Should i even get a new car?

Ask the Hackrs
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1

So this might not be completely lease related and i appreciate your time and responses in advance.

I have 2 cars. a 2021 hyundai palisade, that i purchased last yr at msrp that i plan to keep as my long term family car (atleast 5 years).

The car in question is Bmw X3, leased, ending Nov 2022, so 3 payments left. Monthly is $550. Residual is 29k. This car is share bw me and wife, mostly commuting to the office (15 - 25 miles total daily, and 3-5 times a week), as 2 car seats wont fit properly.
Because my car is only 15k miles in 3 years, CarMax has offered $42k for it. Seems like a no brainer, but I have to buy the car, wait for the title and then sell it. It will take time and the car max offer may deteriorate in the meanwhile, as inventory seems to be easing up.

To further muddy the waters, NJ state just announced its $4k credit to buy BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles). This program usually runs from late july, but the funding dries up by mid september.

I really want to take advantage of the program. I asked a few dealers around. Ford and Nissan have zero inventory. Chevy guy told me that there is an active recall going on, on bolts, so TBD. Tesla is ridiculously overpriced and the only model to have any NJ incentive is model 3, which i dont want, besides no 7500 federal tax benefit. That leaves Kia and Hyundai. The top model with all bells and whistles for both EV 6 and Ioniq 5 will reach $55-60k, which cancels the NJ rebate, as it stops at $55k.

So i wanted to ask the car gurus here. I have the following options -

  1. book an EV from hyundai (my favorite), start the buying process from bmw, when my new car arrives, sell this to car max. I will need may be $100-500 for booking, $30k to buy car from bmw, $3-4k for title / tax transfer, then may be $35-40k from car max and then get into finance for the new car.
  2. buy from bmw and keep riding it. its a powerful and tech loaded german car with barely 15k miles, these babies run pristine till 100k. I dont need a new car, but was wondering if its time to go electric. Gas in NJ costco’s is below $4 a gallon as of today.
  3. quietly trade in into a new lease - i think these is the least smart option, may be nuclear option, which i will do if i am very low on cash. Right now, I am low on cash, but i expect to be in a better position in 3 months (lease end time)
  4. ask bmw to extend my lease for another 6 months, giving me better financial cushion, which might be the same option as 3 ?

Please help me , if there are any other possible scenarios too ?

also , if i do end up buying a BEV, which one should i go for, given that it will be used for mainly commuting near big city ? my friend told me that just because cars below 45k have $4k rebate, dont buy anything less than 300 miles of range, not worth it.

And is the market ready for non-telsa BEV ? , Currently there is only one Fast Charger from Electrify America near my place, others are level 2 chargers.

sorry for all the incoherent rambling and thanks in advance for reading till the bottom.

2

Based on your use case it does seem like a Bolt EUV would be a good fit. It doesn’t have 300 miles of range but makes a pretty great commuter car. The key question around it seems to be timing with the new Inflation Reduction Act. From what I have read it seems like one of the few cars that might qualify for the full $7500 tax credit 2023 and would qualify for the NJ 4k credit as well putting it at something near $15k (which is crazy). As far as timing I put in an order with a local dealer at MSRP at the end of June and it’s been accepted by GM for a production date at the end of the month with delivery in September. So it’s possible you could place an oder now and get it before the end of the year or try and time it to get it in January (with a lease extension).

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Extend lease or buy BMW out…federal tax credit for Hyundai all non domestic going away as soon as Biden signs bill shortly.

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GM has exceeded allotment, so credit is winding down, I think it’s $3750 now.

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Gm exceeded their allotment a while ago. Its long since wound down.

The bolt may qualify under the new credit though.

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6

Heh. Time flies!

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great advice, but what about the battery recall ? the dealer said they are not even taking orders for 2023 model because of that !

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Is the Carmax offer a lot higher than AN?

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The Carmax offer is $1K lower and they can’t buy BMW leases.

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Did your friend say why? Is it because HE has range worry? I have two Leafs with 160 and 230 miles ranges. Don’t see issues commuting and re-charging overnight. Even using municipal free charging to do that which are 10 min walk from home.

Used EVgo network few times - also a good option.

As for BMW… on one side I’m not sure I want to risk trying to buy and sell with current turbulence in market.

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Doesn’t make any sense. You have your Palisade for any time you need to exceed the range of a BEV, which probably won’t happen very often.

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If you want a kia or hyundai ev, and you want the $7500 tax credit, you have about 48 hours most likely to get it.

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Or at least sign a purchase agreement?

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Binding PO…below has updates by OEM.

https://electrek.co/2022/08/10/if-you-want-an-ev-buy-this-week-rivian-fisker-ev-tax-credits/

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Firstly, I would like to thank this community for the advice and insight to my previous post.

Now that i have decided electric vehicle is not for me right now. I have another Question.

Background - I have 2 cars. a 2021 hyundai palisade, that i purchased last yr at msrp that i plan to keep as my long term family car (atleast 5 years).

The car in question is Bmw X3, leased, ending Nov 2022, so 1 payments left. Monthly is $550. Residual is 29k. This car is share bw me and wife, mostly commuting to the office (15 - 25 miles total daily, and 3-5 times a week), as 2 car seats wont fit properly. The car has barely 15k miles in 3 years.

So i am pretty confident that i will not drive more than 3-5k miles a year.

Now my question is - do i buy my current lease or get a new lease ? Please help me make the right decision.

Current lease is 550 a month, 29k residual, plus may be 3-4k in taxes. I will probably finance it. And approx 2-4% APR for may be 3-5 years. I will end up paying anywhere around $35k in total. I am expecting monthly payment to be 400-500. also if i sell it, car max and carvana will give me around $36k.

On the other hand, my wife suggested that I lease a new car.and simply turn in the keys for this one. even if i get into a similar deal as my bmw ( and i will try to get a cheaper, non luxury car through a broker), i will end up paying 350-550 a month and total over 3 years will be around 20k.

I am so confused right now. The car market is tight and will be so for the next 1-2 years. my gut says buy the bmw and keep it for another 2-3 years atleast, may be longer. but the idea of getting into another lease seems significantly cheaper.

  • which way should i go ? buy out or new lease ?

  • do people who buy out their leased cars (specially luxury ones like bmw) tend to keep it for many many years or sell it later ?

  • is there a point of going through the hassle of buying out and selling to carvana etc ? the whole process will take 1-2 months between me getting tags and title and carvana value may or may not change in that time. and I am not sure how much profit will i make. besides i will need a car anyways to drive around.

Thanks for bearing through my incoherent rambling.

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I hate to be the guy who picks out one phrase from a thoughtful post, but would it help your decision if you could find two car seats that fit better?

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No, not really. I am pretty happy with my palisade if i want to haul kids around. this car is mostly for me or wife to commute to work. i have enjoyed a luxury car like bmw, now i am ok with something cheaper (not smaller though because i am 6 feet tall)

18

If car seats won’t fit in the X3, then why contemplating buying it out?

Have you started researching other cars/SUVs that might meet your needs; vis-a-vis car seats and budget?

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I may be mistaken, but I don’t think OP is saying fitting 2 car seats is a requirement for the X3 replacement.

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I wasn’t sure, but I also didn’t see any other reason for mentioning it.

I took a shot thinking that perhaps a simpler solution may solve the root cause of the indecision over a much larger spending decision. :slight_smile: