Q. I'm currently leasing a car I'm not happy with. Is it even conceivable to attempt to get a dealer to take over my current lease, then draw me up a new lease for one of their vehicles?

A. Early termination of a lease can be very expensive, and you will be the one who pays, not the dealer:-). The earlier in your lease, the worse off you generally are.

Unfortunately there are no special considerations for folks in your position. You would simply be trading-in you current car for another. The problem here is that early in a lease the market value of the car (what you can sell it for) is much less than the payoff amount (the amount you owe). This difference or 'negative equity' is your responsibility and needs to be paid off or rolled into the cost of your new car. Sometimes the amount of inequity can be so great that even this is impossible without making up some of the difference in cash (banks limit the amount they will lend on a car).

What you need to do is find out:
Your current payoff (get this from your leasing company)
Trade-in value of your current car (try nada.com)
This will tell you what kind of shape you are in. If you are really 'upside-down', I recommend waiting. If you are close (or even positive) then go for it!

For more check the leasing section of the guide.

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