Hi folks! I’m looking to lease my FIRST nice car. Here’s a little background i
I have a corolla with over 250,000 miles on it right now. No issues whatsoever, but I’ve been making a lot more money than I was a year ago and I’m looking to treat myself. Looking to keep my payment around $350 or less a month with taxes. I currently drive 550 miles for work. I would want to get at least 1,200 to 1,500 miles a month though to be sure I don’t go over. I’m planning on daily driving my lease mostly, but keeping the corolla as I doubt I would get even $1,000 out of it.
First I looked at used cars as I didn’t know anything about leasing and thought I could get the best deal there. But with the depreciation and maintenance from buying used doesn’t seem to be the deal I thought it was. I have about 25k in savings I was originally planning on paying for at least half of a used car. So I think I’ll lease and save myself the headache and invest most of that money. I’m very excited at the possibility of owning a BMW and not worrying about surprising maintenance costs, and I can handle the mileage limit, I’m not looking to tune my car etc.
As far as cars go I’m really leaning towards a 328i BMW. My friend has an 08 335i its a great car but has lots of issues at it’s high mileage. I think a 328 has plenty of pep for me coming from an econobox. I’ve also considered the Lexus IS350 I love the grill and taillights, they’ve really come a long way with the new model. Also wouldn’t put it past me to get a Q50 3.0 or a MB C300 or even an A4. I have always loved BMWs though and I like the fact that they have included all maintenance for the 2016 models. Just disappointed they dropped some for 2017.
Looking for some guidance and opinions from the experts here! I’ve been a lurker for a few months now and have learned a lot. Big thanks to the community for that!
can’t go wrong with a BMW. They drive great and are for the most part the best bang for your buck in the entry level sedan market.
Why don’t you contact @loberant he can give you a good deal on a BMW without having to deal with a lot of nonsense especially as first time leaser. If you search through this forum, he works for a large car dealership group and has hooked up many on this forum with great BMW leases.
hey hey! If I were you I’d go test drive a bunch of cars and see which one you enjoy the most. As others on here have said, show up 45 min before closing so they can’t jerk you around. I’ve never driven the IS350, but I’ve rented a 5-series BMW and now lease an X3 and they’re BEAUTIFUL cars. Really fun to drive (even the 28s). Like you said, if you’re leasing, you don’t have to worry about the car falling apart on you in 5 years, so it really does come down to enjoyment and cost. Contact @loberant if you’re interested in a lease of a exec demo. He might be able to hook you up. From the few weeks I’ve been on this forum, it seems out of all the luxury cars, BMWs seem to lease at the best rates (high residual, low MF, lots of incentives, big discounts off MSRP). I think the incentives, MFs, and residuals change after today, so might be worth seeing what you can find today. Good luck!
If your speaking in general quality and performance, everyone is going to tell you something different. Relatively speaking, in high end german manufactures you can’t go wrong with any of them. Leasing wise for luxury brands however, BMW is probably the best. They offer the best residuals, rates, MSD’s, etc. Jaguar offers some pretty nice lease deals as well, but as a whole I would say BMW is probably the best brand to lease off of.
Also, even though some of the maintenance is going away, BMW is still relatively inexpensive to maintain. Mercedes and Lexus love to charge $$$ for scheduled maintenance.
I don’t know about “King”, but they are nice. They offer compact sedan “3 Series”, Midsize “5 Series”, and “7 Series” is their full size. The 328 doesn’t really cost alot if you don’t get much options, and since you drive alot, you may want to consider a finance. The Audi A4 Ultra gets good MPG and starts at 35k (although it is FWD like your Toyota).
Maybe consider leasing 2 cars? Get a really nice car at 10k miles/yr and then one of loberant’s $100/month minis for some extra mileage? Ya get to play around with two cars and don’t end up spending anymore than you would with a high mileage lease.
Like some folks have said already… you really will get a lot of different opinions. For example… my opinion is that you can’t compare the 328i to an IS350… they are very different cars with completely different engines. I personally feel that an IS350 is more comparable to a 340i. With that comparison, the IS350 value score jumps a lot higher which is how we ended up with IS350
The IS350 leases extremely well recently with high residuals and low MF. I found them to be better than BMW about 6 months ago.
Coming out of a 250K Corolla, I’d be happy in a 320i or IS250 or base Q50…if you don’t need the space, maybe even one of Loberant’s Mini specials might be the best value.
The 320 is not the value it appears, not only are you giving up 60ish hp you are also getting fewer standard features for not a lot of price difference, get a 328, you will be happy.
BMW is the king of Luxury leases. Good deals to be had, posted recently
280 - 320 a month for 3 series
350 - 399 for 330e
360 - 420 for x3
400 - 450 for 5 series, 370 for demo 5 series
Blockbuster deals via a dealership might be over for now (maybe month or qtr end again?) but if Loberant has any left…OP said it’s his first nice car and therefore I assume he won’t be terribly picky…take whatever Loberant has left.
Loberants deals will also be affected as has to use BMWFS as well. 2% in residual is $1,000 on a 50k car, or about $30 a month. And since his cars are punched already the incentives have already been taken and his dealerships would just have to eat the difference…
The ones I checked (some of the east coast ones) were CPO cars…not exec/demo which I think technically qualify for the ‘new’ car programs. AFAIK CPOs have a fixed dollar residual that gets adjusted down for mileage.
PS: It’s possible those fixed CPO residuals might get adjusted…every quarter? Sounds like a lot of work to do it every month for what is a tiny part of their volume (for now)
I am not an expert on lobs deals but i am pretty sure his cpo cars are whats called “CPO Elite” which is what bmw calls its CPO demo/loaner cars. BMW did have a program to lease older regular cpo cars (MY 2013 or 14’s I think) but the deals were pretty uncompetitive and I think the program ended.
As others on here have said, show up 45 min before closing so they can’t jerk you around. I’ve never driven the IS350, but I’ve rented a 5-series BMW and now lease an X3 and they’re BEAUTIFUL cars. Really fun to drive (even the 28s). Like you said, if you’re leasing, you don’t have to worry about the car falling apart on you in 5 years, so it really does come down to enjoyment and cost. Contact 