Steve95628

I've posted on here a few times, contributed some but mostly soaked in the opinions and tribal knowledge. I have a decision to make regarding my '14 A6 TDI since the lease is up on June 4th.

We're all aware of the TDI settlement that is ongoing and the emission "problems" with the car. What surprised me after going through the court submission and calling the TDI settlement hotline is that even if I buy out the lease I won't be considered an owner (the lease would have needed to be purchased before Jan '17 - no idea why this timing is important).

Therefore, even if I buy out the lease I'm not eligible for owner restitution, just lessee. And frankly I'm fine with that, the restitution amounts differing by a few thousand dollars. However, what I'm concerned about is that there is NO offer of buyback on the car in the event they can't fix it. Owners will get a buyback offer, lessees will not (if purchased after Jan '17). WTF? I don't understand this and it seems to put all risk on those of us that love the car and want to keep it.

So - what do you guys think - will they fix it? If they do, how bad with the affect be to performance and/or mileage? What are the thoughts on resale value on this car in ~1 year? My sales guy's opinion is that the resale will tank figuring there are a lot of people sitting on them waiting for their restitution and then they'll dump it. Maybe. Then again, he wants to get me into another Audi.

Oh - one other thing. I was also expecting to certify the car at buyout and get the +2 years up to 100K miles. According to the dealer, they can't do this because to certify it they have to buy the car and sell it back to me. They can't touch it to buy/certify/sell, if they do then it's grounded.

Anyway - I'd like to hear thoughts, opinions, etc. Again, love the car. The efficiency and performance can't be beat by anything else on the market today (that meets my needs). The car has been mostly flawless for me (I had to replace the pads with Akebonos from Amazon for <$150 and they've been awesome (no squeaks and minimal brake dust)). My only complaint documented on this site is the ACC/Brake Guard unavailable warning in very hot ambient temps.

Thanks!

audi40

I suspect that since VW filed settlement papers with the court on Jan. 31, the court's position is that any lessees buying out their leases after that date, were doing so with the knowledge and intent of buying their way into better settlement amount with VW. I have no idea what % of lessees normally buy out their leases, but I suspect that it's a small %, so it clearly seems that the court is acting in VW's best interest in this case by effectively encouraging lessees to turn their cars in at lease end not exposing VW to additional owner compensation should a fix not ultimately be approved.

I believe I'd read that any fix that is ultimately approved must not degrade performance and/or MPG beyond certain amounts, but I have no strong feeling as to whether or not a fix will be approved. I have 56k miles on mine and used the balance of my $500 dealership goodwill card towards buying Audicare plus for my 55/65k mile services, with the intent of holding my car at least through the end of this year and [hopefully] getting a buyback sometime in 2018. If a fix is approved, I expect that I'd get it done, collect the balance (50%) of the compensation and hold the car until 75k miles or so. Either way, I think I'll be sticking with the brand in the future...either an S5 SB or C8 A6/A7.

Oscar2

I say turn it in at the end of your lease, there's really no decision to make there.

You have nothing to lose since as a lessee you already had your buyout price determined right at the start of the lease (one of the the reasons we lease after all).

As far as buying out your car goes, well there's always next time since this time was a bust

Street

I'm in the same boat as you. I extended my lease waiting to learn of the final deal. I'm kicking myself because all the info was out when my lease expired and I could have bought before the deadline. What I'm doing now is selling the car. The next owner gets the full benefit of the Owner Settlement minus the $2,000 I get as the lessee.

KevinGary

As a lessee you don't get much with the settlement.

DSL_PWR

No you don't. We were offered about $2k according to website. Not thrilled at all.

Even talking with them if we had purchased the car the settlement would be the same.

50pascals

I can't lease cars, so I'm not fully versed in them. But in general a lease is paying an agreed upon depreciation curve at a specified interest rate.

So the reason a lesse doesn't get much is because they never took ownership of the asset. Thus the lessee suffered no loss, because the asset was not owned by the lessee.

Theoretically, you could argue that the asset depreciated faster than the rate you agreed to when you signed the lease, thus you benefited by not paying the full depreciation - Audi Credit (the owner) took that hit.

Buying it now, you would theoretically be paying a reduced price for the same car because it would have already been devalued by the market. Assuming you paid current market prices, not a lease buyout amount agreed to years ago.

DSL_PWR

Well the later is what happened. We decided to buy out the lease and discussed the depreciated value on the car only to be told that didn't apply. Still negotiating but hoping for something better out of the settlement.

My car is basically worth nothing and I couldn't trade it unless I came up with the difference which as of now is about $9800. That is according to Audi specifically.

2014a6tdi

you bought the car while the scandal was unfolding?!? Wow! I hope Audi does something for you, but, I think you're in a tough spot!

Steve95628

So I started the thread and wanted to weigh in on where I landed...

I turned in the car on Friday. It was hard as I loved the car but couldn't justify buying it as it is way upside down. The residual (2014, 3 year / 36K miles lease) on it (prestige) was $35200. I had the dealer appraise it and it came in "well under that" and I also took it to CarMax where they offered $26K.

I also called AFS (Audi Financial) but they were no help - they would not adjust the residual. So I had to walk.

It seems to me there would be only 2 reasons that Audi wouldn't want current lease holders to buy the car:
1) they know they can't fix it and don't want to have to buy them back (yes - if you buy it off lease then if and only if they can't fix it they will buy it back. No - you aren't considered an owner for restitution. It's all in the court settlement material)
2) they think, once fixed, it will be worth more. I doubt this one though.

My other big consideration is how much the "fix" will affect it's performance. The only measures of perf in the court settlement is HP & torque and there would be additional payment ($500) if affected > 5%. However, going with how they're currently addressing the issue on 2.0 engines and causing the tranny to shift really early thereby affecting performance, I jettisoned the car. While I loved the car it was because it was efficient AND had amazing performance. If either one of those is affected then it's not the car I bought.

Now, onto how I feel about the lease. I'm mixed. I feel like there was fraud at play to the tune of > $2K in restitution. My feeling is, if the Audi didn't perform better (in efficiency & performance) than the BMW 5 series diesel I'd have leased that car. If I wound up liking it as much as the Audi I'd have bought it and probably had it certified (something the Audi dealer promised me could be done when I was making the lease decision but ultimately could not be done because of the scandal). I feel like I just flushed the $35K depreciation down the drain when before the scandal there was a very real possibility that the market value of the car would have been greater than the residual.

Oh well. I'm at peace with it now. I'll never lease a car again.

Good luck all.