We had a 2007 Ford Edge AWD SEL+ lease, we bought it on A/Z-Plan with rebates at the time. Out buyout was like $17K, it was a 15k mile a year lease but we only put 25K-28K on the vehicle in the 38 months we had it. We put no money down either. I was shopping around before that lease ended and saw here in CO them going for $22K with this low of miles.
I walked into a Lincoln dealer to look at the MKX and I got an A/Z-Plan price, I lied and said I own that vehicle (pointing to the 2007) They came back after checking it out and said $18,000 (had a few body dings and nics). I was not all to thrilled with the MKX to me why pay more for the Lincoln name, plus the wife and I did not want navigation and 22" rims because we were buying this vehicle and the plan is to keep it for at least 10 years (I've leased once myself and rather own a vehicle...my wife grew up in a house that leased).
So wanting to still checkout the 2010 Edges I went and looked at a Ford dealer. But the key was the Lincoln dealer had written out on their paper they give me $18K for my vehicle. So I walked into the Ford dealer saying this is what I want it comes down to color but we don't care about the rebate that much ($3,000 I think it was) we want these option with one of these colors. At first the dealer was like oh no you NEVER get money back on a lease..oh YES you can buddy and I pulled out the Lincoln dealers paper. They looked at the 2007 and said okay we will do $18,000...$17,000 to pay off your lease and $1,000 in your pocket.
So we ended up getting A/Z-Plan (Thanks Grandma) and $1,000 trading the lease in (dealer bought it actually from Ford) and we got $3,000 I think it was for rebate. I think with tax it was $36K for a 2010 Ford Edge AWD SEL (yeah we did not get the plus as we did not want that other shit). Also that was with a 10 year/100K mile ESP through Ford. Oh and the kicker I haggled on the remote start and ended up paying $175 for that ford option (dealer installed).
So don't ever let someone say you can not get money back out of a lease...just don't tell a dealer its a lease and shop around. Oh and this was like last July or August and its been a great vehicle, only 6K miles on it. And i do believe that dealer priced it at $22K-$23K on there lot we saw it there for a few weeks, I think it sold quick.