Wisconsin driver racks up 223,000 miles over 3 years in leased 2023 Toyota Camry SE and avoids massive $40,000 penalty fee

This Toyota Camry SE driver in Wisconsin narrowly avoided a hefty fine by exploiting a loophole in the contract.

She drove the car for 223,000 miles over the course of three years.

That was way over the limit, but, fortunately for her, this loophole saved her.

Instead of paying $40,000, she ended up paying a much, much smaller sum.

Leasing a car is a double-edged sword

Leasing a car has advantages and disadvantages.

You get rid of some of the headaches, and, depending on the contract, you can potentially just offload the car when the contract expires and avoid depreciation.

But the car is technically not yours, which means you have to use it a certain way.

Specifically, among other things, there are mileage limits.

This woman in Wisconsin went well over the limit, and she was inches away from finding out the hard way that this can be costly.

Here’s how she avoided the hefty fine on her Toyota lease

This driver in Wisconsin leased a 2023 Toyota Camry SE and treated it like a long-haul semi-truck.

Over a three-year lease term, she racked up a staggering 223,036 miles.

We don’t know what the limit in her contract was but, generally, you have a 12,000-mile yearly limit.

Standard lease agreements usually charge between $0.15 and $0.25 per mile for overages.

This woman was about 180,000 miles over the limit, which works out to around $40,000.

But, and it’s a huge but.

In a lease, you have a contractually guaranteed price to buy the car at the end of the term, regardless of its condition or mileage.

And in this case the dealership, Smart Toyota of Madison, offered the driver a trade-in value that was $3,000 less than that buyout price.

Instead of paying $40,000, she just wrote a check for the extra $3,000 and walked away.

Well done.