My lease on a 2022 BMW 330i is about to expire in two months. I’m based in the Miami, FL, area.
The car is in pristine condition, with no history of accidents and approximately 27,000 miles on the odometer.
The dealership has made me a buyout offer of $31,000, but when I got it appraised at Carvana and AutoNation, the quotes were in the range of $21,000 to $22,000.
I’m not entirely opposed to keeping my current car, but it doesn’t seem financially justifiable given the current market conditions.
Since this is my first time navigating the end of a lease, I’m leaning towards returning the vehicle and exploring new deals. Are there any tips or alternative options I should consider as my lease concludes? Additionally, are there any precautions or details I should pay attention to and be mindful before returning the car?
So that’s the number in your contract to buy it out at lease-end? Or that’s the current payoff figure? In any event, I had a 2019 330i lease that was ending in 2022, during the height of the car shortage. I thought of buying it but the Carvana etc. quotes were always less than the payoff number. So I extended the lease a couple months and then just leased a different brand SUV. I was able to return the BMW to a local dealer, closer than the original dealership. No problem or extra fees, even though I was a little worried. I had put after-market tint on the windows as well as a black grill to replace the chrome.
31K is the current buyout figure on the offer BMW sent to me. its much more than if I sell it, not sure if this is negotiatable if I decided to finance the residual.
how do u extend the lease? just talk to the dealership?
Just go to your My BMW online account. There should be a button to click about the end of the lease process. You can extend one month at a time for up to 2 months. They will add a prorated amount of miles to your allowance. If you have an order for a new BMW, then they will let you extend up to 6 months.
I recently extended mine two months, one month at a time. No need to talk to a dealer.
And in regard to your “Buyout” number from BMWFS; it is actually a payoff which is the residual value on the original contract, plus remaining depreciation payments minus “unearned interest”. In the early days of the pandemic, they rarely offered discounts from the payoff, but ever since the market shifted, this is a non-negotiable number based on your original lease contract.
The offers from the dealers are less than the payoff because most 330i’s are worth less than their residual at present. Maybe KBB and current market listings are around the same price as your buyout, but a dealer likely isn’t going to give you retail value.
