BMW i3 Lease - Calculating different numbers than the dealer

Ask the Hackrs
1

I’m in SoCal and I’m trying to get a BMW i3.

The dealer gave me a %12 discount off of MSRP

Vehicle Price:		$48,645.00	 
Savings:-   $5,695.00	 
Price:		$42,950.00	 	 
Sales Tax (estimate):	+	$3,799.25	 
Tag/Registration Fees (estimate):	+	$350.00	 
Flat Add/County Fee:	+	$11.00	 
Electronic Filing:	+	$29.00	 
Smog Abatement Fee:	+	$20.00	 
Documentation Fee:	+	$80.00	 
Balance Due (estimate):		$47,239.25

I am then getting applying $7500 (fed tax credit) of taxed incentives and $1500 (corp fleet discount) of untaxed incentives. I am also taking advantage of BMW’s multiple security deposits which brings the money factor to .00077. Finally, I am putting a 2850 down payment on the car.

I am looking at a 10k mile lease for 36 months.

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When I put these numbers into the lease calculator… I get the following result.

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However, the dealer is telling me the lease cost would be $275 a month… when I questioned him about the difference he told me “the calculator does not account for the $925 acquisition fee and other fees” which is untrue…

Are the dealer’s numbers correct? Are my calculations wrong??

2

What do you think? Tell him to break down the fees and how he arrives at that number.

3

As I said in the other thread, why are they charging you ~$3800 in sales tax? You should only be paying tax on the monthly payment.

Also, how come your drive-off in your calculated numbers don’t include the MSD?

4

Just did… after a little hesitation he said he will email them to me soon. I’ll post back when I get more info.

5

I called and he clarified that the tax would only be applied to the monthly payment.

Ya I didn’t do the MSD properly.

6

Here is the breakdown… having trouble understanding it.

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7

As @willwar14 stated, the dealer already included the Corp discount into the sales price. Also, are you putting putting $2850 down (CCR)? It’s not listed in their worksheet.

1 Like
8

Go to Leasing 101 (top nav) and read Calculate Lease Payments By Hand.

9

The dealer claims that there is no way to go further down MSRP because he and the dealership wouldn’t make any money. They only make 3k per i3 sold. He isn’t making any money at this point.

Is he telling the truth?

10

Do you really trust what a salesperson says? That said, maybe that dealership really isn’t willing to go lower. Try other dealerships.

1 Like
11

There are too many factors to know for sure. The only way to know if a dealership is not making money is if they close down, otherwise, I think they are doing OK.

Furthermore, “making money” is only one side of the equation. There are “costs” associated with a car sitting on a lot and not moving (ex: they have to wash it) and also taking up space vs another car they can make a bigger profit on.

Everything is really how much time and work you want to find a good deal. $10/mo is worth different to different people.

1 Like
12

Hard to tell for sure, but most likely it’s BS.

They would just stop talking to you if they are TRULY not making money on you. The only reason they are still on the table is that you are profitable to them. My dealer told me they only made $100 on me when I picked up my i3 REx and I just shrugged it off.

As @chrisgo said, there are too many factors. Whether they are making/losing money largely depends on how to look at it. For example, salesperson all have target bonus. That means sometimes they are willing to lose money on one or two cars to get the target bonus. Are they losing money selling that particular car to you? YES! But are they losing money overall? No! Similarly, each dealership has target bonus to compete with other dealerships.

With BMW in particular, there is a program called Custom Satisfaction Index (CSI), dealership typically need all 10s on custom survey to get the CSI bonus from BMW. That’s why every time you lease from a BMW/Mini, they will beg you to give them all 10s and say getting a 9 is as bad as getting an 1. You can use that as a leverage and tell them you will give them all 10s if they can do the price you asked. Good luck!

13

btw, Fleet discount should be a Taxed Incentives if I’m not mistaken.

14

Which dealer is this? If you’re getting the fleet discount, you might be doing worse than the advertised deal on the bmwusa site at 289/mo. for 36 months with msrp of $47,145 (cap cost of $34,501)

FWIW, I stopped by Beverly Hill BMW to see if I could pick up a car they had advertised on cars.com for $41,241. They wanted a lease payment of $421. I gave them the finger and bounced. Shady BS dealer.

15

That’s a Sonic dealer. We had a guy @loberant that used to post deals here (he is a buyer for Sonic) but haven’t seen him lately. He usually has to tell the dealer you are coming and he will make the deal work for the folks here at the forum.

16

Thanks for the info Chris. I just sent Raphael a PM. Hopefully he can help get get something at Long Beach BMW which is also a Sonic dealership and has a car that I want.