the harder part is that now 3rd party dealers think that BMW is blocking it when they are not. I had two dealers tell me specifically, we can’t buy your BMW. So it will be harder in the sense of some hand holding and convincing for 3rd party dealers.
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Exactly. Half of the salesperson I talked to at BMW dealerships do not even know what MSD is. I’d image the MSD is even less known to average customers
True, but plenty of LHers have sold to CarMax and I haven’t seen any threads mentioning this.
Newbie here but hoping someone can help me with my situation as I’ve gone through this thread and I’m still unclear on what my options are.
I have a current BMW X1 lease that has about 4 months left on it. I took the vehicle to Carmax about 2 weeks ago and they quoted me around $24k. That’s great since my buyout amount from BMW is $21k. I went to go sell it today at Carmax, and they said that they’re not able to buy out leases anymore. BMWFS made this change last week and won’t let 3rd party companies buyout leases.
Question is: what are my options now. Here’s what I believe, but please correct me if I’m wrong…
- Sell back to any BMW dealership (I already called around and they’re offering significantly less than what Carmax was offering).
- Buyout my own lease from the dealer that I leased from, and then sell it to a 3rd party (e.g. Carmax). The issue here is that I get stuck with paying sales tax and have to jump through hoops regarding transferring title, etc.
- Carmax told me that they could buyout my loan if I “turned my lease into a loan.” I don’t completely understand this option, but assume it would be essentially be as if I was buying the rest of the car but instead of paying it off with a lump sum, I would have car payments. Not sure if this scenario helps me avoid any sales tax from option 2.
A very frustrating situation since 2 weeks ago, this would have been much simpler.
Thanks in advance to anyone that can give a POV on the above.
Option 2 and option 3 are the same option.
Carmax is incorrect regarding bmwfs not allowing buyouts. There has been some poor communication from bmwfa on this one. They just won’t give carmax the buyout. You must request it.
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BMW FS is not suspending sales to third party dealers, they are just requiring the lessee (versus the third party dealer) to request the payoff. CarMax can easily confirm this on Monday when BMW FS opens. You can even call BMW FS and put them on speaker in front of whoever is helping you at CarMax so they can confirm this.
Alternatively, and if CarMax isn’t budging for whatever reason, you can try getting a quote from AutoNation. And when you get a quote from them, I believe you can take the car to any AutoNation dealer to sell it, including a BMW AutoNation dealer. I suppose that would be a simpler workaround.
Also, what city/state are you in? I know a SoCal BMW dealer that matches CarMax offers (or at least they did as of last month, unless that has changed now). You can also try selling to them if they still match CarMax offers.
Thanks to both @mllcb42 and @ZZAutoDeals for the quick responses and clarification. Talked to several people at Carmax but they were pretty adamant about not taking on any BMW leases. But that’s good to know. Will try to get BMW FS and Carmax on the same page on Monday. Might have to try another Carmax location too.
@ZZAutoDeals - I’m in LA. Which SoCal dealer matches? thanks for the info!
There was some confusion as to what was being reported a week or two ago, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’d be going off of incorrect info.
Did you try Carvana? I got a higher price from them than Carmax quoted me. I sold my X3 to them today without any hassle- I just had to call BMWFS to get the dealer payoff quote and provide it to them. Carvana direct deposited the sale price in excess of the payoff to my bank account on the spot and will pay BMWFS the payoff directly. Will let you know if there are any issues with the payoff but I don’t foresee any.
The payoff in my account is oddly $3,000 higher than the original residual, which was already $10k above Carvana’s offer. Would the dealer payoff be any different?
The dealer payoff quote BMWFS sent me matched the payoff quote in my account to the penny which also matched my residual because I’m less than a week out from the maturity of the lease. Some are saying on this thread that the dealer payoff quote could be higher but that wasn’t the case for me. As for the offer from Carvana I guess it depends on the car and market. I had an X3 in SoCal which is a very popular car in the local market so they paid me over the payoff/residual.
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Generally the difference between the personal payoff and dealer payoff with bmwfs is the inclusion of tax in the personal pay off, if you’re in a state where that is applicable.
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This is in line with my experience.
The payoff Carmax received from BMWFS is $130.60 higher than the payoff I saw from my BMWFS account. However, when BMWFS refunded my account balance (i.e., security deposit), I received an extra $132.73.
Given BMW received the payoff from Carmax the day after lease expired, I assume the extra payment wasn’t prorated lease payment.
In the recent past, BMWFS would not give me the third party buyout. Instead they stated that the 3rd party dealer must call. Even though I expected the numbers to match, I still wanted to follow the right procedure.
Sounds as though it’s the complete opposite now.
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Went to carmax to get a quote and I was told if they can’t speak to bmw to get a pay off quote, they won’t be able to buy the car?
Any workaround to this ?
ask BMW for the 3rd party, get the fax and show it to carmax?
Tried and they said they have to ask them specific questions on the phone. Bmw was closed by the time I spoke to carmax finance department.
Edit: wonder if I or they can call them , and have me or the finance person on speaker while we speak to bmwfs , anyone tried that ?
I sold mine 2 wks ago. CarMax called BMWFS and then added me to the call. BMWFS gave Carmax the payoff quote after confirming my identity.
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The whole point of this thread you posted in. You have to call, they will send you a copy of the 3rd party dealer payoff.
You can take that payoff to whomever you want.
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I think you are not understanding what the issue here is.
Carmax won’t take any documents that bmwfs sent me, they have to physically talk to bmwfs on the phone