Long time lurker…first time poster. Below is a lease offer I received on a Mini Countryman. A few things seem like red flags but wanted to see if I’m looking at this correctly:
The MF is marked up from .00152 to .00191. The dealership acknowledges this but is stating they are only making $480 on the marked up MF. My calculations are more like $700+. I’m pushing them on this one.
The Net Cap Cost is higher than the Gross Cap Cost. I can’t figure out what is going on in this section as
it seems like a portion of the the $1K I already put down on a deposit and the $250 cash incentive is being added to the Gross Cap cost. That doesn’t seem right but wasn’t sure if I’m missing something.
The payment section becomes crazy with the upfront charges of $380 and the initial payment / due on delivery costs. I assumed only the initial payment would need to be paid but should have clarified if both needed to be paid.
I’m in OH and the taxes are a bit funky. It’s supposed to be a tax on the sum of the payments. They state the $661.25 includes the tax.
There are other issues with the deal (ie they won’t apply the current incentive on the Mini USA site) but that’s a separate issue I’m pushing them on.
Thoughts/Opinions? I know this vehicle doesn’t lease well, but have had problems finding a vehicle I enjoy and would work with the family. Just want to ensure I’m not being taken advantage.
There is no way anyone should pay a marked up MF on this. They need to give you the buyrate MF and a bigger discount.
They capped the acq fee and taxes. Add those to the sales price, deduct the $250 rebate and that’s how they got the net sales price.
If you don’t want to pay those fees upfront and want to cap them, it’ll drive your monthly higher. Plus, you’ll be paying interest on this amount.
I don’t know how tax works in OH, so can’t comment.
That’s crazy that you would pay $600+/month for this. There are so many other better vehicles that you can get for that price. Does this fit your family needs that well?
Thanks for the replies. I know the vehicle doesn’t lease well…but thanks for the reinforcement there. Was just looking to see where I could negotiate a bit more. The feedback is in line with what I’m doing (i.e. getting the MF back to base and negotiating the bigger discount).
As for why this car fits what we want…it’s fairly roomy, all wheel drive, manual transmission, higher seating position (almost SUV-ish), large/open front interior space, and a good amount of up-to-date tech. My wife may drive it once in a while and she has motion sickness; the higher seating position and open-ness of the front helps quite a bit. And I’ve sorta gotten used to that as well…from driving our 2006 Pilot the last three years.
I never got anywhere leasing Mini’s in the past. It seems they will give discounts on a purchase but don’t pass them along to a lease offer.
When I add all the safety packages, The BMW XI is practically the price as the Countryman JohnCooper (The JohnCooper edition gives you the same 228 hp motor as the X1)
Yeah…I couldn’t get them to budge until the end. They held fast with the marked up MF and not applying the discounts. Eventually they came back with $1K off…but at that point I was negotiating on another vehicle. Ended up with a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta GLI. Super fun car and got an ok lease on it. Needed a car and was pressed for time so had to settle a bit.
The whole experience with the Mini dealership was not great. Very little communication while the car was being built (I had to track myself), changing stories about applying incentives (ie not applicable to the car even though it was other models listed as not applicable, incentives already baked into the discount they were giving, etc.), inaccurate cost of the MF markup, etc. Just disappointed with the company (ie BMW) and their dealer network.
