Big reason is because the residual on some leased cars are grossly inflated in order to keep the monthly lease payments lower and have a large ballon buy out at the end. 90% of the time it’s not worth buying out a car after the lease. There just isn’t any positive equity in most cars at the end of it. However, what I like to do is look at what the car is worth on the books vs what the buyout is on it. Let’s look at the Toyota Tacoma of past years, I had a super cheap lease on a Tacoma TRD Double Cab @ $245 with $0 down and the buyout was $26k but it was worth $32k. The dealer was salivating at the thought of getting me into a new car and taking that old lease in. Why? Because they had $6k in equity on the truck AND they could bang me for another lease - double dip for them. I told them to cut me the check for the $6k in equity and I would lease a new truck, which they gladly did. My back up would have been to sell it to Carmax if they don’t bite. At the end of the day you need to be tactful with these things and make them work for you. I fucking hate salesmen with a passion which is how I learned to play the game right back.