So this is my first ever post of Leasehackr and I am stoked to recently learn about this wonderful forum.
My wife and I live in the California Bay Area (Nor-Cal) and are in the market to upgrade from our current PHEV (Chevy Volt) to our first EV
We looked at a few options and narrowed it down to BMW i4 eDrive35!
We are getting familiar with the lease process/terms and the older threads on this forum are extremely helpful
However, a lot to grasp for us as this is a first time lease
Currently talking to a couple of dealerships, visited in-person, got quotes which are not great (as of now). The process is time taking and painful but as I understand its inevitable?
In case someone has any great dealership/agent contacts in Bay Area (Mountain View and nearby), or any tips please let me know? Reading and re-reading the leasing 101 and other threads here
I see many posts online (here and elsewhere too) about broker groups with great pricing. Since I have never used them before, wondering if folks here can provide info in case you had recent experience with them? Example1 | Example2
Trying to understand the added cost with a BMW EV ownership? I understand insurance would spike up (link) but as I can see there would hardly be any maintenance cost for the first 3 years (our preferred lease duration). Am I missing anything major?
Thanks again everyone in advance for your time and inputs
I would recommend becoming a super supporter ($10.00/mo), which would give you access to all of the deals, incentives, and money factors when using the Lease Calculator. Once you have that information, you can more easily negotiate your deal. I would also recommend reaching out to the dealerships via email or text, which is how I bought my last Volvo. I was communicating with 8 different dealerships. Once I knew the car I wanted, there was no need to go back to the dealership until I had made a deal.
But, once you know the numbers you are dealing with you are better able to set your deal, rather than having the dealer set the terms. So, for example, in Florida, where I am, the BMW i4 35 has the $7,500.00 ev incentive, plus other incentives if you are military or an employee of certain BMW partners. Assuming you only qualify for the $7,500 ev rebate, you know that before anything else, you are starting the negotiations at MSRP, less $7500. Then, if you can negotiate 10% off of MSRP, plus the $7,500, and you know your MF is .0021 (5.04% APR), for a 36 month lease with a RV of 53% (again - all of these will self-populate on the calculator if you become the super suppporter), you can then present offers to dealerships, rather than shooting blindly. You are then stating to the dealer - I want a 36 mo/12k lease with no money down, other than the normal due at signing (1st mo, taxes, dealer fees). I qualify for the $7500.00 incentive and the $500.00 miltary incentive. I will sign today for $x.xx/mo, for the stock number of the vehicle that you see on their website.
As for added cost, you will need to install an at home EV charger - I paid $1800, but there is a Federal Tax rebate.
No, itâs a complete and utter waste of time. You should be putting together your own offer and propose it dealers. Thereâs no reason to request quotes ever, and certainly not in person.
Might be a good idea to go with a broker on this. I hear Bay Area dealers are not the easiest to work with when it comes to getting a âdeal.â If you go the broker route this time it gives you a template for future leases. Iâve personally used @IAC for BMW leases, and itâs been an easy experience and saves a lot of your time. I know @IAC serves the Pacific NW area. It may be in your best interest to reach out and see if they can help you. Sometimes paying to ship a car from out of state is still worth it if the deal is good enough.
There are no brokers that cover the SF Bay Area. Iâll PM you a contact that should be able to help in NorCal.
Donât even bother with Peter Pan, Stevenâs Creek, or East Bay BMW. They donât need to do strong deals, people in the area are throwing mad money their way as it is.
And we got our first detailed quote for i4 eDrive35 and not too happy.
The car has the Driver Assist package which we never wanted but the dealer agent said they might be able to give it for free
As you can see, its not a great quote (yet!) and we have a few follow ups. Would love to hear your thoughts, esp as this is our first ever lease
We are confused if 7500 rebate is already included, so will ask for that
It does not include MSD yet, but we will ask them to add full (7) MSD and 0$ down
We dont want Driver Assist Package ($1700), so effective price reduction is only ~$3000. Going by the recent lease prices seen, we want to be atleast 10-12% off MSRP. Thats our goal. Is that reasonable?
They included the Appearance and Dent Protection (2 x $699) which we feel may not be necessary. Atleast the Appearance one?
Appreciate all the help. I had a failed attempt to put the numbers in the Lease Calculator here
Looks like you went to Fremont BMW. When I got my i4 from them, the sales manager (via text) helped me get all the calculation assumptions so I could replicate the same math in my spreadsheet lease calc. This is crucial to actually negotiating a deal. It seems they havenât extended that courtesy to you yet.
Youâll need to ask your sales person to request more information. Tell them you want to be able to re-create the monthly payment with the red arrow pointing at it in your lease calculator. I canât seem to replicate your deal either using the buy rate MF and standard residuals. So I think something is up.
Yes the $1,398 in aftermarkets will need to be negotiated away, but you want to know the rest of the lease structure and not get derailed by the lame aftermarkets.
Hopefully they will confirm these three inputs so we can see how they get the $795 per month. If they refuse to help you⌠unfortunately youâll need to walk. Some other BMW dealers in the NorCal area would rather tell me to walk than give me all the inputs needed to re-create a lease calculation. Shopping for BMW deals in NorCal is a pain.
Sweet Jesus. If you can get a deal that LH users wouldnât immediately criticize you for from BMW of Mountain View, youâre a real one. Itâs Mountain Goddamn View. Good luck.
@drdvrgs , this would put him a step above someone getting big discounts from an Envision dealership.
My $0.02 is to just get from one of the brokers or dealers in the Marketplace that serve CA. Even picking up from LA will be a more enjoyable experience than what youâre going through.
FYI - BMW of Mountain View/Fremont/Roseville are sister autonation stores and they share the same inventory (and probably CRM system).
Yeah, but the internet sales manager at Fremont would actually give buy-rate MF, decent discounts off MSRP, and would sell without stupid aftermarkets or bull-crap embedded in the lease structure. And they removed the pink AN license plate frame and threw in a nice premium black metal one.
