[White340]

This is another argument towards leasing a bmw. My 340 had a residual of 40k when my lease was up with a 65k msrp. I think I paid 57k after discounts on the lease so only paid 17k depreciation plus interest. At the end of 3y you can walk away if you don't like the car, you sense mechanical problems coming up, it was in a bad accident or the market value is lower than the residual. Bmw was giving me a 3k discount off residual for buying the lease out (after they changed their policy penalizing the dealer for selling the car back to the original leasee at a bigger discount). The car was worth less than 30k so I walked away but vs financing from the outset I could have had the additional 3k discount at lease end that wouldn't have been there if I bought it from the beginning.