Quote:
Originally Posted by scott13
I'm at the end of a 3yr lease on a 2015 M4 and now I'm thinking about buying it out. I know, I know...that's the WORST way to end a lease, but after a lot of consideration I'm thinking it's actually not such a bad deal for my specific situation.
I've leased many cars before, but never bought one out at lease end for all the obvious reasons and I'm getting some "suspicious" info from my dealer. Just curious if anyone has bought out a lease before and might be able to help me sort out what's legit and what's dealer BS.
The things they're telling me that seem odd are:
1) I need to give them the car for ~4 days so they can secure the title from BMW FS. If nothing else, just seems like a LONG time for that process
2) Dealer will perform a mandatory "safety check" of the car at a cost of $250. Not sure why this is necessary if I'm essentially buying the car directly from BMW FS (as opposed to dealer buying it from BMW FS and then selling it back to me).
3) As part of the "safety check," they will determine any additional repair costs that I'll be responsible for. Not sure why I'd incur repair costs if I'm buying out the lease.
On top of that is the usual documentation fee, plate/registration fee and state taxes, but that seems pretty standard to me. As does the high APR they're giving me for financing through BMW FS (~4.5%).
Any help/guidance anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
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You are getting some "half" answers here... Let me see if I can help.
1. If you buy the car from BMW FS, then you are paying the residual amount, and you shouldnt have to jump through all those hoops. You would cut a check to BMW FS for the residual amount, and they will tell you what to do next.
2. If you are trying to negotiate a price on the car that is LESS than the residual amount, BMW FS WILL NOT NEGOTIATE on the price. They dont negotiate on buyout pricing, the price is the price.
3. With Point #2 being made, the DEALER CAN buy the car from BMW FS, and sometimes for less (and sometimes much less) than the residual. If you want a price lower than the residual, you MUST negotiate with a dealer. It does not have to be the dealer you bought from, it can be any dealer you can take the car to.
The dealer gets a special buy out price from BMW that takes into account current auction pricing for the vehicle, so there may be a lot of room, or not much, depending on what your car would go for at auction.
If the dealer is selling the car to the person who leased it, there is an additional fee that is charged (ironically called a "loyalty adder", which sure is a stupid name for an additional fee that is charged when the person who leased the car buys it back). I dont know how much that fee is, its likely that it varies based on the vehicle. I KNOW it exists however, even though people dont talk about it much as I got that information from the "other" BMW board from a CA I trust.
Anyway, if you want to pay residual, you dont need the dealer for that to my knowledge. If you want to negotiate, you MUST do it through a dealer, and they will have their special buy out price, and then mark it up, and hopefully you two can come to an agreement on pricing where it benefits you both. If not, try another dealer.
So, its NOT TRUE that the dealer is just lying to you... they are just under the assumption that you want to buy the car from them, instead of directly through BMW FS. Of course, they may try to sell it to you for the residual amount anyway, because dealers want to make money. If you are not getting a discount off residual, and you are not looking to get the car CPO'ed you likely can avoid working with the dealer. If you want to try to negotiate the residual, you MUST deal with a dealer as again, BMW financial services WILL NOT NEGOTIATE the price of the car to an end user customer (they actually dont even negotiate with the dealer.. they TELL the dealer what he will pay for the car).