If you leased your current SUV, you might be watching the going rate for new and used SUVs and wondering how it will impact you. Should you buy your leased car? Should you return your SUV and look for something new? Perhaps you should buy your leased car and then sell it – for a huge profit. If you have one of the hottest SUVs, you could make a lot of money by buying your leased car and selling it. 

Should you buy your leased car?

Right now, the going rate for leased cars and SUVs is sky high. This is because of a global chip crisis and manufacturing delays which have caused a slowdown in the production of new SUVs. That’s making available vehicles worth way more expensive than usual. 

iSeeCars studied about ten million vehicle sales and determined that “the average three-year-old used car is worth 31.5 percent, or $7,019, more than its residual value estimated at the beginning of its leasing term.” Because the residual value of vehicles is calculated at the start of a lease, the price that lessees will pay on their used SUV right now is likely a whole lot lower than what they could sell that same used SUV for. 

iSeeCars then calculated which used vehicles are likely able to be bought at the end of their lease and then sold for a high profit. The following SUVs are those that you can probably make a decent amount of money on. 

1. The 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan is the leased SUV worth the most right now

If you buy and then sell your leased Volkswagen Tiguan right now, you stand to make a decent amount of money. The money over market value of a 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan is $8,677. This is a 61.3% market value increase over its predicted value. 

2. You’ll make $7,000 buying your leased 2018 Jeep Compass and then selling it

Right now, a 2018 Jeep Compass is worth $7,163 more than it was projected to be worth at the start of a 2018 lease. Buying your leased car makes a whole lot of sense if it’s a 2018 Jeep Compass. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change to make off of selling a three-year old SUV. In fact, it’s 46.4% more than its predicted value.

3. The 2018 Jeep Cherokee is worth way more than anyone thought it would be

If you’re looking to sell your leased 2018 Jeep Cherokee, you stand to make on average 46.3% more than your SUV is calculated to be worth right now. That means if you buy your Jeep Cherokee, then sell it, you could end up with $7,418 more than you would have if your 2018 Jeep Cherokee was worth what everyone thought it would be now. 

4. The 2018 Ford Expedition will also net you a decent amount of cash

Buy your leased 2018 Ford Expedition and sell it, and you’re likely looking at a profit of $15,830. This is a larger sum of money than the other used SUVs on this list, but because of the cost of a Ford Expedition, it’s only 45.8% more than the Expedition was projected to be worth. Still, this is nothing to sneeze at. If you decide to buy your leased 2018 Ford Expedition and then sell it, you’re probably going to make a good amount of money. 

Obviously every vehicle is different, and one shouldn’t look at this list and see an automatic profit. Whether it makes sense for you to buy your leased SUV and then sell it depends on a host of factors. Some of these include the terms of your lease, how much you’d owe if you bought it versus turned it in, and its condition. Of course it also matters what similar vehicles in your area are going for. All of these considerations should be weighed when deciding whether to buy your leased SUV and then sell it. Yet if you could make a profit as large as those projected here, it might be worth looking at.