I now work remote and hardly drive, so I am thinking of:
Selling my leased BMW
Get another non-BMW car with the “savings” I get from selling my car
I heard that BMWFS no longer allow lease buyout from 3rd party like Carvana. However, I am not sure if non-BMW dealer can (e.g. Honda, Lexus. etc.) If not, I am wondering if BMW dealer will just buy my car and give me a check for the difference?
For comparison, I searched in Cargurus for the same model within 200 miles of my area and the selling prices are $71K and above for cars with higher mileages than mine.
No. “No third parties” means no to all third parties.
Solutions:
Make multiple BMW dealers compete
Check RODO and Autonation, who have BMW dealers in their network
Buy the car and sell it to literally anyone, including all dealers and private parties.
Yes, a BMW dealer will buy the car and give you a check for the equity. They would of course prefer you to buy/lease another vehicle. You may get a bit more out of them if you do get something else. Start checking with the dealers and see what you can get.
BMWFS does not collect sales tax. That is only collected when applying for a new title/registration by the DMV. Many buyers these days do not accept a lessor-released title, but want title in the owners name.
If the check has your name on it then you are buying the car out, not the bank that issued you the loan. The bank that issued you the loan is merely using your vehicle as a collateral so you should be able to execute a buy out with an auto loan. A form of “refinancing.” Check to see what your tax and fees burden is by going this route.
Have you actually gotten quotes for your X5? If they’re going retail for around 71k then I’d be surprised to see you get more than 54k or 55k wholesale. Probably looking at between 45k and 52k.
