Other Driver totals our leased Model Y and WE lose
I’ve been driving since 1976 and owning/leasing cars since ‘81 but I’m new to THIS experience.
We leased my wife’s dream car (2026 Model Y AWD) on the last day of the federal incentive and some incentives from our state, plus some other rebates. Put it all together and it meant we put $15K down on that 36 month lease. Loved the car. Literally her dream and we couldn’t have done it without the incentives (monthly lease payment plus insurance was a stretch even then).
Six months later we stop at a 4-way stop, let the car in front of us turn, no one else is stopped at the intersection, we proceed forward. We are mostly through the intersection when CRASH! We’re struck broadside. Airbags deploy. Car is a total loss. We’re injured. Other driver is fine (80+ year old). Tesla videos show when we crossed through the intersection, other driver was at a distance appearing to slow to stop for the sign, but never came close to stopping and instead suddenly ACCELERATED into us (if they hadn’t accelerated we would have been safe even if they ran the sign). Everyone agrees 100% fault other driver, 0% fault my wife (you watch the crash videos from multiple angles and say “WTF???”). Other driver is cited at the scene for failure to obey the stop sign. Their insurance accepts 100% responsibility.
Now, I knew if you wrecked your own leased car (your fault) every bit of that $15K down payment is gone. What we’re learning to our horror is that it’s gone anyway. The other driver’s insurance valued the car at $48K, so that goes to the leasing company and makes them whole (remember full price on the car was $52K; subtract the down payment and six months of lease payments and the leasing company is just fine). Buried in the lease agreement’s fine print in language that took three different lawyers to interpret, is that in this situation they eat any overage even though that $15K down put them way ahead of where they’d have been on a typical lease. So 100% of the down payment is gone, and with the incentives all gone we have no way to get into another lease. Settlement for our injuries will take 2+ years (I’m told) but in the meantime, we’re out.
And I’m told there is no way to go after the at-fault driver to recover our investment because at least here in Connecticut, the entire legal system is structured around cash value of car at time of impact plus any bodily injury, and since that goes to the leasing company and the lease agreement gives us nothing, we’re out. Other driver wrecked your car and lost you your $15K up-front investment? Sucks to be you.
Our lawyers tell us that with many leases, in a situation like this, the lease agreement will apply your original down payment to a new lease if you want the same make/model/year/trim. We do. But THIS lease agreement does exactly the opposite, leaving us completely in the cold.
I grew up in a world where if your bad conduct cost someone else any sort of damage, tort law said you had to restore them to where they were before your stupidity harmed them. Here, that would mean my wife would have 30+ months of a ‘26 Model Y AWD Premium at $452/month. Who the heck designed THIS world so the person who does something idiotic gets their damages limited and the VICTIM is left $15K poorer?
To quote Timon from The Lion King: “AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?”