[kmsithan]

I have taken a company lease and bought the Ecosport S in 2019. The lease period is getting over by the end of this month (Jul 2022).

I am looking for advice to buy back the car or to leave it to the lease company and exit the contract.

The Car
Ecosport 2019 S
Variant : EcoBoost
Engine : Three-pot engine produces 123 BHP / 10 NM torque
Features :6 airbags, Auto wipers, Auto headlamp, Sync 3 etc

My Usage and second car
Daily commute to office and some highway drives. 20K kilometers per year.
I have my wife's car (Celerio X AMT) sitting idle at home as she has not using it anymore.

The Lease
Lease covered 3 years maintenance, Insurance and provided tax benefit for the leasing amount and for fuel/driver expenses.

The Confusion
With all my financial calculations it appears I should buy it (may be I am wrong). I have below questions

1. Is the car worth to buy at 7.1 lacs
2. Should I go for second hand car of my choice instead of taking ecosport
3. Considering ford exited India, Can I resell it later without loss when I want to upgrade my car?
4. If I leave the car to leasing company and buy a new car, obviously I will be spending big bucks. So is it better to buy?
5. I have shifted from KA to TN and the car is registered in KA. While it may not be a problem to drive KA in TN (I will be frequently visiting KA) It would be ideal to have TN car at TN residence.
6. Should I sell Celerio and leave this car to leasing company?
7. Should I buyback Ecosport and sell celerio as it is not being used.

Attached is my calculation of expenses and savings if I buyback or leave it with the leasing company.

Buyback.xlsx

[itsmeparvathy9]

Originally Posted by kmsithan

I have taken a company lease and bought the Ecosport S in 2009. The lease period is getting over by end of this month (Jul 2022).

The Confusion
With all my financial calculations it appears I should buy it (may be I am wrong). I have below questions

1. Is the car worth to buy at 7.1 lacs
2. Should I go for second hand car of my choice instead of taking ecosport
3. Considering ford exited India, Can I resell it later without loss when I want to upgrade my car?
4. If I leave the car to leasing company and buy a new car, obviously I will be spending big bucks. So is it better to buy?
5. I have shifted from KA to TN and the car is registered in KA. While it may not be a problem to drive KA in TN (I will be frequently visiting KA) It would be ideal to have TN car at TN residence.
6. Should I sell Celerio and leave this car to leasing company?
7. Should I buyback Ecosport and sell celerio as it is not being used.

I will answer your questions one by one:

1.Is the car worth to buy at 7.1 lacs ?
Yes, I think it is worth to buy the car for Rs.7,15,778 considering its just 3 years old.

2.Should I go for second-hand car of my choice instead of taking ecosport
Although Ford has left India, considering that you get a car that's just 3-years old at this price and considering that you most probably won't be getting a 3-year-old SUV car in the used car market at this price, I suggest you keep your Ecosport

3. Considering ford exited India, Can I resell it later without loss when I want to upgrade my car?
This depends on the time horizon you are willing to keep the car, If you are willing to keep it for longer, you would derive more benefit from your car.
if you are going to sell it in a short span of time, considering the amount you are paying to buy it, I don't think it would amount to much loss.

4.If I leave the car to leasing company and buy a new car, obviously I will be spending big bucks. So is it better to buy?
Absolutely not

5.I have shifted from KA to TN and the car is registered in KA. While it may not be a problem to drive KA in TN (I will be frequently visiting KA) It would be ideal to have TN car at TN residence?
Yes, if you are staying in TN, it would be better to reregister to TN.

6. Should I sell Celerio and leave this car to leasing company?
7. Should I buyback Ecosport and sell celerio as it is not being used.
The Ecosport is a better car, and I wouldn't recommend leaving it to the leasing company. On selling Celerio, it depends whether you can find use for it, else sell it off.

[jkrishnakj]

When you say ‘should I buy at 7.1’, does it mean that’s the residual value that you have to pay in order to own the car?

My experience leasing 3 cars from my company each for 3 years, over the past decade has been good. Each time, I’ve managed to pay the residual value, transfer ownership to my name and then, sell immediately. Whilst for the buyer, it technically becomes the third owner, I still was able to sell at values that made money to me.

I stopped the lease option after GST came in. Till then, it was wonderfully good.

[condor]

Originally Posted by itsmeparvathy9

5.I have shifted from KA to TN and the car is registered in KA. While it may not be a problem to drive KA in TN (I will be frequently visiting KA) It would be ideal to have TN car at TN residence?
Yes, if you are staying in TN, it would be better to reregister to TN.

Agree with most points here.

Regarding re-registration, I would say avoid it. Paying road tax again will throw the calculations out of the window. Since @Kmsithan can travel to KA, he can retain the KA registration, and later sell it here.

[thanixravindran]

The combination of a manufacturer that has exited the country and re registration expenses in TN (Road tax calculation is atrocious) will make it unattractive to buyback this car. My suggestion is to let it go.

[kmsithan]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

When you say ‘should I buy at 7.1’, does it mean that’s the residual value that you have to pay in order to own the car?

Yes. That is correct.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I stopped the lease option after GST came in. Till then, it was wonderfully good.

You are spot on. If there was no GST, the buyback value is just 5.5 Lacs !

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

The combination of a manufacturer that has exited the country and re registration expenses in TN (Road tax calculation is atrocious) will make it unattractive to buyback this car. My suggestion is to let it go.

I think you are suggesting to buyback if I don't re register in TN. Is that correct?

Originally Posted by itsmeparvathy9

I will answer your questions one by one:

Great inputs. If I buyback, I would be keeping the car for at least another 3 years.

Overall I got my questions clarified by all of you. Thank you everyone for your responses

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by kmsithan

I think you are suggesting to buyback if I don't re register in TN. Is that correct?

