Disposition Fee
What is a disposition fee on a car lease?
A disposition fee is a one-time charge the leasing company bills when you return a leased car, covering the cost of inspecting, cleaning, and reselling it. Confirmed base amounts run $350 at Toyota to $495 at GMC. Most captives waive it if you buy the car at lease end instead of returning it, or lease another vehicle from the same brand within a set window.
Key takeaways
- A disposition fee is a one-time charge the leasing company bills when you return a leased car instead of buying it, covering the cost of inspecting, cleaning, and reselling the vehicle.
- Confirmed base disposition fees, checked directly on each captive's own site, run from $350 at Toyota Financial Services to $495 at GMC through GM Financial.
- Every captive checked in this site's brand research waives the disposition fee if you buy your leased car instead of returning it, because there is no vehicle left to recondition and resell.
- A loyalty waiver is the second confirmed path: leasing or financing another vehicle from the same brand within a window the captive sets, commonly 30 days at Toyota Financial Services and Nissan Motor Acceptance Company.
- On a hypothetical 36-month lease totaling $15,671 in base payments, computed with the site's lease calculator, Toyota's $350 fee runs about 2.2% of that total and GMC's $495 fee runs about 3.2%, small next to the rest of what a lease costs.
- The disposition fee is set by the captive finance company in the lease contract, not the dealer, so it is not something you negotiate the way you negotiate a selling price.
What is a disposition fee on a car lease?
A disposition fee is a one-time charge the leasing company bills when you return a leased car, covering the cost of inspecting, cleaning, and preparing the vehicle for resale. It applies only if you hand the car back at lease end. If you buy the car instead, there is no vehicle for the leasing company to recondition, so the fee never comes up.
The amount is set by the captive, the finance company behind the lease, not by the dealer you signed with. Complete Car Lease is not a dealer, lessor, or broker; we do not set or collect this fee, and this page reports what each captive has published about its own. Confirmed base amounts run $350 to $495 by brand, and the full brand-by-brand table lives on disposition fees by brand rather than repeated here.
How much is the disposition fee by brand?
Confirmed base figures, checked directly on each captive's own site, run from $350 at Toyota Financial Services to $495 at GMC through GM Financial, the highest confirmed base amount found.
| Brand | Disposition fee |
|---|---|
| Toyota | $350 |
| Nissan | $395 |
| Chevrolet | up to $395 |
| GMC | up to $495 |
Several brands, including Honda, Ford, BMW, and Tesla, confirm the fee exists without publishing a dollar amount on their own consumer pages, and Mercedes-Benz advertises a loyalty credit of up to $595 toward the fee without stating a plain base amount. The full picture across every brand checked, including which figures could and could not be verified, is on disposition fees by brand.
Can you get the disposition fee waived?
Yes, in two confirmed ways. The first is buying your leased car instead of returning it, which skips the fee entirely because there is no vehicle left to recondition and resell. This holds at every captive checked in this site's brand research, including Toyota, GM Financial, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, and Ford.
The second is a loyalty waiver: leasing or financing another vehicle from the same brand through the same captive within a window it sets. Toyota Financial Services confirms 30 days after return, or a history of 3 or more prior contracts. Nissan Motor Acceptance Company confirms the same 30-day window. These conditions are inconsistently mentioned across the industry and not every captive publishes its exact window, so confirm the current terms with your finance company before counting on one. The full waiver conditions by captive, and how to weigh the two paths against each other, are covered on can you avoid the disposition fee.
Is the disposition fee big enough to matter?
Usually not on its own, and it is worth saying honestly. On a hypothetical 36-month lease, a $32,000 MSRP car with a $30,000 selling price, a 60% residual, and a 0.00275 money factor, computed with the site's lease calculator, the total of base payments comes to $15,671 over the term. Toyota's $350 fee is about 2.2% of that. GMC's $495 fee, the highest confirmed base figure, is about 3.2%.
That proportion argues against letting the fee drive a lease-end decision on its own. Buying a car you did not otherwise want, or leasing a new one before you were ready, just to dodge a few hundred dollars, usually costs more than the fee itself once financing enters the picture. The bigger question at lease end, whether to return, buy, or roll into a new lease, should turn on the car's actual value and what you need next, not on this fee. For the fee charged at the start of a lease instead of the end, see what is an acquisition fee, and for the complete return-versus-buy decision, see what happens at the end of a car lease.
Common questions
What is a disposition fee on a car lease?
A disposition fee is a one-time charge the leasing company bills when you return a leased car, covering the cost of inspecting, cleaning, and reselling the vehicle. Confirmed base amounts run from $350 at Toyota to $495 at GMC, depending on the brand.
How much is a typical disposition fee?
Confirmed base figures, checked directly on each captive's own site, run $350 at Toyota Financial Services, $395 at Nissan Motor Acceptance Company, up to $395 at Chevrolet, and up to $495 at GMC, the highest confirmed base amount found.
Can you avoid the disposition fee?
Yes, two confirmed ways. Buying your leased car instead of returning it skips the fee entirely at every captive checked. Leasing or financing another vehicle from the same brand within a window, commonly 30 days, also waives it at Toyota and Nissan.
Is the disposition fee the same at every brand?
No. Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac all lease through GM Financial, one finance company, but publish different figures: up to $395 for Chevrolet and up to $495 for GMC. Confirmed amounts across brands span $350 to $495.
Is the disposition fee big enough to affect your lease-end decision?
Usually not on its own. On a hypothetical 36-month lease totaling $15,671 in base payments, computed with the site's lease calculator, even GMC's $495 fee, the highest confirmed base amount, runs about 3.2% of the total lease cost.
Sources
- Toyota Lease-End Guide and Checklist — Toyota Financial Services
- GMC Lease-End Guide — GM Financial
- End of Lease — Nissan Motor Acceptance Company