the lease...and yet they get their car back 6 months earlier than they expected (ie can "double lease" the same car)?!

There is a web site for transferring leases. Wish I could tell you the name. Google it. Anyway if you put down # of payments remaining and if you want any cash. You can check with your leasing company on this to see what they need to have the 'buyer' to qualify.

Try this one: https://www.swapalease.com/exit-lease/Default.aspx

Always be careful.

From my research there is no cheap way out of this one. According to VW Credit I have 4 choices.


1) Have someone to take over the lease. VW does not play well with swapa lease and ultimately I will still be responsible if anything goes wrong. This choice is too high risk .

2) If I hand it in early and pay remainder of payments plus early termination fee ($350) I still have to wait until they take my car to auction. If there is a difference between the fair market value and my residual I will be responsible for that amount. They told me Wolfsburgs usually do well at auction but still an added risk. Ending the lease puts a mark on my credit record as well.

3) If I keep it garaged I will have to have someone keep an eye on it...start it up every once in a while, then they would have to turn it in for me and hand in my plates to DMV. I also have to keep full insurance on it every month until my lease is over. I would also be responsible for any thing they consider beyond normal wear and tear.

4) Sell it

I went to 2 dealerships in Connecticut and  4 in New york. Only one dealer was interested in buying it. He said I would have to give him $1300 and he would take the car and pay VW credit. This holds many risks as well but seems like the choice I may go with. I have to be sure that he pays the car off on time or else my credit will be affected.I will still have to pay the early termination fee as well.

I would like to settle my car before I leave. Making it someone elses responsibility is stressful for me and a lot to ask...my family is not the most helpful crew. Not even sure I can ask all of that of them.

So I am still on the fence but only have a week to decide as I leave 0n the 12th!