Or just lease from a dealership close by.
This scares me a little for my lease return 2 years later. As I got my car from about 2.5/3 hour away.
But that’s gonna be well past covid and hopefully this issue won’t come.
This doesn’t seem Covid related
Well, if I can offer a counterpoint, and of course there’s no guarantee this will hold going forward, but I have returned probably 10 leased BMWs to the local BMW dealership 10 minutes from my house and none of them have ever come from that dealer. Honestly, most have come from many states away. They always joke with me at turn in with something like “hey, what do we have to do to get you to buy a car from here!?!?”. I laugh, say something nebulous and neutral, hand them the keys, sign the tablet for the turn in and head home😁
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Going forward just tell em” that you will be leasing a new car with them next month and are working with “Jimmy” in sales on a custom build M5 Competiton.
(genius tech thinking to himself) We don’t have a Jimmy in sales?
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I’ve not looked at the contract but I’m sure it says in fine print exactly what is the real truth, you can only formally return to the originating dealer. The point is that BMWFS very clearly acts as if that it not true, that you can return to any dealer. This is what I was told when I originated, and also what BMWFS told me the first two times I called to ask “how do I return”. And I believe that in other markets you might not have trouble returning at random dealers going forward. But in SoCal, that appears to me to be a thing of the past.
What the contract says is irrelevant; only crazy people on LH read contracts, real consumers of course do not. BMW is setting up a consumer expectation of “return is easy, do it anywhere”. They then aren’t delivering on it. Sure, if you roll into a new lease, maybe they’ll make it easier for you–but that ain’t exactly the LH way either since there’s no reason to know ex-ante that your local dealer is giving the best deal. If you want to actually optimize your cost on a BMW in SoCal, what it appears to me is that part of the hidden non-dollar cost is that if you want to get the best deal and have to travel to do so, you should mentally price that on the back end you’re going to have to travel to return. I just drove 2 hours to pick up my new XC90, so I’m not opposed to driving to save some dough. But for BMW what rankles is that they clearly try to set up a consumer expectation that they then cannot actually deliver on.
Thanks for the info and the detailed write up.
Only crazy people sign contracts they don’t read and understand, and then complain about everyone else when their expectations aren’t met.
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TBF, BMWFS also should be held to what they verbally promise
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What if the BMWFS agent told OP s/he could drop off the car at your house?
You aren’t a party to the contract either.
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The BMW dealer is definitely party to a contract with BMWFS.
And probably a janitorial service and dozens or hundreds of other business parties. Has nothing to do with a lessee’s responsibility at lease end.
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Just curious, where do you plan to return the Volvo in the future? Did the salesperson say where you can return it to?
I feel for you and share your pain, as a lot of others do. However, we can agree to disagree on the “reading contracts” part. It’s a legal document… anyone signing a legal document should do their own due diligence without relying on the statements of parties who have obvious conflicts of interest (i.e. the dealership).
But the general consensus is that BMWFS should be held towards allowing/facilitating the return of leases without it having to be the originating dealer.
Simple scenario - what if we moved (far) away from the originating dealer? Lease swaps? Happens all the time…
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K I see you have 0 interest in an actual discussion
Which is the example I bring up. I would start at the dealership I serviced the car at since you did business there. When I’ve been asked “did you lease it here” my answer is “I think so but I definitely did all my service here”.
- he’s right. I’m not saying bmw shouldn’t do what they said, but the contract isn’t with the dealer. Just because the lease and the building say “bmw” doesn’t imply anything. And always always read your lease contracts — when I lease a new brand, I request a copy in advance, and when I’m waiting to get in the box at the dealer I ask for a copy to review (even if I read it previously). Always find something new.
- j’accuse! something you’ve certainly never been guilty of
The question is, what is BMWFS’ responsibility here?
Asshattery like “what if they tell you to leave it in someone’s driveway” or “a janitor is a contractor too” provides 0 value to this discussion
I suppose rather than giving colorful examples to demonstrate a point I could have just said, “You’re wrong. Neener neener.”
It still counts as discussion when someone disagrees with you.
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Failure to answer a question is not the same as disagreeing
BMWFS’ responsibility is to tell the lessor where to return BMWFS’ property, which they did.
The lessee’s responsibility here is to return it to the originating dealer, which isn’t the answer OP was hoping for.
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