So it's time to turn in your lease. Do you buy the car outright?
You might have a battle on your hands even if you have a contract.
The easiest and cheapest thing to do used to be buying it outright, but not anymore in some cases.
Tariah Wiley loves the 2019 Honda Civic that she leased three years ago.
"I love it," Wiley said. "I mean, I wouldn't have kept it if I didn't like it."
So she decided to purchase it when the lease came, especially since she was originally offered a great buyout of just $15,567.
"It was stated in clear words. No way around it, that was clear," Wiley said.
But when she sat down with the dealer, she learned it would now cost $19,834 to buy her own car.
"Which was about $4,300 more than what I should have paid," Wiley said.
Wiley says the salesman's explanation as to why she was hit with a huge turn-in fee made no sense.
"They said since you are financing it, we have to buy the car from Honda," Wiley said. "So they are charging us a fee, so we have to charge you a fee."
The dealer would not comment on the fees.
This is happening more and more these days, according to the car buying website iSeeCars.
Dealers can get a lot more money reselling your lease to someone else. So they don't really have an incentive for you to buy it at the price they agreed to long ago.
"The dealers know the value of these cars is far higher than it as three years ago, when that residual value was written into the contract," Karl Brauer said. "And it is probably painful for them to have an empty lot. And watch an existing customer come in and scoop up the car for a residual value from three years ago."
Brauer says while it's illegal to change a contract, things you should watch out for are reconditioning fees, administrative fees and termination fees.
Luckily for Wiley, she played hardball and told the dealer a contract was a contract.
"I know a lot of people are not going to advocate for themselves," Wiley said. "Like I did all the time."
Wiley says they finally agreed to sell the car for what she was originally promised.
So watch for hidden fees, so you don't waste your money.