I am looking for a BMW X3, never leased in my life and trying to learn everything associated with leasing, I recently got a quote from my local dealer for BMW X3, trying to calculate Money Factor, to me the monthly payment seems too high, what do you guys think?
You’d have to trial and error to get the mf, as they’re not including any of the rent charge information.
Part of the reason the payment is high is because the dealer discount is very poor.
Check on Edmunds forums for the base MF for an X3. Then you can plug it into the calculator to see the delta between that and your quote. I.e., if they are marking up the MF In addition to giving you a lousy discount.
High?..Dreadful in my opinion! Without even running everything in detail thru the lease sheet, it looks like ballbark, your about 5500-6000 overpriced on the total cost of your lease.
Look for Broker dealers here and check their discount spreadsheets and lease calculators. I have seen similar packages for the X3, as I was also recently in the market for the same exact car, and found the best broker deals here were at about $20,000 or so for the total cost of the lease once you factored in the Monthly payments + taxes, + Due at Signing fees.
You can do much better…maybe dont tell the next dealership you goto that its your first time leasing 
A bit of advice… be sure to always do your homework ahead of time so that you know exactly what the lease should cost BEFORE you talk to a dealer.
Talking to dealers is for finding someone willing to do the deal you want, not for figuring out what something should lease for. If you go in unprepared, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Thank You for the advise, I have talk to dealer only through emails, have not told thwm that this is my first time leasing, I will try to research and calculate how much lease should cost for this particular SUV.
There is another BMW dealer in my area, will send them an email also.
where are the discount spreadsheets? havent heard of that before (and couldnt find via search)
Mllcb42, summed it up perfectly right above
Use the tools and help in forums like this to do that homework, so now its all about shopping the deal that you want.
To extend on this strategy, there are a few real world tips, that have always helped in my lease negotiations.
There are basically 2 key aspects to leasing cars and both are important to get the best deal possible
1- Data
2- Negotiation
1 -Data is obtaining all the correct intel (data) What I mean by that is, as mllcb42 put it best, is to do all your homework up front before you even start discussions with dealerships. Have a gameplan and build your strategy around that gameplan. The more you gameplan, strategize, and gather intel, the more you increase your chances of successfully landing a better lease deal.
For example here is how I completed phase 1 -Data
1 Decide on vehicle, options, length of lease, miles needed
2 Determine if vehicle falls in my realistic budget, if not, change vehicle
3 Identify as many dealerships within my zone of realistic travel (where I am likely to lease the car)
4 Identify a few more just outside that zone a little further out ( I call them the longshots, they are key)
5 I target about 6-8 local and 2 longshots
6 I start hitting their websites and noting their inventory for the vehicle I want (this is key too)
7 Created a spreadsheet and start a cheat sheet that lists the car and has columns for each dealership
8 Goto Edmunds fourm and obtain Money Factor and Residual info for car, trim, and miles
9 Started reaching out to the local dealers via email to start gathering first wave pricing
11 Documented all opening bids from dealers in easy to compare spreadsheet
12 Use the calculator or tools here to start identifying the best lease pricing from each other
Once I felt comfortable that I had all the data I would move onto phase 2 -negotiation.
However, as I encountered and as most usually do, you will find that alot of the data (dealer bids) are left vague and incomplete. This is usually done intentionally to avoid the armchair customer from wheeling and dealing from their living room and pitting dealers against each other. It is also done in the attempt to lure you in with pricing that looks good but doesnt reveal all the details of the lease. However the key for me was to obtain baselines that would help me build my own offer that seems fair and realistic so that is ok. Nothing will ever get closed in Phase 1…well at least not a good lease deal.
The Negotiation Phase is where the Lease must be completed effectively. Unfortunately, that is the case with almost every single dealership. Their job is to sell at the highest price they can, so this should be expected.
So for Phase 2- Negotiation, this is where the deal will get done. All the data and intel in the world will not get you the lease closed. Knowing every line item and calculation on a Finance Manager’s lease sheet will do nothing for you if the dealer isnt willing to part with the car at your asking price. This is important to understand. You cant just bust thru the doors of a dealership waving a LeaseHackr breakdown like some gun slinging Rambo accountant demanding that you get the price at so and so because you know exactly how everything is calculated. Having the data is key, but you still need to use it in properly and apply tact by leveraging it to support your negotiations, rather than just using it to match financial wits with the dealers. That will get you no where fast and just lead to frustration.
I think I may have rambled on too long here and I apologize for it, but if anyone wants more details on how I attack the Negotiation Phase, I’ll be happy to throw out some proven tips that have work for me each time I lease. Some of them may be obvious for some, but others may not be
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@824 please meet your long-lost LH match lol 
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@Ozerillo Lots of good insights. Thanks for sharing.
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Uh ask them what MF they are using?
MF aside, this entire deal looks horrific. Virtually no discount
Judging by tax amount and that this is a NY dealer, I figure you are a VA/MD resident (~4.15% in VA seems to match better than MDs 6% but idk) Here’s my best attempt at matching their offer sheet (calculator). Money Factor looks to be ~0.00124
Definitely not a good deal at all (5.7% discount and marked up MF). Sent you a PM about a Lease transfer if you’re interested.