Glossary

Disposition Fee

Written by Jared J.Reviewed by Jared J.Updated 2026-10-14Last reviewed 2026-08-07

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. Several captives set the amount by state or in your contract instead of publishing one figure, so your own lease agreement is the final word.

What is the disposition fee for each brand?

Among the captives that publish a dollar figure, it runs from $350 at Toyota to up to $495 at GMC, and several others set it by state or in the contract instead. Here is what each captive states on its own website or in its own lease-end materials, checked on October 14, 2026.

GM Financial's own guides show why "GM's disposition fee" is the wrong question: one finance company publishes up to $395 for Chevrolet, up to $495 for GMC, and no figure for Cadillac. Some states also charge sales tax on the disposition fee when it is paid, per those same guides. For the August 2026 version of this research with additional notes on each captive's sources, see disposition fees by brand.

Can you get the disposition fee waived?

Yes, in two ways. The first is buying your leased car instead of returning it, which skips the fee because there is no vehicle left to recondition and resell; GM Financial, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, and Ford all tie the fee to returned vehicles, and Tesla charges a purchase fee instead.

The second is a loyalty waiver: leasing or financing your next car through the same captive within a window it sets. As of October 2026, that window is within 30 days of return at Toyota Financial Services, from 120 days before to 30 days after lease end at Nissan, within 60 days at Hyundai and Kia, and within 30 days before or after turn-in at Honda. These programs change, 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.