Lease Deal I Negotiated: Good/Bad?

[RobJones]

I'm trying to negotiate a lease on a 2015 i3 w/Range Extender, and this is the best deal I've gotten from my dealer so far:

Tera World
Technology & Driving Assistant Package
20" Wheels
Arravani Gray w/BMW i Frozen Blue Accent
MSRP: $53,454

Down payment: $9000
Monthly payment for 24 month lease: $100 for 10K miles, $140/12K, $190/$15K
I also have a $500 discount through the USAA car buying service, but I'm not sure if that would apply as a discount off the MSRP, or if I can use it to reduce the down payment.

Except for the $9K down payment, I feel like this is a pretty good deal. But I would like to see the down payment closer to $7K. If I go up to about $175/mo on the 10K lease, I think I can get the down payment lower.

Thoughts?

 

[Leasi3]

Not enough info to tell, but you shouldn't have to go into your pocket that much to lease one of these at a great payment. Also, you should NEVER put money down on a lease in the form of a down payment. Do MSDs, feel free to front reasonable fees, but NEVER put a down payment on a lease.

1) At what price is the dealer selling you the car? Another way to ask this, how much is the dealer going into their own pocket to sell you the car? Also, without knowing that it is impossible to figure out the money factor.

2) I assume the deal includes the $7,500 lease credit & the $2,000 happier holiday credit.

3) You aren't supposed to be able to stack the BMWCCA rebate with the USAA discount.

"This program is not available in conjunction with other special purchase
programs offered by BMW NA or BMW centers. (including but not limited to
the USAA rebate offer)"

Source: https://www.bmwcca.org/sites/default/files/content/page/MembershipRewardRebateApplication.pdf

 

[RobJones]

Can you elaborate on how I can get a great lease payment without going into my pocket as much? What's MSD? I'm just confused on how to avoid putting down a payment for a lease. This is a big part of why I've never wanted to lease a car - the deals are so (deliberately?) confusing!

To answer your questions:

1. MSRP: $53,454
-$8,000 discount
-$7,500 rebate
Selling Price: $37,954

+$3995 Cap Cost Reduction
+$925 Acquisition Fee
+$2750 TAVT (the equivalent of sales tax here in Georgia)
+$700 Security Deposit (based on 7X the $100/mo lease rate)
+$38 Title Fee
+$600 Doc Fee (BS, if you ask me!)
Total Upfront: $9008

2. Yes, it includes the $7,500 credit. I'm not sure about the $2,000 holiday credit. I haven't heard of that one. Do you have any details for it?

3. I was not aware of that exclusion, but now see it on the application. It seems to me that it's better to take the BMW CCA rebate instead of the USAA discount since that one would likely just get buried in the deal somewhere while the CCA rebate is actual cash in hand. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[eneka]

Give this page a good read. http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1084623

I'd recommend you to fully understand how a lease works before signing into one.

You can also read this http://leasehackr.com/blog/2015/11/8/californians-lease-a-bmw-i3-for-about-100month-0-down-yes-really

Which has a handy lease calculator.

Go to bmwusa.com click on shopping tools, deals, enter your zip, and look under the i3. It should have the "$2,000 Happier Holiday Adder" listed when you click on more info. I'm more than willing to bet that it's added to the $8,000 discount already.

The deal seems pretty decent, the main thing that's making the prices jump is the TAVT. I'm negotiating a similar deal right now and it's at $5700 due at signing ($1400 sec. deposit) and $179/month for a car with the same MSRP. (30 month, 10k miles/yr). These prices were with last month's $1000 build out so it should be even lower now. Also check if there are any government incentives, I'm also getting a $2500 rebate from california.


Go visit or email a couple other dealers. And the easiest way to compare the deals is to do monthly payments*months +money due at signing. This will basically give you the total cost of the lease

 

[websterize]

Large down payments on leases are for suckers. If you must, go the MSD route — you'll get a great return on investment.

Check out leasematic.app.

 

[RobJones]

If by "MSD", you mean Multiple Security Deposit, I am doing that. In the $100/mo example, the $700 security deposit is the MSD ($100 X 7).

Latest offer from dealer: $7,000 down (includes all fees, etc) and $176/mo for 24 months and 10K miles.

 

[Leasi3]

Latest offer from dealer: $7,000 down (includes all fees, etc) and $176/mo for 24 months and 10K miles.

Your terminology is a bit non-standard.

down = Cap Cost Reduction = downpayment

cash due = total out of pocket on the day you start a lease.

 

[RobJones]

Sorry about that - still learning the lingo…

In this case, the "cash due" is $7,000. Then the payment on a 24 month lease is $176 for 10K annual miles.

