I took over a 2020 BMW i3 lease 2 years ago, (at a payment of $265/mo) and the lease ends in a few days. I was hoping for longer but I spoke with BMWFS and they would only offer a 2 month extension. The DMV renewal bill ($500) is sitting on my desk; not sure it’s worth paying it for only 2 months. Do they ever allow longer extensions?
The payoff amount is $28,500 (including CA tax). And according to Edmonds, this car is worth $30,500 private party (or $29,500 trade-in), but the value has been dropping like a rock the last few months - about $1000 per month. Should I try to buy this car and then resell it soon to make a profit or at least break even but keep the car for a few more months? Seems risky… I don’t really love the car enough to just keep it for years watching it’s value plummet.
Finally…any suggestions what car to get next? I like small, fast fun cars, preferably EVs. And this is a second family car that only gets driven ~6k miles/year, so I don’t want to drop a lot of cash on that and don’t need a lot of range. The market seems a bit crazy now…there are no more EV leases for <$400/mo and almost no small/fun EVs anyway. I guess there’s the Mini EV but it’s going for $400+/mo. And the used market for any kind of car is still outta whack (and I don’t qualify for the EV tax credits nowadays).
The Mini EV is a ‘fun’ car that if you do the right deal it’s about $300 according to brokers (not a CA one but others), see if they are willing to make a deal. Check with @autopia and see if they have a better deal.
Be aware that it’s a 100 mile car similar to the i3. Has a Pano Moonroof.
Edit : The 2025 SE is listing is 200+ range, not the 2024
@autopia Thanks for the quick response. I think that what you are offering is still the current model that gets around 110 mile range, not the new generation coming later, correct?
Those number are more or less what I’ve already seen for national offers - so around $400/mo average. I would need it to be around $300 so this is a no-go for me right now. I am willing to wait and see if BMW wants to offer some incentives in coming months to get rid of this older generation…
Would you happen to know if there’s a way to get BMW to extend my i3 lease any more than 2 months? Also, any opinion given the BMW i3 buy-out number I mentioned…would you recommend I try to buy-out the lease and “flip” this car?
Thanks @forbs for clarifying that. A lot of clients don’t know the difference. $2900 is the ttl (0 down).
@Steve_Ross The only way you can get more than 2 months, is you would need to custom order a new BMW and provide a prod code. No other way around it. Nothing to flip here, the I3’s have no equity in them.
You do get a loyalty rebate since Mini and BMW are under the same bank BMWFS. But no loyalty rebate on any EV car with BMW
Hi @autopia. I few days ago Mini changed their advertised offer, improved the lease credit by $2000. Now $11,900 credit. And they increased the miles to 10k/yr. Was wondering what you could now offer, for a similar 3 year lease? I only need 7500 mi (or I might look at 5000 even, if that’s a cheaper option). Please include any fees and describe what is included in any amount due on signing.
Also, to take advantage of the current lease credit from Mini, it appears to expire Jan 2. Does that mean I would need to take delivery but that date or just place the order?
If you look at the terms on the bottom it says
“Estimated payments exclude applicable taxes, title, registration, license, and documentary fees”
Car needs to be contracted before the 2nd of Jan. so will need to be on a car in stock.
We updated our sheet with the updated numbers. You can do 7500 if you want to. LH calc with all numbers below
