Go for it. Def shop around more because because the best deals are usually well outside the city.
The only other caveat I can think of is that even with the best deals you kinda leave money on the table if you don’t come close to using the miles. Several of my friends have returned 3 yr leases with sub 15k and sometimes sub 10k total miles.
To the point of @max_g, if it’s truly just a weekend city car, maybe look at SAL for something with less mileage available and push them on price. Also you can get a shorter lease to decide if it’s the right move for you.
For example, this one is in NY only has 300 miles per month for 15 months. I would still ask for a larger incentive to get it closer to $450-$475/month
https://www.swapalease.com/lease/details/2018-BMW-X5.aspx?salid=1423368
Or that could be an argument in favor of getting something like a Subaru. The way they retain value and with realistic RV (complete opposite of BMW) you’d likely have equity if you’re under miles.
Good points all around. @Britten440 that swap a lease site is interesting. I’ll definitely look into that more though I’m not sure if the previous model has as good self driving features (traffic jam assist etc). Also interesting to see a bunch of quite expensive leases on the 2019s.
@max_g - I definitely agree that there’s a risk of coming in a decent amount below the mileage limit. I anticipate several longer trips during the year… round trips of around 500ish miles, but will that be 3 trips or 9 it’s kind of hard to say. And yes, we are scheduled to look at Subaru this weekend. Interesting point on holding their value etc. I assume you mean the RV on the Subaru is lower … could that be a double edged sword if you end up paying it up front during the lease and then need to find a way to monetize the delta between the RV and market value of the car at the end?
Ultimately, in no universe is leasing an expensive BMW + parking in NYC the financially sensible thing to do but there’s also a difficult to quantify value to being able to get out of town on more of a spur of the moment basis (maybe a pipe dream with a baby?) which relying on rental cars doesn’t allow. And there’s the emotional component to just wanting a BMW and deciding if that is how I want to spend some of my money and just being fine with that and recognizing that there are cheaper options if I really cared about spending the least. The odd part is that given the high fixed costs for any car option the extra $$ on a nicer car seems easier to justify since it’s a smaller increase in the total spend. I.e. it seems somehow difficult to want to spend let’s say $900 month all in on a Subaru if I could get an X5 with the options I want for $1250. Remains to be seen what those numbers are in reality.
And then there’s the intangible fact that you feel like a million bucks driving the X5 hah 
We tested out the Subaru Outback today, both the lower and higher powered engines. The lower powered engine felt very underpowered with just the three of us in the car – let alone loaded up with baby gear etc – so it would be the XT trim. I think the model we would go with would be the Outback Limited XT. I haven’t gone through the numbers yet (or researched on here for typical discounts) but I get a “VIP” deal from work of invoice less 2% (which worked out to around 7.5% discount from MSRP), which doesn’t seem bad but I’m not sure yet whether I can do better. Payment for this car (no cap reduction, ~$40K MSRP, ~$37K sales price, taxes & fees up front) was $420. I’ll plug into the calculator later on to make sure that’s with the base MF and RV.
One question in comparing the two cars - I know BMW includes the standard maintenance for the first 3 years (so for the life of the lease for us) but Subaru does not. Do you have a sense for how much one could expect to pay for the maintenance with the Subaru over the 3 years lease term?
Thanks!
Subaru maintenance is oil changes, possibly wipers. You shouldn’t need to do much more than that.
2 oil changes… at around $50-60 each
Ok, not meaningful then over the life of the lease. Overall we enjoyed the Subaru - in the past I’ve always found them to be comfortable with supportive seats and the adaptive cruise control is great. Interestingly we didn’t find the base seats in the Outback to be very comfortable and thought it had a harsh ride. The leather seats in the upgraded trim were much better (not as comfortable as the X5 though) and the ride felt softer which is strange considering the sales guy told us the suspension was tuned the same between both cars. Overall the BMW was more comfortable - I’ll have to test drive it again over some potholes to see for sure - but it was a useful comparison to see the differences.
Subarus had uncomfartable seats before 2019, at least. Ascent seems to have better seats.
Ah. I didn’t test the ascent. It is likely too big for us and seems less likely to skirt the SUV parking surcharge.
