Need some help deciding the best option, my wife took a new job nearly a year ago and now has more than doubled her commute. The advancement was worth it. Anyway, before she was basically good with 12k miles/yr but now it’s looking like 18k miles a year, but could be up to 20k. Se currently drives a 21 X5 lease that is due back in February but is already 6k miles over her mileage limit.
She despises car shopping, so its up to me to determine the best avenue to go down. So I’m thinking these are the options:
Purchase 1 vehicle
Purchase a cheap vehicle and lease a nicer car
So caveats, my wife is into triathalon-ing so she takes her bike everywhere she goes, literally, so any vehicle has to be able to carry a road bike fully assembled. She says shes open to an EV, but wants 275-300 miles of range. And, one of the vehicles has to have a trailer hitch for our jetskis, and be able to fit our 2 Alaskan Malamute dogs. Plus we’d like to be able to get adaptive (speed up/down) cruise control. Budget is ~$1k/mo.
She was recently in Korea for a work trip and spent a fair amount of time in an Ioniq 6 and really liked it. The BMW i4 e5 and the iX (due to leasing better than an X5 despite costing $15-20k more). Any of those could be leased w/15k miles and be her “commuter” car. Then either a very basic lease on something, or a “cheap” truck or SUV.
I realize 2 cars isn’t the best decision financially, but the amount we’re willing to spend per month doesn’t change whether its 1 or 2 vehicles. So what would you do? Please no insults or lectures, just looking for opinions.
Well, that’s quite a few criteria. A Model Y or maybe an Ioniq 5 seems like it could fit all of the above with a tow hitch bike rack, but honestly the two vehicles solution might be best, an efficient sedan to pit a million miles on - maybe do an immediate buyout lease on the Ioniq 6 she already likes? - and a beater sports tow vehicle.
Sorry, not following? We both llike the X5, but the leases just suck right now. I cant see paying $1100-1300/mo for one. At that point I could probably purchase it cheaper than leasing.
X5 is a nice vehicle. She may not like car shopping, but she enjoys driving the X5 even if she takes it for granted. You get her something less, and you won’t hear the end of it. There is a learning curve for EVs. It requires some planning. You can’t just stop and get gas in 5 min at any gas station if you’re low on fuel.
I would try the 2 car route. Ioniq leases are cheap right now and you can use that for the daily commute, while having an ICE for her triathlon related stuff.
I have to trust her when she says she likes something. No doubt the X5 is much nicer than the Hyundai, but the leases are 50% more than they were 2 years ago! If we did add an EV we’d be putting an L2 charger in the garage. I like the cost saving of an EV, but I’m an ICE guy through and through.
I’m thinking thats the best route, but which 2 cars is the questions I’m struggling with. It’s next to impossible to get any dealers to provide payments via email, so its hard to make an educated choice.
I think the ideal would be an EV for commuting, plus an SUV or crew cab truck that can tow 7000lbs plus and fit the bike or 2- 90lb dogs.
A few posts up I mentioend I would like to be able to tow my cars too. Thats about 5-6000lbs. Beats renting a truck and trailer. Cars in general have become expensive overkill…
My wife has a 21 X5 40i and due to her new job has already exceeded the mileage limit with 6 months left so we were thinking about trying to get out early and into a new BMW. I contacted our salesperson who we’ve bought a few cars from and asked for a quote, what he sent shocked me. Of course he just sent the payments and no breakdown on the numbers. How bad do these numbers look?
Yeah those offers are terrible. I don’t know where in Michigan you are, but that state isn’t well represented on this forum by brokers.
I know Michigan is vast, but if you can try to reach out to someone at BMW of Bloomfield hills that specializes in internet sales, you may have some more luck. Also, I think you can angle another region’s broker’s general structure and see where it gets you.
They have over a dozen iX in stock, and IIRC they used to be (like 15 years ago) a more volume/inventory-turn focused dealership (compared to say Rochester Hills BMW).
Some of the brokers are able to do the following on iX here in California… maybe the Midwest could be similar? Guess it’s time to start hacking. Good luck!
iX xDrive50 ~$90k MSRP
Discount 12% off MSRP
$9,900 taxed lease incentives ($7,500 IRA + $2,400 BMWFS lease credit)
.00151 Tier 1 MF
54% Resid on 3 year 7,500 miles per year
Ends up around $3,000 DAS
$750 a month BEFORE taxes
NO MSD
@holeydonut Thank you for the detailed post. We had been customers of Suburban BMW of Ann Arbor for years, but leased the last few from BMW of Farmington Hills (Fox). Im probably 45 min -1 hour from Bloomfield Hills. Maybe I should send them your deal listed and see how close any can get? The salesman did say there was a $9900 rebate and 3.99% interest. I may have to look at the X3 / i4 too
@max_g At $750/mo it would leave room for a 2nd cheap vehicle. It meets most of the criteria, but falls short on miles and towing. Its weird even Hyundia offers a trailer hitch for the Ioniq 5, but BMW doesn’t on the larger iX. I’ll be honest, I haven’t figured out the proper solution yet, and am kind of spinning my wheels.
