Toyota lease return and every other lease-end option

TFS waives the disposition fee if your next car is a new or certified Toyota or Lexus leased or financed through TFS or Lexus Financial Services around the time of your return, or if you've had three or more contracts with them. Selling to an outside buyer such as CarMax is less certain: reports say TFS stops accepting third-party payoffs on October 1, 2026, so confirm before you sign.

Your options when a Toyota lease ends

• Return it to a Toyota or Lexus dealer and pay the lease-end invoice.

• Buy it at the purchase price in your contract, or the payoff if you buy early, plus California tax.

• Sell or trade it to a Toyota or Lexus dealer if it's worth more than the payoff. Outside buyers depend on the third-party rule below.

• Extend by request, if TFS approves it.

• End early by returning, buying or trading the car before maturity.

The general rules are in every lease-end option explained, and My lease is ending sorts them for your dates and miles.

How a Toyota lease return works

1. Courtesy pre-inspection. Ask your originating dealer or any Toyota dealer whether it can do one, and do it within 60 days before your return. The report, with estimated excess wear charges, is ready right away and also posts to the Document Center in the TFS app and at toyotafinancial.com.

2. Repairs. A Toyota dealer can do them. Keep every receipt, and check whether your insurance covers any of the damage.

3. Book the turn-in. Call the dealer that wrote your lease about 30 days before maturity; it's the one required to process the return. Most Toyota and Lexus dealers will also take it, but confirm first.

4. Turn it in. Bring the car clean, with every set of keys, the owner's manuals, the toolkit and spare tire if it has them, and any equipment that was on the car when you leased it. Missing items can be charged. The dealer does a final inspection at the appointment or within a few days, and you sign the odometer disclosure statement. Keep a copy, note the name of the person who helped you, and take photos of the car.

5. Tell TFS. Use Submit Return Details on the Return Your Vehicle page at toyotafinancial.com or in the app, or call (800) 874-8822. Then cancel any automatic payments.

6. Final invoice. TFS mails it 60 to 120 days after the return. A security deposit, if you paid one, comes back by check after it covers any charges.

More on turn-in day: returning a leased car. TFS's own steps start on its lease-end options page.

What Toyota counts as excess wear

TFS uses the size of a credit card as the yardstick for many kinds of damage. Examples of excess wear in its guidelines:

• A scratch, or a group of scratches, larger than a credit card that goes through the paint.

• A single dent larger than a credit card, poorly done earlier repairs, unrepaired collision damage, or holes in body panels.

• Tires with exposed cords or sidewall damage, tires or wheels that don't meet the manufacturer's safety guidelines, and wheel gouges, dents or cracks larger than a credit card.

• Windshield cracks, stars or bull's-eyes, and bent, broken or missing lights, mirrors or turn signals.

• A cut, tear, burn or stain in the seats or trim larger than a credit card.

• Missing keys or remotes, missing parts such as headrests or the cargo cover, broken equipment, and any modification that wasn't on the car when you leased it.

Leases signed after January 27, 2026 include a waiver of excess wear charges up to a set limit; missing keys, remotes and other equipment are excluded. On earlier leases, charges may be waived if you bought an excess wear and use protection product. As of September 2026, TFS says it isn't offering extra miles for purchase, so miles over your allowance are billed at the per-mile rate in your lease. Whether to repair first: excess wear and tear on a leased car.

Buying your Toyota at lease end

Get a payoff quote in your TFS online account or by calling (800) 286-0652. To finance the purchase, go through your dealer and TFS; to pay directly, TFS gives you the payoff amount, the mailing address and the sale documents. At maturity, the price is the purchase option price in your lease, which is the residual value set when you signed; before then, it's the payoff. TFS notes that some states require the purchase to go through a dealer, so ask when you request the quote.

California treats a lease buyout as a taxable purchase. When a dealer handles it, the dealer collects the tax. When you buy straight from the lender, the lender may not collect it, and you pay use tax to the DMV when you transfer the registration (CDTFA guide for vehicle purchasers). Financing and the DMV steps are in buying out your lease in California.

Can a third party buy out a Toyota lease?

Check before you act, because this is changing. TFS's own lease-end guide (March 2025 edition) says returning the car to a third-party dealership is an unauthorized return that leaves you responsible for the lease until TFS receives the payoff and paperwork, or until the car reaches a Toyota or Lexus dealer. That wording means an outside dealer could close the lease by paying it off. In mid-September 2026, dealers and lessee forums reported that Toyota Financial Services and Lexus Financial Services will stop accepting third-party payoffs on October 1, 2026, leaving you and Toyota or Lexus dealers as the only buyers. TFS had not published that change when we checked on September 30, 2026.

• Before you accept an offer from CarMax, Carvana or a dealer of another brand, ask TFS whether it will accept that buyer's payoff, and get the answer in writing if you can.

• A Toyota or Lexus dealer can still buy the car or take it in trade.

• You can buy the car yourself and resell it. CDTFA presumes your buyout is a sale for resale, so it isn't taxed, if you transfer title and registration to the buyer within 10 days of getting the title and don't use the car yourself in between.

Payoff quote types and each lender's rules are in third-party lease buyouts.