They count even Forester as an SUV in NYC garages.
Latest update:
We decided to go with the BMW. Details of the final deal are here:
Overall I got to a 11.7 % discount on MSRP Plus a further $1000 in incentive ($750 conquest and $250 USAA) for a just over 13% discount overall. Monthly payment comes to $685 with approx $4300 DAS (caculator has $100 too high DAS, wasn’t sure where to reduce it).
For anyone still wondering the conquest incentive is applicable if you do not currently have a vehicle, there is evidently a specific section on the form to check for this case. Multiple dealers said no issue to apply this when I don’t currently have a vehicle. One dealer said it couldn’t be applied and one dealer said it couldn’t but when I pressed him on it said “actually now that I look at the form it can” … so my sense is the one’s who did not want to apply it were going to keep the $750 for themselves.
Let me know your feedback if any, we pick it up in a week! Basically for a new build car I think it would be difficult to get more than 10% discount. For a car already near completion but not yet left the factory I was able to get an 11% discount from multiple dealerships in NY. Finally, the discount in my deal was on a car already in stock at the dealership, which happened to have exactly the packages I decided were necessary for me without any of the extra fluff, so it was the clear winner.
I will say that the one broker I reached out to had a very competitive offer right out of the gate … 12.1% discount from MSRP. After accounting for the higher dealer fees in NJ (+$515) and broker fee (+$500) the deal I went with ended up being better for me (and much much closer), but I also spent many hours doing research, sending emails, and making phone calls (reached out to ~20 dealers within an hour or so of NYC) to make it happen and a dealer deal would probably be a good out of the box solution for most people (and probably even for myself had I known upfront I would end up going with an already in stock car, in order to save the time and hassle I ended up putting in to it), so just my 2 cents on the topic.
Now on to insurance shopping … any tips (only slightly in jest, hah)?
Thanks again!
Looks good… right around 12% is what we have been seeing for new X5s, so you did well especially if it’s the build you want.
I would roll more of the upfront into the payment such as the NY taxes due to the slight chance the car gets totaled at some point during the lease and you lose that money.
I had Liberty Mutual when we had our car garaged in NYC and was happy with the coverage and cost.
Enjoy the car and don’t forget to sign up for BMW CCA for the extra $1000!
Thanks! So if the car get’s totaled I wouldn’t then owe the balance of the NY taxes?
I will probably go with Liberty Mutual, just have never used them before and I had good experiences with Geico previously. Amongst Geico, Progressive, and USAA LM is the least expensive, beating Geico and Progressive by around 10% and USAA by around 40%. I was surprised how expensive USAA is – we have our rental insurance with them and I’ll likely open an umbrella with them (similar pricing with everyone on umbrella) at least through the next year when I can get umbrella from my employer, but for auto I’ll just get elsewhere.
Taxes are still paid upfront to NY, however you are just financing them by rolling them in.
I used to have GEICO but every body shop I spoke with hates working with them as they skimp on OEM parts, etc. Even with a leased car, I would rather be safe than sorry.
Makes sense - thanks again, super excited to pick it up next week!
Hello IWANNABMW- Congrats! can you post your MSRP and cap cost? I have a deal for a custom order with 11% off + conquest $750. Never mind saw your lease details using link that you posted 
. Enjoy your ride
Well the Liberty Mutual online quote turned out to be a bait and switch … after calling them the price jacked up by 2x, so went with Geico. I found it very weird that even with putting the VIN in the online price request tools on all of the insurance websites, after calling the price would always be higher … with Geico too, just by not as much.
Anyway, I picked up the car last weekend and so far very happy and enjoying it very much!
For those of you with experience parking in NYC garages with valet … do you tip every time you take the car out? That seems excessive to me and I wasn’t planning on having to tip but the workers seem almost expectant. The attendant also handed me a holiday card yesterday with all of their pictures and names (9 workers) so holiday gifts are in order … any ideas what would be appropriate? It feels like a modest holiday gift should be sufficient tip-wise to carry me through the year?
$100. You drive a brand new $70k BMW, so …
Not to sound like a total noob but do you mean $100 per attendant or $100 total?