This is my first post. Love the forum and all of the information shared here…and the happiness having a car you love at a price you love brings!
About to hand my 2015 Prius lease (got a great deal on that!) back and I’m interested in leasing a BMW i3.
I spoke with three dealers (South Bay, Pacific, and Century West) via TrueCar last month but now it looks like they’re depleted of stock.
Any leads on:
• Which dealers I should be speaking to,
• Whom I should be speaking with, and perhaps most importantly,
• What the numbers are looking like currently?
Also let me know what other information I can provide you with. I’ve done some forum searching and have some ideas about how to approach (@HN308 etc) this but recent specifics would help a lot.
Crevier in Santa Ana always has the largest stock. I know they are not known for the best deals but at least they have dozen or so in stock. if you are looking for base BEV(which is hard to come by) they have 3~4 at $46k so might be able to swing $260 a month w/ 0 DAS 30/10k if you have loyalty and fleet.
I leased 3 from there(2 i3s) and Michael Georgie is very pleasant to deal with. Mention John Suh referred you.
By “base” I just meant one with no/little options. so it can apply to either BEV or REX but some i3 shoppers are looking to lowest payment possible so BEV is better choice since starting MSRP is much lower. I think stripped down REX are very rare but if anyone has it then most likely it’s crevier. Not sure what discounts are reasonable for REX nowadays but for $50k REX, you might be looking at upper $300 w.out loyalty I think.
For fleet you can tell the sales guy what company you work for and he’ll tell you. it’s only $500 tho. I know there are some local driving events here and there where you can get $1000 OL codes. You give them the code and they’ll knock off 1k on top of your negotiated price.
Numbers aren’t good right now at least on the (entire) East coast. Nobody going higher than 7% off.
As for incentives, $7500 tax/lease credit, $2000 loyalty, $1000 OL code, $500 fleet OR $1000 BMWCCA w/$134 paid membership, grad. Only the first two are available for a loaner. Any state/utility incentives as well for an EV.
You should reach out to my good friend Sasha Babich at Center BMW in Sherman Oaks. She will provide you with the best customer service, great deals, and may dealer trade for you if they don’t have the car in stock. Tell her I (Ron V) sent you.
Sadly i3 deals aren’t as good as they used to. BMW has a range of iPerformance models now, so the i3 has become less critical for obtaining California ZEV credits.
That said, as a data point, my dad got a 2017 i3 REx back in December 2016 and got 13% off MSRP. You might be able to knock another $3,000 off MSRP if you can find a volume dealer who needs that extra sale, which would result in $100/month less.
In addition to the $2,500 CVRP rebate, there’s also the $500 BMW CCA rebate and $450 SCE rebate you may qualify for – regardless of the deal you get.
18 BMW stock in general is almost gone especially on the BMW I3 hence the supply and demand on these cars is driving up what dealers are asking for plus most dealer have employees that lease these cars and brake even when they do instead of loosing money on them. I can tell you how many deals i have lost because of the small amount we have in inventory.
Has anyone leased a BMW i3 lately taking in consideration the Costco or SCE $10,000 discount? Apparently this offer will expire on October 1st for leases or purchases. Would love to see those numbers if anyone has leased one lately. There is a rush to clear out the existing inventory as rumor has it that the 2019 BMW i3 may come with a 120Ah battery bringing the EV range closer to 200 miles per charge. I stopped by BMW of Monrovia yesterday and they did not have the car I want, so I was not able to get any realistic numbers for a lease.
