Keeping my BMW lease, best way to go about it?

#1

I dont want to get into one of those lease vs. buy debates, but I’m planning to keep my 2017 F31 Estoril Blue 328d at lease-end and would like some advice on how to best do it.

I know BMWFS forces you to purchase the car at residual pricing, less any Customer Purchase Promotion offered by them. At the moment, it’s $800 off residual, not the sweet $4000 offered on the 2016s and 2015s. Therefore, I’m thinking of extending my lease by a few months to hold out for better incentives. According to BMWFS, I have three options:

  1. Extend 1-2 months. Monthly payment unchanged, pro-rated miles, residual lower, and option to keep vehicle.
  2. Extend 3-6 months. Monthly payment unchanged, pro-rated miles, must need deposit or production order number for new vehicle. Doesn’t sound like I can keep the car after this.
  3. Re-lease 12-36 months. Monthly payment is absurdly high (about 2x), pro-rated miles, and option to keep vehicle.

Are there any other tricks the good folks here can recommend?

Re-Lease question
#2

How does the RV compare to market value?

#3

The RV is about the same as KBB.

Residual: $35880
KBB Trade-in Value: $29500-$32500
KBB Private Party Value: $35000-$38500

I also have about $3500 in MSDs to put towards the purchase, and not reflected in above numbers.

#4

Extend as long as you can. Let the car go back into BMW. Track the VIN and wait for it to pop up at a dealer with either CPO or used and scoop it up

#5

This isnt possible. BMWFS tracks who purchases the car next, if it’s the leasee then the selling dealer gets penalized for any difference between the residual and the selling price, plus some other penalties.

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#6

I think you need to find out if you extend the lease 1-2 more months, do the extra payments go towards lowering the residual/buy out or not. If you are turning it in, you can keep the lower payments for 1-2 months but if you actually want to buy it, you throwing money away.

#7

Yep. They do. Extra monthly payments will drive down the residual.

#8

I called BMWFS to negotiate my buyout deal. They told me they have nothing to do with it and I can shop around to any dealer for the best buyout deal. The difference in “deals” I received was crazy. I started with “we can’t do anything, it is what it is” and 6-7 dealers later ended up with 4k off and free CPO.

Call every BMW within a reasonable distance to see if anyone will work with you.

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#9

Then extend it 1-2 months. The worst case scenario is you return the car and there is excess wear/tear. Maybe the programs get better for lease buy outs and new car programs should get better for Nov/Dec.

#10

So is that basically a 12-36mo finance then, if you have the option to keep the vehicle at the end?

#11

It used to be in the past that you could work with a dealer to “flip” your lease-end and buy the car at market rate instead of RV. I’m not sure how doable this is anymore, since BMWFS has enforced strict pricing on on lease-end buyout that pretty much kills this idea.

https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1281042

#12

How would they enforce it if the car would go to the auction and be bought by another dealership?
I can see that enforcement if the car is sold by the same dealership where it was returned at the end of the lease. But are all BMWs kept? I thought they all go to the autcion block after lease-end.

#13

google find this “Counteroffer at 15 to 20 percent less than the residual value if the leasing company does not accept your first offer, and it is less than a month from the expiration of your lease. Explain that, once the car is returned, the lease holder may not be able to earn as much as you are offering if it is sold at wholesale or auction.”
https://pocketsense.com/lower-lease-buyout-amount-10063465.html

#14

Gotchya, that sucks. I did this in 2015 (on my 2012)…

Just throwing this out there, obviously it’s not relevant to every car/person but, be careful buying it out. My car has had over $10k worth of mechanical repairs done to it after the lease ended… ($0 in repairs the first 3 years) Most of which was covered by CPO, but when that wore out, major shit continued to break.

My SA told me never to buy a BMW out… probably because he wanted to keep me leasing, but hell of a warning!

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#15

Few other things to keep in mind when considering purchasing…

You’ll owe tax on the purchase price. If you’re planning to buy it outright this means another few thousand when you go to the DMV to title the vehicle, or will mean adding that tax into a loan.

Market values change fast. What KBB says that car is worth today is not the same as what it will be worth next month, or in the next few months. You may find yourself upside down quickly after a few more months of depreciation, particularly after you’ve added in the additional purchase tax liability. Your residual is already pretty much on par with the KBB private party value. Add $2k+ tax to residual and you’re very close to upside down. Obviously this would vary depending on your state’s tax rate.

You’ll be out of factory warranty within a year assuming bmw is 50k/4yr bumper to bumper. BMW has one of, if not the, highest maintenance costs of any vehicle on the road. Just be prepared for that reality when things start breaking.

Just some food for thought.

2 Likes
#16

@Paxton @ILikeDrivingCars

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I’m aware of the risks, but like I said I’m not here to discuss the pros and cons of buying out a lease BMW. Just looking for advice from the hackers on how to best keep the car at lease-end.

That said, it’s a F31 328d in Estoril Blue. There are no diesel wagons state-side anymore.

#17

Dealers have 2 buy out numbers if I remember correctly. One is if the original lease buys it and one if it is going into inventory. Maybe have a friend or family member buy it from the dealer (so they get the better buy out price for going into inventory) and sell it back to you later.

#18

BMWFS will not negotiate your buyout price…period.

#19

OP, you have a unicorn vehicle. Diesel engine, wagon in Estoril Blue. Gorgeous car !

Worst case scenario, simply buy it out at lease end.

Love my 328d. Shame i didnt do a 3 yr lease (as opposed to 2yr lease) so I could hold onto the car for the extra year.

#20

They aren’t bringing new ones but used/CPO F31s are still for sale.

I would also look at market values rather than just KBB

I can see CPO MY16s (guessing yours is a 16?) starting at 28k with below avg miles.