Thank you for sharing the info.
I am talking to a deal who only has one 2015 i3 left which is a loaner car. It has 6k miles on it. Is it ok to lease it? Or should I look somewhere else? Current selling price is 15% off MSRP.
I just picked up a 2015 i3REX Giga fully loaded at a 14.5% discount off MSRP plus the $7500 Federal Credit, $2500 California Credit and a $1,000 BMW Loyalty credit. Money factor with 7 security deposits, residual and all other terms identical to rkaregaran as posted above. I could not get as much off as he did but the $1,000 loyalty credit helped a lot. My payment with just the $2500 down (which is refunded by the state) is $175.56 for a car with MSRP of $54,895. Every $1,000 in MSRP costs about $8.83 per month (assuming you get 14.5% discount and residual is 59%). So if you get a lightly optioned car (and/or you can get some additional rebates from the ultimate driving event or if you are a recent grad) the monthly payment can drop dramatically.
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It is $2500 down, plus drive off ($925 Bank Fee, Tax on $8500, first payment, DMV and dealer doc fee of $80, and the security deposit).
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I should clarify to remind you that the $2,500 down is refunded by the State of California so essentially it is zero down plus the drive off amounts I mentioned.
Do you mind sharing the dealer details?
Sorry for the delay…it was Center BMW in Sherman Oaks. Jason in the internet department. Knows nothing about calculating a lease but easy to confirm a sale price, money factor, and residual.
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So you put 5k down.
You’ll get a rebate of 2500 from state.
I pay more taxes in my state and a 54k Rex is costing me $313 per mth. I put $2500 down. I would be at $230 a mth if i got that state rebate.
No, I put $2500 down but will be getting it back from the state. So effectively I put zero down.
Plus drive off fees of how much? I must get slammed on tax as my buy price was lower than yours.
Without knowing any of the details of your lease it’s hard to say what the difference is. However I doubt it just sales tax. Here’s a breakdown I wrote elsewhere about how to calculate a lease payment and how my payment was calculated. It probably goes into more detail than you need but it should clear up exactly what the difference is:
The math for a lease is all very simple, regardless of what a sales person may say. In a lease you’re simply paying for the depreciation that will occur during the term of the lease plus some interest to the lender for the fact that they are financing the deal for you. So, in order to get a low payment, you want a low interest rate (called money factor in leasing) and you want the purchase price to be low and the residual value (the value of the car as stated by the lender at the end of the lease) to be high. BMW publishes what the residual values are for their cars and with a little asking a dealer will tell you. At 36 months the residual is currently at 53%… However, if you choose a 30 month lease the residual is 59%. The difference of 6% is simply for the extra six months of leasing. As you will better understand in a moment, BMW is not making the residual attractive at 36 months in that the depreciation component per month for a 36 month lease is costing more than for a 30 month lease. The 30 month lease also is the most attractive because that’s the minimum lease term you can get and still qualify for the $2,500 california rebate. Here’s a reconstruction of my lease:
Residual is based on MSRP
$54,895 X .59 = $32,388.05
Purchase Price is based on what you can negotiate. In my case it was 14.5% discount:
$54,895 X .855 = $46,935.25
Other Credits depend on what the government is offering and other promotions you MAY qualify for:
$7500 BMW lease cash in lieu of the Federal Tax Credit
$2,500 California Rebate (note in this deal I will put $2,500 cash down but it will be rebated to me by the State later)
$1,000 BMW Loyalty offer since I already have another leased BMW
$11,000 Total Credits
Money Factor is dependent on your credit score and whether you provide a security deposit. If you want a low payment then you will post a security deposit equal to 7 times your monthly payment.
Top Tier Money Factor with 7 Security Deposits is .00083
Putting it all together:
$46,953.22 Purchase Price
($11,000.00) Other Credits detailed above
$35,953.25 Modified capital cost
($32,388.05) Less the residual value
3565.20 This is the total depreciation that you will be paying for over 30 months
Divided by 30 Months
$118.84 Per Month Depreciation
Now to calculate the interest portion of the payment you are going to do some simple math that seems sort of unorthodox. Without going into the why of it , here’s how you do it:
Add together the Residual and the modified capital cost and multiply by the money factor:
$35,953.25 Modified Capital Cost
$32,388.05 Residual Value
$68,341.3
X .00083
$56.72 This is the interest portion of your payment
So, your monthly payment in this example is:
$56.72 + $118.84 = $175.56 Plus whatever your sales tax rate is in your county.
Total Drive off is:
$925 BMW leasing Fee
$1400 Refundable Security deposit (For this figure BMW rounds payment up to $200 then multiplies by 7)
$175.56 First months payment
??? Your tax rate on the first month payment
??? Your tax rate on the $11,000 in incentives
$580 Approximate DMV/Junk Fees for registering the car including the $80 doc fee that all dealers in CA charge.
$2,500 This is the downpayment that you need to pay now but will be rebated to you later by the State of California if you qualify (means testing starts in March)
Once the state refunds the down payment, you have a zero down lease at $175 per month.
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Still crazy how my payments are so much higher. I won’t get into all the figures because my docs in the car 
Anyway… I did get the lease credit as I had a bmw. They did 3mths pull ahead on it.
Price $53,975
Paid $45,200 -7500 -1000 = $36,700
Mf at buy rate .00132
We pay tax on whole car not the leased portion.
I would have loved $175 a mth or even $260 without the Cali rebate. I was happy to go from $650 to $313 
That money factor is costing you about $30 per month, or $900 over the term of the lease (assuming you got a 30 month lease). Had you put down a refundable security deposit of $2450 you’d save $900 over the term. That would be a good investment in my opinion. Otherwise not getting the California rebate and having to pay tax on the whole thing are pretty significant over such a short lease.
Yeah that’s a solid point. Didn’t want to tie up spare cash but should have done my homework. I did msd on my last bmw
Ok looking for feedback.
One is for 2016 i3 base with parking assist. 2yr one time full payment of $8888.
The other is from an owner who wants to transfer his lease and will pay the transfer fee. It is $325 a month on 36 month with two more years to go with 14k miles per year allowance. Car only has ,9500 miles at the end of year one which was this week.
Just picked up a 2015 i3 base that was a loaner with 5000 miles on the odometer. The car was wrapped so the paint is perfect. Dealer is in SoCal.
Arravani grey
Tera world
Tech+driving
Harman/kardon
30 month term at 10k miles/year
MSRP: $50,450
Residual: $31,123
Sale price: $41,427.47
Fed and Cali rebate
Total due at signing was $4,045
$2500 will be rebated back and $1050 was 7 times security deposit. Also included first month payment.
Monthly payment is $129.77 plus 9% sales tax for a total payment of $141.45.
Total lease cost is $4,597.05
Also got to put the entire $4,045 on my cash rewards credit card so I will be getting 1% cash back.
I’m thinking I got a great deal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone comes back and says I messed things up.
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Kneemahp, do you mind giving details on the dealer? I would like to get a similar deal. Would really appreciate it, thanks!
It was from rusnak in thousand oaks. I worked with vitaly who was very easy to work with.
The vehicle was the last 2015 model they had. I’m not sure what deal they would do on the 2016s.
When i look at the drive off amount and the net payment with tax it doesn’t seem to add up? Can you share more about those calculations?