Thanks 305Hackr for pointing out some of the issues with the car that newbies might not be aware of.
But let me also make some clarifications that I feel make it a better deal than you have characterized
I looked at the lease trader ad, here’s what stands out to me:
9 mo left means someone has to pay transfer fee and dispo fee. between those two it’s $800-$900.
Yes this is true. True for any lease transfer, not just mine. Also the disposition fee is waived if you buy the car out or decide to lease another BMW when you turn it in.
You have non run-flat tires on the car. Someone has to return the car with run flat tires. Run flat tires are
generally $200/pc so you’re looking at another $800. Then you state that you want to charge for them. I >suggest you take the michelins off and put the runflats back on so there’s no issue. And then you can sell >the michelins on CL.
I only want to charge for the run-flats if someone takes both the Michelins AND the run-flats. I’ll happily put the OEM run-flats back on and keep the Michelins if you prefer but the run flats are HORRIBLE tires, I can’t imagine having to drive in those for 9 months wheres the Michelin Super Sports are the best tires you can get for the car. With the run-flats this car drives like a pickup truck with a bed full of cement. However I’m happy to swap the tires out for free if you don’t take them both. For a few hundred more though you can keep the Michelins on till the end of the lease and have brand new run-flats to put on when you turn it in, best of both worlds.
You put aftermarket sound system in the car. You can’t return it like that, which means you’re asking >someone to go through the expense of putting it back on. That’s more money.
It’s an $600 Bavsound Stage One SPEAKER upgrade that upgrades all 7 speakers from cheap paper cones to composite cones with neodymium magnets. The upgrade in sound is exceptional but if for some reason BMW would not want a car back with better speakers than it had originally (not that they would know since the speakers are hidden in the door and dash), I have all the original speakers and they can be swapped back in in a matter of minutes. The new speakers have plug and play cables (no splicing) and easy to swap with minimal tools even for a novice. I did the install myself in less 45 minutes. I can put the old speakers back before you take the car if you want but I think you’d be better off keeping the better speakers and if there’s a problem, swap the old speakers back before lease return, they will come with the car for no additional cost.
The car also includes an OEM BMW rear windscreen that is a $350 value that did not come with the car, so you can keep that and sell if you wanted, as well as selling the Bavsound speakers if you decided to put the crappy old ones back in. So there’s a bit of money to potentially be made on the car too.
Add the fact that most people don’t know how to drive stick or don’t want to sit in LA traffic with a stick shift >car, it’s no surprise you have a hard time moving it. And that’s just the surface stuff I can tell from the ad.
I consider it a plus, since it’s really hard to find a car like this with a stick shift and people who want one will have a hard time finding one elsewhere.
To be honest, I haven’t had a hard time finding buyers, I had to turn several potential buyers away while I was waiting for the paperwork to go through with the first buyer. I literally had to choose between 3 different people who were ready to go when I started the first transfer. I didn’t know that you had to stay on top of BMW Financial though to get all the paperwork finished and the buyer was in a rush and got another car into the third week without informing me that he decided on a different car. He also forfeited the $500 transfer fee so it was an issue with him being impatient and bad communication with BMW, not a problem with the car itself. The second buyer just backed out after 3 days because he is on the East Coast and didn’t realize how much it costs to ship a car across the country. Again I had other buyers who I had to turn down when I started the process with him. I do need to vet my buyers a bit better before starting the process…
If you’re serious about getting rid of it, i suggest make the car original again with the correct tires and >original sound system then put and incentive to share the transfer fee and then hope someone likes stick shift enough to want the car.
As I said I’d be happy to put the run-flats back on and put the old speakers back in but that’s a terrible downgrade for the car. If it were me I’d keep the Michelins and upgraded speakers until the end of the lease and swap the tires back just before returning to BMW. Then IF there was any issue with the speaker upgrade I’d swap the old speakers back - simple process. That’s what I would do but if someone wants me to downgrade the tires and speakers for them, I’ll do it for free and you’ll have to live with a much lesser vehicle for the remainder of the lease and I’ll keep the better parts, but maybe somebody prefers that…
PS: for anybody interested in doing a lease transfer with BMW, it can be done in way less than 3 weeks (as >stated in OP) if both parties are on top of it and don’t hold up the process. Only one stage of the process >requires actual physical mailing of paperwork and the rest is done electronically, It can easily be done in >half the time if everybody puts an effort, i’ve done it multiple times myself.
This is good to know, I wish I had known this before engaging the first buyer, he was really serious but very much in a rush and the delay from not staying on top of it killed the deal for both of us and ended up costing him $500 and me 1 month of lost time. Thanks for the info, this is a great forum.
