Ford Options Trade In - Lost Key

[RickMachE]

It is pretty unclear what you are doing.

Trading in the vehicle means that you have negotiated a purchase of the vehicle from you for a sum of money, and then the balloon is paid off, with you getting credit for any remaining funds. Given the high residual and low current values, you would likely have negative equity.

Turning the car in means you simply hand the keys over, and buy a new vehicle with no funds coming from the old one. Just like a lease.

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[NewGuy]

It is pretty unclear what you are doing.

Trading in the vehicle means that you have negotiated a purchase of the vehicle from you for a sum of money, and then the balloon is paid off, with you getting credit for any remaining funds. Given the high residual and low current values, you would likely have negative equity.

Turning the car in means you simply hand the keys over, and buy a new vehicle with no funds coming from the old one. Just like a lease.

Following up to explain what happened over the last two weeks; this may deserve it's own post. Short version - @RickMachE was very right.

To summarize, I was coming to the end of my first three years under Ford Options loan (which is a loan structured like a lease). I called Ford Credit to talk about options. They explained that I could do any of the following -

1 - Pay the balloon payment either in lump sum or refinance with them and keep the car.
2 - Walk away from the car - The balloon payment goes away, there's a disposition fee, the car goes through an inspection process and I'm responsible for any damage, and I'm responsible for any excess miles at $.25 per mile. I was over mileage by more than 12k miles.
3 - Get a new Ford or Lincoln - the balloon payment goes away, there's no inspection or charge for condition, and no fee for excess mileage.

I went with option 3. Earlier in this thread I explained what I was doing and @RickMachE pointed out that option 3 doesn't actually exist; he was confused. Even my dealer said they'd never heard of not being charged for excess miles. I called Ford Credit again prior to signing anything for my new 2025 Mach E and was told about these same options again. I was on the phone with a very friendly lady for over 40 minutes making sure I had it correct, and had already spoken to two other people prior to speaking to her. They all agreed that option 3 above was real and laughed that the dealer (and @RickMachE !!) didn't know what they were doing. This last woman had even worked at Ford Credit for 10 years on the dealer side and now several on the customer side.

I got the new car and left my 2022 at the dealer. Three days later I called Ford Credit and they told me they were scheduling my inspection. Red flag. I explained there is no inspection. This person told me there is an inspection but no excess miles fee. Several days later I called again. This person told me my car came out fine from inspection and that was it; no excess miles fee and no more charges to me. Phew! The next day I log in to Ford Credit and see a $3200 excess miles fee. I call again and was told of course there is an excess miles fee. He then checked my notes on my account and was like "Oh S***...." (He didn't curse, he was very proper.) He could see in the notes, without even listening to my calls that I was told multiple times that I wouldn't get hit with this fee.

He escalated to his manager and by the next day my account was zeroed out. Ford ate the excess mileage fees.

Everyone at Ford Credit has been incredibly nice on the phone, and even if I did get mis-information from 5 different reps, I'm impressed with out they sorted it out in the end.

 

[RickMachE]

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...er-ford-options-term.38849/page-2#post-849655

 

[NewGuy]

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...er-ford-options-term.38849/page-2#post-849655

Yeah I think the point of confusion is surrounding the definitions of trade in vs return.

About five Ford Credit reps all told me the same wrong thing, so I'm not sure how they expect customers to understand it. I'm just very glad they honored what I was repeatedly told.

 

[astrorob]

@NewGuy i have an options loan and i've always understood that if i buy another ford at the end of the loan (and return the car to satisfy the balloon) that the nuisance fees go away. but i'm not surprised to hear that they didn't go away without some effort on your part.

i don't think @RickMachE ever said that option 3 does not exist...? you are turning in the car to satisfy the balloon payment and ford is waiving some "lease termination" fees since you are buying another ford. it's like a loyalty discount.

 

[NewGuy]

@NewGuy i have an options loan and i've always understood that if i buy another ford at the end of the loan (and return the car to satisfy the balloon) that the nuisance fees go away. but i'm not surprised to hear that they didn't go away without some effort on your part.

i don't think @RickMachE ever said that option 3 does not exist...? you are turning in the car to satisfy the balloon payment and ford is waiving some "lease termination" fees since you are buying another ford. it's like a loyalty discount.

I think you (and I, and many Ford Credit reps) are conflating returning vs. trading in. Even on this page they have explaining how this works they separate trade-in and return, but still use the word "return" under the trade-in description.

My understand now is -

You can return the vehicle, and satisfy the entirety of the balloon payment. This comes with a disposal fee, possibly excess mileage fee, and possibly excess wear and use fees.

You can trade in the vehicle. This does not necessarily satisfy the entirety of the balloon payment. This is a deal between you and your dealer to negotiate a trade-in value. There is no disposal fee, nor excess mileage fees, nor excess wear and use fees, BUT you can be sure that your dealer will take those things into account when coming up with a trade-in value. If you've driven 100k miles and the car is dinged up, sure there's no direct fee for this, but the trade-in value is going to reflect that. It's possible (probable?) that the trade in value will fall shore of the balloon payment and you'll still be responsible for that difference.

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