That seems like a poor analogy. You don’t put money down because if you wreck your new 330i 20 days after leasing it you lose all the money. It seems like a pretty good rule to follo almost all the time as opposed to not getting in a car because it is “dangerous”
I’m so confused. Putting zero down costs basically nothing. You pay slightly more in interest payments but conversely you are earning a return on the money you hold until you make the higher monthly payment.
This isn’t like not driving or not taking a nap. There is literally no downside to not putting money down. It’s why we always say don’t put money down.
It’s like an absolutely free insurance policy. Why wouldn’t you accept it?
$25,000 down on this lease would save more than $2,000 in rent charges over 39 months.
For me, the money would otherwise be sitting in liquid savings earning ~0.6%, and that’s before I pay taxes on the interest at my highest marginal tax rate.
Yes, I know OP has a 320i, but the fanatical purists keep wagging their collective fingers and yelling, “never.”
You lost the 3k down, unless, by chance, your car is deemed worth more than payoff by insurance, which on a BMW, is virtually impossible.
Work with insurance. You may need to work with BMWFS on the GAP portion, but I’d wait until you get a definitive total loss declaration by your insurance carrier, as well as their provided loss amount.
Related to the OP’s situation, someone check my math.
Current BMW MF: .00082 / 1.968%
$3000 down = $83.33/mo
Additional rent: 83.33 * 0.01968 = $1.64
$1.64 * 36 = $59.04 additional rent to roll everything in.
Also, in the unlikely event like this, having rolled tags/title/taxes in, you only would have paid 1/36 on that, so instead of trying to recover your upfronts you only paid out $83.33 in actual utility you got for 20 days, plus $1.64 for BMW to front it.
Also as an aside, if you sold/trade/swap this in month 24, you paid $39.36 in rent but you DID NOT pay (or kept) $999.96 that would have gone to upfronts. $0 DAS shifts all but your monthly payment risk back to the captive (as long as you have GAP).
OP I’m sorry for the loss, but glad it’s just metal and no one was hurt. If you were not at fault, you can ask the other party’s insurance to refund your upfronts.