What to Do if You’re Exceeding Your Mileage Cap

The best part of leasing a car is the ability it gives you to drive a nice ride for average ride money, or an exceptionally nice ride for nice ride money.

However, there are some things to which you need to pay attention when you’re leasing a car. One of which is limiting yourself to an average of 12,000 miles per year on mainstream cars and 10,000 on luxury cars. You’ll agree to pay somewhere between 15 and 20 cents per mile otherwise. This is typically doable, but what can you do if you realize you’re exceeding your mileage cap?

You actually have quite a few options in this regard.

Among them are—

Drive the Car Less

If you’ve agreed to a 36-month term at 12,000 miles annually, and you see you have 20,000 miles on the car at the end of the first year, you’re going to need to make some changes in the way you use that vehicle. If you’re commuting to work in it every day, perhaps you can find alternate transportation to your job. If you’re driving it both to work and for fun, you’ll need to choose between the two.

Either way, the bottom line is you’ll need to limit your use of that car to meet the conditions of your contract. This might even mean getting a less expensive used car with which to alternate.

Pay for the Miles

Most lease contracts include an option to buy the car at the end of the lease term. In our scenario above, if you continue driving at the same rate, you’ll be 24,000 miles over what you agreed to drive.

This means you’ll owe the leasing company an additional $3,600 (at 15 cents per mile) when you return the car. Average it out, start saving now and you’ll only need to put away $150 monthly to be ready to meet that obligation.

Plan to Buy the Car

There was a litany of fine print underneath the ad you found when you searched “lease a car near me” and settled on the one you wanted. One of the pieces of information contained within those admonitions was the buyout amount you’d encounter when the contract ran its course. In other words, they told you up front what they’d be willing to take for the car if you decided to keep it at the end of the lease.

Given you’re one year in — continuing with our hypothetical here — you’ll have 24 months to save up a down payment if you decide to keep it and finance the purchase. The more cash you can put away toward that purpose ahead of time, the lower your monthly payment will be when you accept the finance contract.

And, truth be told, that might well be your best option here. You’ll be getting a good deal on a used car with which you’re thoroughly acquainted. You’ll avoid the typical concerns that come along with buying a pre-owned vehicle because you’ll know exactly what the car has been through.

So, those are your options for what to do if you’re exceeding your mileage cap. Which choice is the best one for you depends largely upon your situation and what you’re most willing to do. Either way, any of these approaches will save you from having to come up with a huge lump sum of cash at the end of your lease. As with most things in life, planning ahead makes all the difference in the world.

And, look into getting a high mileage lease contract if you lease another car.