No worries Squirrel. Hopefully you consult with us before signing your next lease. Enjoy 
Incentives must have been baked into discount, making the discount not that great.
That’s what I’m thinking. Didn’t consider that. I’ll eat the loss and move on. It’s a great car at a not-so-great price. Next time I’ll just use a broker. Clearly I don’t have the skill to do this on my own.
I don’t know if you’ll necessarily need to use a broker. Honestly you just learn as you go. My first lease was a pretty raw deal too, then I got wise to it all. I think the biggest issue everyone has had here is the substantial down payment. Never recommended for a lease. If the car is ever totaled or anything like that you’re out that money, never see it again. Plus all a down payment on a lease does is just buy you a cheaper payment. Don’t mean at all to come across as mean or anything. Honestly leases are tough sometimes. You learn as you go along, and from resources like this forum. Fact of the matter is you got a nice car that you’re happy with and a payment you feel like you can manage. Enjoy the car, and then in three years use what you’ve learned.
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" I don’t know if you’ll necessarily need to use a broker. Honestly you just learn as you go. My first lease was a pretty raw deal too, then I got wise to it all."
This is exactly right. Very rarely does someone knock it out of the ball park on the first try. Hell - my first lease was/is a Toyota Tundra Limited. MSRP $48k, 48/15 lease payment of $550+tax monthly. Currently looking at trading it in (pretty close to breakeven on it luckily) just because I know its a crap deal. I learned from that one and DW’s ride is just shy of 1% for a 39/15 lease. Live and learn.
Honestly, your deal isn’t that bad, it’s better than the average deal for that same vehicle. You’d be able to flip it on swapalease easily if you wanted but you’d lose a lot of the deposit, although with the new 3 series coming out it’ll be more difficult.
A tip for next time, don’t take your wallet with you to test drive.
at least it’s a fantastic car! Love me a GTI… little pocket knife of a car!
OP got a BMW 330 in the end (still not a bad car!)
Can I update this thread with a happy ending on my GTI SE Lease? Picking up the car on Tuesday. Not 1%, but I’m happy with the deal. Timmons VW in Long Beach were fantastic to deal with if anyone in SoCal is looking.
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Please post pics with numbers of your happy ending …
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Never mind, got lost.
He got a 330i.
Yeah, my bad. Thought he got GTI.
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There may be a happy ending to this soap opera of a thread but I won’t post yet for fear of jinxing it.
This is why I don’t like going into dealerships. I may be level-headed when it comes to business and life, but cars and music it’s like all sanity goes out the window. It’s why I have a $10k record collection but mostly use Spotify, it’s why if I walked into a Porsche dealership I’d walk out with a $4,000/mo payment I both got screwed on and have no business being in- I could tell you some car purchase horror stories that would make the wall of shame if anyone ever starts loanhackr dot com (I’ve done one mediocre BMW loaner lease in my life).
If the car is yours for 36 months, just enjoy it. It’s only 3 years.
At least that’s what I hope people tell me when I inevitably end up in a bad deal in the next couple weeks. Jk
You definitely have it in you to negotiate a better deal next time. You just have to do your research and apply it.
For example, one major mantra I picked up on these forums is always aim for $0 out of pocket. Thread after thread, I kept seeing this. $0 down/$0 driveoffs. So I was determined to make that happen with my first lease, or I’d walk away. It took a few weeks of haggling, but I finally got what I wanted on the car I wanted.
Sometimes you won’t find a dealer that’ll play ball. And sometimes you just make a mistake and eat the cost for a few years. But that’s why you study here and apply what you learned so you don’t get burned at the dealer. Whatever the case, if you like the car and can afford it, no sense in worrying about the past. Just learn from it and don’t ever put down 4K on a loaner (or any lease) again lol.
You are kidding right?
You make the deal on the lease FIRST and then you mention oh by the way I might want to trade in my car
Edit. Forget it I just read the ending
I think we were being played
Nope. Not getting played. I’m just an idiot who puts 4K down on a lease. Heck of a way to learn a lesson, but there ya go. I’m putting it up on Swap A Lease, so if anybody wants to profit from my mistake and take over a 330i MSport lease, I’m eating the loss of that 4K and listing it.
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Tagging on at the end, what’s the monthly payment?
Squirrel - why are you doing that? Keep the car…