The reason why leasing is unfavorable for me is that
I plan on driving low mileage (less than 7000 miles per year) and plan on keeping it for 3 years and give it to my brother so he can use it for another 4 years or so.
I really baby my car and take good care of it. For example, I leased a 2018 A4 and only drove it for 7.5k miles till now (lower than projected due to covid) so it hurts to lease it for me personally because it feels like a brand new car to me. Plus there isn’t a leasing incentive for X5 atm but financing has 1.9% with 2.5k credit.
That is a nice plan for you think of your brother down the line, but in the end if you double check the numbers you may (almost certainly) find it is cheaper to lease him a car three years from now rather than buy this one and give it to him. The other wildcard is that he will have the car out of warranty and repair costs will be brutal.
I live in Raleigh as well. We have 2 BMW dealers here locally, 5 more within about 1.5 hours driving, plus 3 more if you go a bit further west to Charlotte & Asheville.
It seems like you’re only talking with one dealer, regardless of whether you finance or lease, at the very least I would be calling every single one of the ones above to see what they can do on a custom order X5.
Thank you fellow Raleigh neighbor! I was thinking about reaching to them as well. What do you recommend me doing to get a good deal? Do I just call them and give them the build code and ask for 10% off msrp before incentive and rebates and see where to go from there?
At a minimum I would call the sales managers at these and ask 1) timing on a custom X5 order, 2) what kind of discount they’re willing to do.
The problem with this approach is that you’ll rarely get their “best offer” just cold calling, they have no idea how serious you are or if you’re just kicking tires and shopping quotes, etc.
However, at the same time you might luck out and find a dealership with a car about to go into production that a sales manager would love to find a home for…
Just got a new offer from a new dealership (1 hour away) located in NC but this is not a custom order and it’s inventory so it doesn’t have the red brake calipers I wanted and has a trailer hitch which I don’t want but I could probably add it later.
MSRP 80,145
Discount 9,900 - includes 2,500 APR rebate and 1,000 incentives
Sales price sub-total 70,245
Tax 2,229
Tag Title fees 94
Admin fee 579
Balance 73,148
I was able to get an 8% discount off MSRP before incentives and rebates as a first offer from a different dealership cause I spoke with the sales manager and told them straightforwardly that I already shopped around and I am looking for an 8-10% discount before incentives. They told me that isn’t really possible with new custom orders but could be achieved with already stocked inventory in their dealership. Is this true? Where should I go from here?
As it’s been said above, you essentially have nothing to lose by contacting more dealers to see if they can beat the offer you currently have, meanwhile the payoff could be significant.
Back when I was leasing my first M4 in 2015 I think I reached out to about two dozen dealers, and while most of them told me that I was being too aggressive I was able to find that one store that let me set up a custom Euro Delivery order at a total of around 14% off MSRP. On a very desirable car that had just been released.
The patience paid of big, and all it cost me some time and the willingness to talk to more stores.
But back to your X5 - I think right now dealers are getting back to the point where 10% off is very achievable on most models in the range because they have the volume to work with again. That’s what I would shoot for before incentives, even if it takes a bit of setup.
You also have the advantage of being close-ish to the Spartanburg BMW factory, which lets you pick the vehicle right then and there, while also giving you an awesome experience through the Performance Center Delivery which means that you can theoretically work with any dealer in the country and not have to pay for a large delivery fee. Plus it’s super fun - they essentially let you beat on some of their demo cars on autocross, skid pad, break test, and a drift circle, and then take you off roading in one of their X cars to show off features like the hill descent control.
Thank you for your thoughtful advice and for sharing your amazing story! I did talk with every single dealer in NC and they all couldn’t beat the 8% discount that I got. So I contacted the dealership that gave me the 8% discount (which turns out to be my hometown before I moved 1 hr away lol) and asked if they could match that 8% discount on a custom order car and they said they can. Although I could’ve driven to SC for that extra 2% I just didn’t think it was worth it and pulled the trigger to save time for me. Thank you all for your advice. You guys truly helped me make this into a reality and I am a one happy first-time BMW owner soon!
