I’m shocked that CA of all places has a process at all for such a thing. I would think CA would be the last place for it to even be a possibility.
So true 20202020
Particularly in the San Diego market, BMW of Encinitas is an Autonation store and have offered stupid money on vehicles (including BMW). They’ve been well above carvana and vroom in my experience. With that being said, their markups are unpalatable on new cars. They have really well specced inventory but it’s not worth 5-10k over sticker. So it really comes down to selling your car to whatever dealership will offer you the most money, hoping they don’t 1099 you, and taking that check to a store willing to do sticker or slightly below.
How have you solicited offers from them? The AutoNation web site?
I’m not following. What do you mean by “I paid far more for the residual with a former leased bmw thru the dealer than if I did this time myself”? The residual was already set when you signed the lease. What did you do “yourself this time”? Are you just talking about the financing %?
CARB violations?
And potentially a leaving town tax.
Yes, the only catch is they’ll try to ding you for “bald” tires however that suddenly goes away when you act interested in an X4 for 10k over MSRP.
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They arent called stealers for no reason 
Wait so how do you avoid paying sales tax in NYS after a lease buyout? Is selling it to a BMW dealership only way? Do you have a certain window (similar to the one in CA) that you can recoup the paid tax if you sell the car to a private or 3rd party?
This is only a thing in California.
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Sell to Rodo , they can buy out BMW lease . Autonation also , but my experience is that Rodo will offer more .
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Normally, I would say you are right, but in my case Autonation actually offered me more than Rodo, Carvana, and Vroom. I thought it was so strange because I would have always figured these online platforms always offer more than dealerships.
I had a similar situation - I have a 2019 X3 M30i with 16K miles. I looked at options for replacement, but didn’t get as far as finding out what the premium chatges were where I live (CT) - my problem was that the options I wanted were not available anymore - Head Up display, parking assistant, and leather (in most colors other than black) were unavailable. Also I found that it was difficult to find a salesperson willing to talk to me to answer questions about lease terminations.
I decided to buy out the lease when I found that the value of the car was in the neighborhood of 8K more than the residual value after I paid the taxes. A no brainer.
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It’s not a no brainer because your 8K equity will be gone unless you trade it in right away. Better take the 8K equity and overpay by less than 8K for another vehicle if you need a vehicle right away, if not even better to wait.
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Is BMW getting any more flexible on offering discounts for purchasing your car at lease end? I plan to buy my 340 lease this month and I know that historically a discount off residual was possible, but not recently.
Has anyone managed to get a discount on a BMW lease purchase? Or is it still full price for everyone? I’m wondering if there is a dealer anywhere in the US who would be willing to offer a discount to get the sale.
No, they’re not going to negotiate the buyout. The dealer isn’t allowed to sell it to you for under the buyout, even if they wanted to.
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This was possible when demand fell off a cliff or was expected to (2009, 2020, etc). So reducing the pressure on wholesale pricing from all those underwater cars and the subsequent losses was paramount.
Not the case today.
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Probably too late responding here/ but I’m saying - I bought out a lease 5 years ago on a 2014 BMW X3 M40 through the dealer. It was a high interest rate (I was too busy to shop it) and they added all kinds of extra costs I didn’t catch. It has depreciated too. I was naive. Swore I wouldn’t do it again.
Fast forward to these crazy times.
This time I spoke to BMW financing (whom the lease was through for the recent 2019 X3 M40) they said here’s what you owe, get a bank or credit union to lend it and we are done. They even told me their rates were not the lowest. No additional hidden fees. I went through USAA. Lowest rates of all 5 I shopped. I bought a 2019 X3 with 23000 mi I knew was in great shape for $36000. Market was $57,000 for the same car. I saw two near by.
Just saying think about it in today’s market. It may not be the same in a few years. But if you are turning it in, can’t order one without a 20% Surcharge and waiting 6 months AND they want $5000 down and $2500 deposit (never put any $ down for past 25 years) and used ones are more $ than the one you have- think about it.
Exactly what I experienced. It was a no brainer. These crazy times call for different thinking. What was reasonable 4 years ago is no longer.
I hope you understand that you didn’t pay 36K for the car. You really paid 57K (using your value number). The 21K equity is also your money, so you basically put 21K down and bought a 57K car.