If you re-register at TN, I guess road tax will be around 10% of 2019 invoice or ex-showroom price. Not only that, more expenses on registration itself and broker charges to do it. Not worth in my opinion. So my suggestion was to to leave it with lease company.

[W.A.G.7]

As an Ecosport owner, if you ask me; I will suggest you keep it (buy it back). You won't get such a great vehicle today for that price. You may of course want to sell it and get something better, but since it's only 3 years old, resist the urge to splurge just now. Instead, hang on for 4-5 years more and sell it off at the 10-year mark or if it crosses 125k kms. Ford made fantastic vehicles (Ecosport being one of them), and you will save quite a lot of money as compared to buying a new car. The money that you save can be invested in something else, that will provide you returns in the next 5-10 years. Just a thought!

[amvj]

The second hand car market is selling cars at insane prices at the moment. Even new cars are eye wateringly expensive. This is your last chance to own a ford. Almost every drivers' cars are gone from our market. Consider this, the new watered down, low power petrol Breeza is around 17L for the top variant. I strongly recommend you to keep this Ford. Check for second hand prices of Ecosport they are all very expensive.

Don't worry too much about the road tax, you can sort it out with agents.

[Poornavakra]

Originally Posted by kmsithan

I have taken a company lease and bought the Ecosport S in 2019. The lease period is getting over by the end of this month (Jul 2022).

I am looking for advice to buy back the car or to leave it to the lease company and exit the contract.

• Is the car worth to buy at 7.1 lacs
• Considering ford exited India, Can I resell it later without loss when I want to upgrade my car?

I can answer couple of questions from your list.

Absolutely worth it. A friend of mine was in similar situation where he didnt want to buy the company leased Ecosport after 3 years but it was a good car and hence did now want to let go of it either. I bought it instead of him and got the car transferred to my name as second owner. This was 2018 Titanium+ model and price was almost similar to yours. I looked at market for same model and it was atleast 1-2 lakhs costlier(spinny, cars24 etc).

I am very happy with the car and dont intend to sell it for next 5-8 years despite the Ford exit. I have had good experience with my 3 visits with Ford service center.

With second hand car market flourishing, I dont think you would have major issue selling the car. Except for the kneejerk reaction of price drop during the Ford exit news, the price of ford cars have stabilized in the market and it is reasonably good.

These answers are purely based on my experience and not in the context of other questions you have asked.

[JReacher13]

Hi is there a scope for negotiating with the leasing company. Since the leasing company also has to sell it at a lower value, considering enhanced depreciation of Ford vehicles the residual value of the vehicle could be lower than original agreement. Just a thought.

[manpreetsj]

If I just refer to your excel file, you should simply keep the car with you.

The net spend on car till date is ~6.5 Lakhs. By some back of envelop calculations I am assuming you have done close to 1 Lakh kms. That gives us net cost per km of Rs 6.5 (Rs 11/km at 60k kms in 3yrs).

At cost of Rs 6.5-11/km, you have enjoyed best economies on a car. On my Elite I20 (owned), best I could get was Rs. 35/km for 30K kms clocked in 5 years. Even at 1 Lakh kms, I will still be at 25/km costing. 6.5/km costing is extremely cheap.

Hence, recommendation would be to keep it. Only 3 years old it is + new cars are insanely expensive + new technology is coming in (ADAS, EV/Hybrids). Maybe in 2 years once your car is 5 YO, you will be better positioned with newer options in market.

[fiat_tarun]

A 2019 Ecoboost Ecosport S at INR 7L is a good price and would fetch you more even if you decide to sell it right away. I think the Bangalore market price should be in the 8.5 - 9L range considering used car prices today.

On the other hand, the Ecosport especially in S trim is a wonderful car which will serve you well for the 3 years you intend to keep it. I don't see a problem with Ford service for the next 3-4 years till the current 5 year contracts that dealers have signed are in place.

To replace an Ecosport S, you need to spend atleast INR 20L to get either a VW 2.0 vehicle or more for a Jeep Compass, Harrier, XUV, etc., as nothing else will come close to the drive experience and overall sense of engineering.

[aniketi]

Originally Posted by kmsithan

I have taken a company lease and bought the Ecosport S in 2019. The lease period is getting over by the end of this month (Jul 2022).

I am looking for advice to buy back the car or to leave it to the lease company and exit the contract.

The Car
Ecosport 2019 S
Variant : EcoBoost
Engine : Three-pot engine produces 123 BHP / 10 NM torque
Features :6 airbags, Auto wipers, Auto headlamp, Sync 3 etc


Attached is my calculation of expenses and savings if I buyback or leave it with the leasing company.

Attachment 2337428

Why? 7.1 Lakhs is not a small amount at all plus you have a other car sitting idle at home. Don't buy this and use other car for some time, save some money and go for other, better & bigger car like Scorpio N, Harrier, XUV 700 or something else after some time. I see no point in sticking to Ecosport as Ford has exited India already. After 3-4 years it will fetch you very less value. Just my thoughts.

[chinmaypillay]

I would suggest to keep the Ecosport and sell the Celerio, the Ecosport is a great value car and is not huge in terms of size. So you can go ahead and sell the Celerio which is actually seeing great resale nowadays.

Regarding the registration, personally I have faced no issues in TN running a car with KA board. And since you have mentioned you travel frequently to Bangalore, reregistering is not worth. If this is a sore point, I would recommend giving the vehicle back to the leasing company as the cost of registration would not be worth it.

Get the vehicle and run it with the KA board, TN folks don't harass much compared to KA with respect to the registration.

The Ecosport is the last breed of fun to drive cars from Ford, and would be criminal to sell it off when its nearly new as yours. Since the company has anyways exited, utilise it to the max and sell it off later. Celerio sale can help your finances to an extent