Hi falker11, yes you can trade the car in just as if you owned it outright or if you had a loan with an outstanding balance. Before you go to a delaer where you want to buy/lease your new car, get a good idea of the real value of your car. For this, use Edmunds.com, kbb.com and nada.com. Then take the car to a CarMax used car lot (if one is near) and have them appraise it - they are usually pretty fair and they put it in writing. Once you have a ballpark of the real value of your car, go to your new car dealer and negotiate the new car purchase price first. Only after you get that should you even mention the idea of a trade-in, then ask for their best offer. Don't tell the dealer that it is a leased vehicle because they can easily calculate your residual value. And don't tell them how much the residual is, just tell them you owe a little something on it, but you're not sure how much - first you want them to make a fair offer. If the dealer's trade-in is too low, show them the online numbers or provide the CarMax offer, whichever is higher. After you get the dealer's price, they can contact the lease company to get the payoff amount and apply any positive difference to you new purchase or give you cash. If they refuse to match CarMax, just bring the car to CarMax and they'll buy it from you and give you the cash. Oh, and do all this before the end of your current lease. Good luck.
MD
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