Quote:
Originally Posted by angelbones
Thanks Onerib. Awesome post. I'm in my first lease ever. You said that the car can pretty much be sold to anybody (I'm assuming non-BMW dealer as well). So, I talked to a dealer, who wants me to make a deal on on of their vehicles. They wanted to know my payoff, my monthlys, my mileage, time left.
Here's my real world numbers followed by a couple questions. I called BMWFS, and my payoff on my 2014 228i is 36,800. The MSRP, including the $950 destination charge, came to $41,600. I've made 10 out of 36 payments I think. Also researched trade in values on KBB and the car was only coming at about $31k. I only have a little over 5,000 miles though if that makes a difference.
So, here are my questions. Does this mean that for anyone, including a dealer, to buy my car, BMWFS has to get $36,800 in their hands? Assuming, for sake of argument, that dealer only wants to give me $31k, I suppose that means that I need to come up with another $5,800? On the other end of possible scenarios, is this $36,800 number a good thing if I were to see the lease to the end. Obviously, in 2 more years, there will be more depreciation, but it seems that the high buyout number at this point would mean it's worth more at the end. I could be completely wrong in my understanding of this point though. I had suggested to the dealer I wait until I build more equity, but how can I build more equity if the car is constantly depreciating? If I truly wanted to get a different car (btw, I'm very happy with my Bimmer, but just exploring options), would it make more sense to be further into the lease?
I apologize for all the questions, but the buyout scenario is extremely confusing to me, and I'm hoping with some real world numbers, you can help me make more sense of this. Thanks for any replies in advance. Loving this thread.
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Glad you enjoyed the post. The issue you're having is quite common in a lease, because when you lease, there is usually no down payment. This is a benefit if you plan to keep your vehicle but a quick turn around to buy don't make much sense. Also most want a high residual to lower payments on a lease, but that makes the buyout high (artificially high in many cases).
You would do better to swap the lease to someone else and then buy the car you want from the other dealer.
Now you can try and negotiate a lower price with BMWFS, but they aren't likely to deal this early into a lease when you are not buying another BMW.