How do you handle excess miles? I have been told that if you pay for excess miles as they accru along with your regular payment it is the same as paying them all at once at the end. Is this true. What is the best route? I am doing good actually. I will probably end up like 1200 miles over for the first year. Should I pay them now or roll them into the new lease/purchase?<p>RobS<br>981.8T QMS

Either way you look at it,... you will end up paying for excess milage. Most, if not all, dealers will take the money at the end of lease. @ 1200 miles over each year for say... 3 years... wow, that's another car payment! Why not just buy the A4 at the end of lease? Afterall, if you don't really like the A4, how are you putting ~ 1200 over allowance? :) <br>Just a thought...<p>Cris<br>

I am leasing a 98 A4 1.8QMS and I work and a Nissan dealership. As you stated, you can either pay for extra miles before you get the car or after the lease is over. The difference is price: you usually pay much less if you "buy" them when you sign the lease. At our store, we charge 10 cents per mile up front and 15 after the lease is over. As far as I know, you can't do anything about excess miles until the lease is over; you can't pay them off as you do them. I am over on miles on my car already, but thats OK because I will probably buy it at the end providing there isn't anything else out there that I have to have like an S4!<br>

I was discussing lease vs purchase with my nieghbor, and he mentioned he always leases. I asked him what about excess milage. He said don't worry about it, as he has been over the milage on several occassions. He says when you go to get a new car, just tell the dealer you lease the current car. Because the dealer wants to sell/lease a new car, they won't charge you for any excess milage. He never returns it to the leasing company directly because that will guarantee that they will charge you. Appartently this worked for him. <p>Paul<p>

Let's say I have a 12,000 mi. a year lease. Last month I put 120 miles on the car in a one month span, that puts me 20 miles over my allowed mileage. Now, when I send in my payment of let's say $400.00 I add an extra 3 bucks to cover the mileage I went over. If I do this every month, by the end of my lease I will have overpaid the exact amount I owe for excess mileage. This is what I am getting at. I love this car and would like to buy it depending on how things look in two years, but I want to be covered in case.<p>Thanks<br>Rob

Rob,<p>Most dealers will waive the excess milage fee if you buy/lease another car from them. This usually means turning in the car a month or two early for a new one. As long as the mileage is "reasonable" then you should be okay. However, each dealer has their own ideas of what "reasonable" means.<p>For example, I am leasing my car for 39 months at 15,000 miles/year, or 48750 total miles. I've had my car for almost 5 months and just turned 10000 miles. Obviously I'm way over so far....it was that damn trip to San Diego. If I keep up the current pace I will end at 78000 miles. They probably wouldn't let me get away with that. But, lets say I go in at 55000 and want a new car....they might let me go, or charge me a percentage of the amount rather then the whole thing.<p>Just some things that I have learned after having 4 leases. Hope this helps.<p>Rick<br>98.5 Avant QMS

But I am leaning toward purchasing the car. I am sort of attached to it. Who knows maybe I'll become un attached when the 2001 A4 is out. Does it bother you guys when you lease to know you will always have that car payment? My Nissan SE-V6 has 130,000 miles on it so we will be needing another vehicle in a few years. I hate the thought of having two payments.

I may have missed something but if you are keeping the car then the mileage is irrelevant. You only get charged for excess mileage if you turn the car in. If you are keeping the car drive it all you want without worry.<p>Sean<br>97 1.8Tqm

Why let the bank/leasing company have your money before they need it? What if you drive 1200 miles this month, but only 600 next month? There's no reason to pay now for miles you may or may not use in the future. Keep your money in your pocket, and if you're concerned around month 30, look into alternatives to keep you around your allotted mileage. It's nuts to give money to a bank before it's due.<p>Hope this helps.

if u are worried about excess miles (and i am) put aside some money each year. (try a term deposit, or invest!)<p>at the end of the term, u will have the money and interest. andif u don't need i,there is your xmas money!!<p>1996 a4 2.8 qm <p>

First of all, if you are ending in a token amount w/your payment every month, you BETTER make sure that the bank is applying it the way you intend. Second of all, I don't think it's wise to "monthly pay" projected excess miles; you can't predict how you'll dispense with your car at lease end (buy out,sell to someone to take advantage of good retained value,turn in,have dealer "help" against new lease,etc.). Thirdly, as I've mentioned before on The Forum, NOBODY WAIVES/EATS/ABSORBS/FORGIVES or FORGETS excess mileage at the end of a lease. Be assured that, all other things being equal, if I roll in with a car near/at the end of a lease and I've got 20,000 too many miles, I WILL NOT get as good a deal as my friend who rolls in on the bus. I don't care what you've heard or been told by car business/leasing scumbags, excess miles don't evaporate into thin air! One of the only circumstances where you're not HURT by extra miles is if the value of the car at the end of the lease is greater than the residual value plus the mileage penalty. This is virtually the ONLY way that a lesee is not hurt by excess miles.

you can't necessarily rely on the dealer/leasing co. to tell you that your residual is less than the value of your about-to-end leased car; YOU HAVE TO DO A LITTLE HOMEWORK, just like you did when you first GOT the bloody thing, to find out where you stand.

You are hurt by excess miles no matter which way you slice it. The fact of the matter is, if you have two identical vehicles, the one with fewest miles is worth more.<p>Car dealers understand this, Kelly Blue Book understands this, and (most) consumers understand this.<p>You pay up front, or you pay at the tail end of the lease.<p>I always underestimate the mileage, not because I think I can cheat the system, but because the excess mileage rate typically overstates the impact of extra miles on the true value of the car AND I always sell my car at the end of the lease.<p>(Incidentally, I've always "earned" at least a thousand bucks by handling it this way. No extra sales tax, since the new leasing company is always happy to handle the paperwork as part of the deal for the new one!)