 

[lucycan]

$7k down at $176/month over 24 months seems high.

I am still working on my DEC lease, but am at $0 down, 24 months 10k miles and about $340 monthly payment.

 

[RobJones]

To quote Leasi3, do you mean $0 down as in "nothing paid to drive out" or "nothing in addition to the tax, title, doc, etc fees?

Also, it greatly depends on the price of the car. In my case the sticker is a little over $53K and discounted by $15.5K.

My deal is now $6000 cash due and $221/month

 

[websterize]

What is the money factor, residual value and sales tax rate? These will be in the lease worksheet of your deal.

 

[i3green]

To quote Leasi3, do you mean $0 down as in "nothing paid to drive out" or "nothing in addition to the tax, title, doc, etc fees?

Also, it greatly depends on the price of the car. In my case the sticker is a little over $53K and discounted by $15.5K.

My deal is now $6000 cash due and $221/month

seems reasonable too me. i always figure out the cost over the lease term for me to justify an expense, either down payment or monthly rate.

in your case it would be close to $11.3k over 2 years. I've seen better, but also much worse.

 

[RobJones]

Well, it's a done deal. I just got home from BMW of Macon a little while ago with my new i3 REX. And I have to say that it was an extremely pleasant experience. In total, the paperwork took less than 10 minutes to complete and there were no hard sells of any extras. I have an appointment to go back next week to meet with the Genius to go over all the features of the car and so I can ask any questions that I have after living with it for a while. We're also going to go for a spin in an i8 just for giggles.

Here's the final tally:

2015 i3 w/Range Extender
Arravani Grey/Frozen Blue Trim
Technology + Driving Assistance Package
Tera World
20" Wheels
MSRP: $53,545

Out-the-Door Price after rebates/incentives: $39,685

I wrote a check for $5,137.94 which includes $2,654 for TAVT (sales tax), $38 Title Fee, and $925 Acquisition Fee. The lease is for 24 months with 10K miles. The monthly payment is $222.06. Overall, I'm happy with the deal. I know some folks have gotten better deals, but it's hard to feel bad about getting a $50+K car for a couple thousand down and $220/month.

 

[websterize]

15% off MSRP before incentives is an excellent selling price. Well done.

 

[RobJones]

Thanks! I feel pretty good about the deal.

I forgot to mention that they also gave us $100 worth of BMW Lifestyle goodies. I got a BMW "i" baseball cap and my wife was given a really nice leather laptop case.

So if anyone is looking for an i3 in Georgia, it would be worth your time to check out BMW of Macon. PM me and I'll give you the contact info for the salesman and sales manager that we worked with.

 

[lucycan]

15% off MSRP before incentives is an excellent selling price. Well done.

I agree. Thats superb!

 

[jpa2825]

Congrats. If you can post the contract (with personal details redacted) you can help some of us still in the process like hopefully others on here helped you get that good deal.

 

[jvmoore1]

Congrats. If you can post the contract (with personal details redacted) you can help some of us still in the process like hopefully others on here helped you get that good deal.

+1
i had a dealer send me a nice little response back yesterday.

A BMW with a list price of 47,795 CAN NOT get to a sales price of

37,000 (A TEN THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED NINTY FIVE DOLLAR DISCOUNT)

before the factory incentives. BMW dealers work on a 6.75-8.00 percent margin. This margin is

over pure invoice, it does not take into account the BMW NA required training and advertising

charges and does not allow for any dealer profit to offset fixed cost. The proper way to think of

a BMW stores margin is about 5.5 percent when at sticker. Your "expected" sales price would mean

a discount of $10,795 OR A DISCOUNT OF OVER TWENTY TWO PERCENT.

Can we get you a sales price of 37,000, yes and we did, but only AFTER USING the holiday cash and

lease credit.

I send you my best wishes for your success at obtaining your unrealistic BMW i3 deal and my best

wishes to you and yours for a Merry Christmas.

 

[RobJones]

I can only assume that BMW is offering dealers some kind of unadvertised incentives to move the remaining 2015 inventory. It may have just been "salesman-speak", but someone I spoke to at the dealership mentioned that they were way behind on their sales quotas and seriously needed to move some metal, err carbon fiber. That may or may not have been a factor in this transaction.

Nice response from that dealer! I shopped around and spoke to several dealers and some definitely seemed more willing to discount than others. I think it just has to do with how well the cars are selling in their region. Around here, they must be slow sellers.

I have to scan my lease agreement anyway for the BMW CCA rebate, so I will post it here. Maybe that will help someone else…

 

[jetsurgn]

I'd love to see your lease deal, be great to what is possible. Thanks for your help!