It’s the first time when I’m approaching a lease end. I’m in WA, I have a '21 3-Series with 9 more months and not decided yet on what I would do exactly (keep/trade-in/etc).
I have got the following email today from BMW and I’m looking for suggestions if I would have any pros of ending the lease now or what to ask/look for.
Our records indicate that you have just a few payments left on your Bmw 3 Series.
We like to reach out to our customers whose lease will mature soon. Our store is in need of quality pre-owned vehicles, and we would like to have your 3 Series back before your lease is up! Many times we can waive the remaining payments and help you upgrade you into a new model! This will also help reduce the risk of any future expenses such as excessive mileage, or wear and tear.
The next step is to schedule an appointment for an equity analysis and review of your lease-end options on the 3 Series.
That is called an add for the dealer. Either you have equity or you do not (most likley not). It is a way to get you to walk in before you start shopping and give them a chance at your business before anyone else is competiting for it.
Standard marketing email that the dealer sends out to anyone in your area with a lease ending soon.
And by “waiving your payments” all they’re really doing is just buying your lease out (for potentially less than elsewhere) and putting you in another lease (at potentially more than elsewhere).
Do a lot of homework first re: what your current car is worth and what you could lease something new for before ever responding to something like this.
When I was writing direct mail pieces and sending them Third Class Mail to thousands of registered owners/lessors of [make] [model] to drive floor traffic, I would have included the phrase “due to unprecedented demand for used vehicles.”
Thanks all for the reply; their inventory seems quite low now, the new 3-Series has some cost-cutting and comes also with an increased price and I don’t see much I would like to get a trade-in for anyways.
I’ll wait 9 more months for my lease to finish and evaluate the options then.
The advantage right now is that there is the Loyalty leases which grant both a low rate that can’t be marked up and stretch the RV% across 39mos vs 36mos.
In late February/early March we looked for the 2nd car for my wife (ended up purchasing it with 5% off MSRP and 0.9% APR (Mazda)) and from what I was able to see, there is limited inventory for what I would like.
I don’t like SUVs and would like to keep going with cars and this seems to be a limiting factor (e.g. BMW has in my area almost 3-4 times more X3s then 3-Series and earlier in the month they had zero 3-Series).
Maybe in 9 months this will change (or maybe not).
Also it’s a bit weird to get almost the same car as a new lease, with some cost cutting but more expensive.
