I thought this was interesting thing to share. I bought my 335i CPO about 8 years ago with about 30K miles for around $32.4K with tax and still enjoy the car today. This is when BMW CPO included more maintenance and 2 years of warranty after the original one expires. So I got 5 years of the car under warranty. Keep in mind very few things have broken and all repairs and maintenance have been done at a BMW independent shop that specializes in BMWs. I have been more aggressive about oil changes than BMW suggests. The car eats oil anyway but I get oil changes about every 6K miles.
Assuming I can sell it for what I project my cost per month is about $370.
You could argue the tires are something you will need to change during a standard 3 year, 36K lease. Also, you will need a few oil changes in there as well.
Before I bought this car I got a lease quote that was about $550 with tax. For those wondering, RV was 71%! in 2011 and MF was 1.46 on a 27 month lease in SoCal for the same car.
I was pretty sure I was going to come out much better than I actually have. This has really changed my idea about leasing VS buying. I could have had 3 newer cars in this same time span. Not having a monthly car payment is nice but it seems like all I did was front-load this cost. Won’t get into Time Value of Money on this forum
Final price per month was $382 per month and .34 cents per mile to own (not including gas).
Really interesting and thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how many repairs were made on the car during the 2nd year of CPO warranty?
It seems like it has actually been a fairly reliable driver for you. I don’t know what options it has, but you may be a little conservative in what you can get for it given the detailed maintenance history.
I don’t remember any major issues under CPO. Before my CPO ended I took it to BMW and they looked for anything they could fix since they get to charge BMW Corp. The car has every option except for Nav. So Sports Package, Convenience Package, and Cold Weather Package it had a MSRP of 50K.
$250/mo in gas! Been there…done that.
Interesting how many BMW models you can lease for less than your monthly cost (and some for about half your gas cost or less).
I get $158 per month in gas cost since I didn’t own the car the first 30K miles . I don’t do a ton of driving but have been driving more lately. I have always used premium gas which has been painful lately. Having a sweet 330HP engine is the one thing that makes it worth it
I’m too tired to fully interpret the document you posted, but it seems you are trying to say that you think leasing is better than buying? In your case, it would have made more sense but if you are driving more than 15k miles per year, buying is better in my opinion.
Well, yes, but no. This is a 335i so to compare apples-to-apples, he’d need to be looking at a 340i or similar. Yes, with the right timing you can swing a loaner with a monthly at or less than we he paid, in most cases it would be higher.
I happen to think OP came out ahead here if he was/is happy driving a 10 year old car.
Pretty much nailed it in your summary. Overall happy with the car but these are not cheap cars to maintain/ repair even at non-dealer shops. The best thing was moving away from the Run Flat Tires which go for $350+ per tire. It rides much better as well without them. If I would have bought new and close to MSRP I would have really been underwater on this car.
Surprised not to see carbon blasting service listed. Mine (2010) required one before 50Kmi. Heard that carbon buildup was a very common problem on n54 engines.
Also right after 50Kmi both headlights started fogging up lightly. The moisture caused the active headlights units to burn later. BMW didn’t cover that under CPO warranty,so after paying 2K to replace and program just one headlight I decided to look into leasing.
Great analysis. I had a 2001 330Ci from 2001 to 2010, 90k miles … paid $43k new, sold it for $10k in 2010. My average cost of ownership was just shy of $400 per month.
Another thing to consider: insurance and registration fees. Those are likely to be cheaper on a $7,000 car.
Still, I think leasing is definitely the way to go if the manufacturer subsidizes the residuals. On every BMW, Mercedes, Ford, or GM lease I’ve had, actual depreciation was much greater than the total cost of leasing.
On certain cars, like the Model 3 or a Honda Fit or something, buying is still the better option.
Very interesting, thanks for posting. I did something similar with a GTI that I owned that I thought I did pretty well on and it came out to around $350 a month. The only car I have owned that I did great on was an '09 Corvette that I bought new for $45k and sold 5 years later for $32k. The only expenses during that time were tires and an alignment. It did have very low miles though, so it is not a good comparison vs a typical lease. Actually I did have a Pontiac Vibe that I paid $10k for new and sold 2 years later to Carmax for $7.5k. In most cases though, leasing seems to come out on top assuming you get a hackr deal.
My last purchase, many years ago, was a used CLK500…between payment, maintenance, gas and insurance i think i was paying close to $800/mo…still have nightmares about it. No one makes a better money sucking machine than Benz. It was like owning a boat…the best 2 ownership days were the day i bought it and the day i sold it.
Good point, my insurance is actually really cheap on this car (less than $80 per month)
My registration fees are about $200 per year VS my wife who has a 45K Lexus 2018 and hers just came in the mail at $600. So about a $400 difference X 9 years actually starts to mean something.
