The vast majority of leases these days are 36, 39, or 42 months. Twenty-four-month leases are rare, as are 48- and 60-month terms. Manufacturers
want their cars back sooner than four years, and the two-year termpayments are usually too high for most consumers. The exception is high-
end cars like Porsche and Mercedes, who do use them on a regular basis.
Since a lease is a compound interest instrument (like a home mortgage)you pay mostly interest during the first year. Which means you’ll be upside (^)
down on what you owe on the lease by a large amount if you need to getout in the first 12 months. Your only real option will be to bring a big chunk (^)
of cash to the table.
TIP: Be careful of “lease swapping” companies.
You could try to transfer the lease to someone else using a company likeLeasetrader.com or Leaseswap.com, but based on the number of negative (^)
reviews of these types of outfits (and the fact that most lease companieswon’t let you transfer legally), it is hard to recommend them.
Somewhere during the middle part of the 2(depending on the used market as a whole, and how you car is doing withinnd year of the lease or thereafter (^)
the market), you’ll be approaching break-even. During the 3generally be paying a large amount of the principal (depreciation), so you’llrd year you will (^)
be in good stead to get out early without penalty.