Sold cars for awhile at one of the biggest Auto groups in NY, so here's my 0.02
A lease trade in a better buy than used. Lease standards are fairly high so people take care of them more so they don't get hit with penalties when they go turn it in (milage, damage etc...) Also when you lease a vehicle you have to have full coverage because the manufacturer owns the vechile so any damage or accidents must be reported. With used cars CARFAX is only good of the person reports it to thier insurance co. The GM service report works the same way. servicing only shows up on that when the customer uses a GM service facility. There is nothing saying the previous owner couldn't have done servicing themselves.
All vehcile being sold to a customer has to go through the same inspections used or lease trade in. The dealership I worked had a 50% rule. If anything was below 50% it was replaced such as tire, wipers etc. it also included scheduled maintenance items such as tranny flushes etc. If your worried about issues beyond their basic inspection spend the extra money usually $300 and get the GM Certifed Warrenty.
Buying a lease trade in is just like buying a used car. If your looking for something specific and dealer "A" doesn't have it you can put in an "order" and they will find one matching what you want, either from an auction or wait for one to get turned in at thier dealership. If dealer "B" has that vehicle, dealer "A" cannot simply buy it form dealer "B" they have to wait until it goes to auction. If dealer "B" doesn't send it to auction but insted puts it on thier lot then the only way for you to get it is to buy it from dealer "B". All dealers have inventory lists of other dealers lease turn in but even though they may work for the same manufacturer each dealership is privatly owned so they can't just simple swap vehicles back and forth.
There is no time restriction on when you have to buy the vehicle if they find you what your looking for. Some dealers will tell you that becuase sometimes people "order" vehicles that don't move as quickly off thier lots ex. Mini Coopers, if you order a bright yellow mini cooper convertable from a Chevy dealer and they find you one, they buy it and now own it. if your change your mind theyre stuck with it, they cant simply "return" it they have to either put it on thier lot or send it to auction, either way costs them money. The time contraint he refered to is when they ship them off to auction. Yes most times within about 48-72 hrs they ship em off but they only do that so they can have less overhead on thier lot. If they have what you want there is nothing holding them back from keeping it for you longer.
Last piece of advise don't sign anything or even put down a deposit. There is no need to. a verbal agreement of, you will purchse the vehicle if they find you exaxctly what you want should be more than enough to surfise. Just make sure if they do find you what your looking for that you intend to purchase it. Nothing worse than spending days searching for a vehicle and the buyer backs at the last minute taking that lil bit (yes it's a lil bit, house get majority or the profit) out of that salesman pocket.
