just the monthly payment, not including aq fee, dep fee and getting screwed on no discount, you are at $2.05 per mile. Prob cheaper to Uber it.
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Iāve owned an M240i and loved it. But I paid $569/month after tax on my lease. Yester-year, obviously, but stillā¦ I couldnāt stomach paying that much a month for the same car. Youāre saying you can afford it (awesome), but is it financially irresponsible? I think it is. Iād want to know that all of your investments and such are being maxed out and you still have plenty of money left over to spend on this before saying itās financially responsible. Opportunity cost, etc. $900/month on a nice beamer is a nice-to-have, but it feels excessive to me unless you really need to have THIS car right now. If youāre getting an incentive for being a new grad, unless youāre loaded as all get out, I have to think there might be better ways to spend your money. Just my $0.02, and I say that as someone who loved my 3 years w/ this car.
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Thanks for the post. Donāt need to delve too much into financials on a public forum, but yes, we can very much afford this. As I alluded to in my OP, the monthly car costs are less than 5% of our take-home (post-tax) pay. My wife is the new grad and its from a top-3 MBA program, not a undergrad degree.
The reason we want it now is that weāll probably move out to the suburbs and have kids in ~3 years, so this is a rare chance to own a small, sporty coupe and take frequent weekend trips without ālifeā responsibilities. Even waiting 12 months can have a pretty significant impact to our ability to enjoy the full lease.
Still helpful to know just how bad the market is. I thought I was paying 20% over what I would have paid a few years ago - sounds like its more like 30-40%. Yikes.
I enjoyed mine for 3 years and now have an SQ5 SUV. Iām very supportive of enjoying things while youāre able, before you canāt. So if you can stomach the payment, fuck it! 
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Do it. When I was in your shoes, I got a convertible. No regrets. Would 99% do again. Only thing Iād do differently is maybe get a 2-seat roadster instead of a 2+2 cabriolet.
To answer your earlier question, buying gives you a lot more flexibility. You can sell to anyone at any time. With a lease, youāre stuck selling only to BMW dealers. And if they lowball you because theyāve cornered the market, then youāre stuck making payments on a car you no longer want/need or paying the negative equity to get out of it.
Your ā3-5ā year timeframe is not only a very wide range (itās one lease and two thirds of a second one on the high end of that range), itās also extremely fluid and unpredictable. Got pregnant earlier than expected? Taking longer than expected? But letās say you time it to perfection. Do you want to be shopping for not one but two luxury car leases right when youāre buying a house?
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Yeah, if OP has done the math and wants a fun car b/f needing something bigger, why not? Could be another 20 yrs b/f they get this chance againā¦
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think it will come down to how much rates increase by the time we take delivery in the next 3-4 months.
I placed the order (custom build), so now its just a matter of when it arrives and how we pay for it.
Not much you can do about the numbers, given the current market. YOLO (You Only Live Once), so do YOU.
Iād be hesitant to finance. Demand for these will drop significantly once the M2 is released.
I donāt buy that argument. These are low volume cars. Prior gen M235/M240 held their value very well even after M2 arrived & pre-pandemic.
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The M2 buyer is not a 240i buyer.
I was thinking of putting an order for one of these, itās a really fun car. Iād probably finance it though, especially if you can get a really low rate. 2014 M235ās are still around 25k with more miles than 5k/yr and if you keep it for 4 years thatās 43k paid down already. even during covid lowās they were around the 20k mark for a 235.
They are $25k+ in this market. In 4 years I wouldnāt bet on the market being the same. Prior to the auto market shortages and used car values sky rocketing. Low mileage M235i sold close to $20k, I know because I traded one in few months before the chaos started.
Slightly unrelated question: I have a production number from the dealer that has my name tied to it, but I didnāt put any deposit (nor was I asked for one). Is there any risk of the dealership reneging on our deal when the car arrives in a few months?
Get your deal in writing.
I can almost guarantee it. Thatās what happened to a ton of people with the new Bronco and several other models. Even though this isnāt quite the same situation, if the shortage is still bad (it will be) there is nothing stopping them from putting a $10k markup on it, and waiting for the next sucker if you donāt want it. Get everything in writing signed by both parties. Good luck, and great car. Iām thinking of getting one when my M340i lease is up in November.
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