I have 2023 BMW i4 e40 (31k on odometer) leased through BMW Financial Services and want to end lease early. Father passed and left me a car so don’t need 2 cars. Payoff through BMW is ~$43k, clearly more than it is worth. BMW says options are keep it through lease end or pay about $14k to get out of it. Do I have any other options?
1 Like
Sorry for your loss.
BMW leases can be transferred, but you can also sell it to a third party buying service and they will cut you a check. Spend an hour or less plugging the VIN and mileage in to see who will put the most money on it and go from there
2 Likes
Sorry for your loss.
What is your monthly payment and how many months are left on the lease? I would attempt a lease transfer. You might have to offer an incentive to get rid of it but at least it won’t be $14k.
Thank you. Monthly payment is $883 and 15 months left
Is selling the car inherited from your dad possibly a better option?
no, it was my mother’s car who passed some years ago and my Dad kept it and I want to keep it. No intention on selling it.
1 Like
Ok my guess is you’re looking at needing to offer an incentive of $250 x 15 =$3,750.00 to have someone take it off your hands, maybe a little more, assuming it’s a typo and it’s actually an M50 trim.
I was told that BMW Financial Services does not allow you to do that. Meaning I can’t sell to a CarMax etc. Can only go back to a BMW dealer.
Sorry that was a typo and I have corrected it. It is an e40. I would be willing to pay a reasonable amount as an incentive but just don’t know where to find reputable companies that can assist with finding someone to take over the lease (they have to be approved by BMW Financial Services)
All you do is post a listing here and on sites like Swapalease for a lease transfer. Anyone interested will apply directly with BMWFS. You don’t need to involve any 3rd party companies.
Your payment is really high for the car. You would need to offer an insentivise someone to take it as a new one can be had for about 1/2 of what you are paying now. Go look at the sites that offer lease transfers (like swap a lease) to see what people are asking and offer an insentive to match or beat the payments offered.
The other option is to find out what your dealer buy out is vs selling it to a dealer and see how much you would need to pay to get out.
Once you have all of the information you can decide what is the best for you. Unfortunatly with your payment and origional deal, it is not going to be easy or cheap to get this done.
2 Likes
Since it is an i4 e40, the incentive might even need to be higher than that. I think $5k would get this car moved but you would still come out ahead instead of the $14k.
thank you for the information. I pretty much was figuring it wouldn’t be cheap to get this done so may have to keep it through lease end. We will see.
thank you!
that’s what I am thinking also. Thanks for all the information.
I would post it everywhere (SAL, FB Marketplace, CL and Leasetrader). I don’t think it will move on here even with that $5k incentive but you can still try.
1 Like
Agreed. Probably more like $400x15=$6,000 incentive
1 Like
They can buy it yes. More in this thread.
Get quotes as if you own it. In CA you can also buy it and resell within 10 days to recover the sales tax. Lightstream used to do short term loans for this.
First and foremost, sorry for your loss.
Was this car leased in your father’s name only? If yes, you may want to consult with an automotive or business law attorney about your responsibility to keep making payments. There are situations where death can mean an end to the contract. Don’t completely rely on what BMW FS tells you, they already gave you at least one wrong answer, hopefully two. Good luck!
1 Like
No, the BMW is in my name. My father left me another car.