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GM Financial Stops End-Of-Lease Purchases With Non-GM Dealers

GM Financial, the automaker’s captive finance arm, will stop end-of-lease purchases for non-GM dealers in order to prioritize participating GM dealers for access to vehicles reentering the market.

Per a recent report from Automotive News, the new change will take effect July 1st. In an email, a General Motors spokesperson confirmed that the primary motivator behind the change was the ongoing global microchip shortage. According to the spokesperson, the change is intended to “better support our GM dealers though the current economic environment and the challenges they’re encountering sourcing quality pre-owned vehicles.”

Customers will be notified in the next several weeks that the terms of their lease require that a lease purchase request be submitted “by contacting GM Financial Customer Experience or working with a participating GM dealership,” according to executive vice president of U.S. sales and credit at GM Financial, Joe Bartuch.

The new policy is expected to be in place through the 2021 calendar year, after which GM Financial may reevaluate its position.

In an interview with Automotive News, the dealer principal at Michigan group Todd Wenzel Automotive, Todd Wenzel, praised the move, saying that GM Financial “heard what the GM dealers wanted, and they reacted very quickly – within days from when the dealer council brought them this issue.”

Naturally, the move may conflict with the interests of non-GM dealers, but for participating GM dealers eager to purchase end-of-lease vehicles and shore up inventory, prioritization will likely be appreciated. Several other automakers have also prioritized their respective participating dealers as the global chip shortage has pushed the purchase of every leased vehicle returned.

“If you’re not a GM dealer, it might not be the best position,” Wenzel said. “But with inventory so tight on new and used, it’s a great move for the GM participating dealer.”

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Sounds great to me!

    Reply
    1. My Cadillac 2020 CT5 has been in the shop 3 times for manufacturers defects. One of the worst lease cars I have driven. Now they want me to stay in my lease!!! This was not in my contract when I signed my lease agreement. If it was, I would not have signed it or leased this car., so… my attorney will deal with them! The commercials can fool you! Poorly built car. I’m trading it for a reliable vehicle that won’t be in the repair shop 3 times in 7months. It’s in the repairs now for the past 6 days!!!! This policy is created because the cars GM has can’t compete with the other car manufacturers. Lexus, Toyota, Acura, Infiniti, Nissan, etc… do not have that policy in place because those are GREAT CARS!!! You have to do better for the consumers rights to choice!!!!

      Reply
  2. There are two ways to “get out of” a lease: Wait for the lease to reach full term (end) or buy the vehicle outright at some point. There are a variety of reasons that the vehicle may get purchased to terminate a lease – the owner decides to keep it long term or the owner decides to “trade it in” against a different vehicle altogether.

    This last lot of folks, which I suspect makes up a very large percentage of those that lease, are going to be the ones that “pay the price” because they will not be able to buy out their leases and dump GM brands if they want to change to a different manufacturer. I can see this resulting in lawsuits by the consumers.

    Reply
  3. Ford already does this allowing the dealership originating the lease to screw the leasee from making money by selling the car to another dealer by marking up the buyout. Dealership added $1000 to buyout errassing the monry I could have made all with Ford’s approval.

    Reply
  4. Just closed a sale of 2020 Traverse lease to Carvana under the wire. Their offer was much better than my original GM lease dealer offered, plus saved 4 months of payments and the silly $750 “cleaning fee”. I can get by with one less vehicle and am waiting to buy/order a ’22 from a competitor. No more gm leases for me.

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  5. This is the worst I will never purchase another GM vehicle ever again they have the worst cars on the planet. I have two more months left in my lease and I was in the process of turning my lease over to another dealer that would have paid $2000 more than GM was offering for their own car. The car is a pile of junk a 2017 Chevy traverse that runs as if it was 30 years old. Once I figure out how to get out of this car I will never be a GM customer again.

    Reply
  6. Looking for a class-action lawsuit to join. This has got to be illegal. I was told point blank at the time of lease that I could end the lease at any time any way I wanted , including trading to another dealer outside of GM. Absolutely furious at the financial strain this has put on my family.

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    1. You and I both. This is absolutely unfair to the customer, but oh boy, do there dealers like it. Huge rip off to the customer. How unethical GM is.

      Reply
  7. Welcome to the world of what Ford Motor Credit has been doing for years, and Chrysler Capital just began doing as well.

    Reply
  8. I am at the end of my lease on a 2018 Terrain and am absolutely disgusted with GM and their business practices. I was forced to pay almost $900.00 for new tires two months before my lease end and then went without a car for almost two weeks while it was in their service center for electrical problems. I was so excited to trade it in and just found out about this new policy after wasting hours at a Toyota dealership. I have since discovered that most of the GM employees don’t even know about this yet. To make matters worse the non-Gm dealer offered me $3500.00 over my lease payoff amount but the GM dealership would only give me $2400.00. If this does not violate at least a dozen consumer protection laws then I don’t know what would. I was a loyal GM customer for about 15 years but will never deal with this fraudulent company ever again.

    Reply
  9. This is absurd. I’m wondering if this is legal to add to an already signed lease agreement, if that stipulation was not present at the time of lease inception…
    I know for sure, I will never purchase or lease another GM vehicle, and will tell family and friends to do the same. If this is how they treat their current customers, why would I ever consider returning to the brand? If their product was good enough to begin with, they wouldn’t be afraid of people leaving for another brand.

    Reply
  10. When I get notified of a class action lawsuit, I’m sure to include myself.

    Reply
  11. “GM Financial “heard what the GM dealers wanted, and they reacted very quickly – within days from when the dealer council brought them this issue.”
    What about what the customers wanted?
    Yes, this policy is quite disturbing and will be the end of my relationship with GM. We have two leased GM vehicles. We leased a Bolt in May just before the full scope of the fire issue became clear. Also, have an Equinox that has a month left on the lease. It too bad, I like both vehicles. But, GM’s business practices and poor customer service are just intolerable.
    Unfortunately, GM has left me with no choice but to join any legal actions against them pertaining to these issues.

    Reply
  12. This same thing is happening to us right now. I have someone offering me $7500 more than my payout and the dealer I bought it from says I can’t sell it to them because I’m not more than 120 days from the end of my lease. Honestly I can’t understand how they can change the contract??

    Reply
  13. Gm is going to lose alot of lease customers and the dealer is not going to get that returned vehicle for there inventory they need to put out to the customers no close end leases there goes my gm purchase

    Reply
  14. I had three GM vehicles in a row and NEVER received any loyalty incentives or early buy outs. Combined with the fact that they rarely make significant changes to the overall look of their vehicles and the lease buyout restrictions, I will be going elsewhere.

    Reply

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