Signed! 2024 BMW i4 35e $521 + ($3520 - $1900)

Signed Deals & Tips
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4/13 final update.
About 2 weeks ago. BMW FS account appeared $1900 credit.
It took much time and effort, but finally it is a good deal.

Final breakdown is at

2/19 update.
We contacted the dealership on 1/5, and asked for refund via a survey from their sales general manager.
The financial manager then contacted us on 1/9, and still said he did a favor and our fee is the same.
I confronted him the extra one month DAS($520). He then said he can rewrite the contract to remove the maintenance plan, while giving back the one month DAS.
We declined it and asked for full $1900 maintenance plan refund. He finally said it is OK and the fee will be refunded as credit to BMW Finance account.
We followed up with financial director multiple times to get a confirmation, and finally get email confirmation of the cancellation on 1/17. He said it takes 6-8 weeks for the credit to show in my BMW FS account.

12/28 update.
With @LAK1ngs help, I got the correct calculator number.
It turns out the financial manager changed MF from 0.0025 to 0.0021, removed DMV fee($430), and add-on(phantom footprint), and add $520 DAS, in order to sell me the Maintenance Agreement($1900).
This keeps my monthly payment the same, and he claimed the Maintenance is free.

New calculator link based on my current contract:

If I can remove the maintenance agreement, and got $1900 back, the new number will be:

Old calculator link in my original post:

Original post:

I learnt a lot from this forum. Thanks everyone for the help.
Signed a car from Stevens Creek BMW. Got 13% off + 7500.

If someone needs i4, go to Stevens Creek. I called around the bay area. Most dealers have few cars, but SC still has a lot I4s in stock.

As someone previously mentioned, SC may provide a big discount, and add some fees to cover it up.
Be very careful and understand all breakdown before signing.

I did not look at the breakdown carefully before signing, and I may be tricked.

I got initial breakdown paper and final contract, but their details do not really match.
I feel the financial manager tricked me to add addition $521 first month payment into my money down. i.e. original $3000 DAS should include first month already, but he said it is not, so the final DAS becomes $3520.

Their fees are messy. After signing, I realized the initial breakdown has $430 DMV fee, but final contract does not have it.
Initial breakdown also does not have $925 acquisition fee, but contract has.
I feel they are playing around the fees.
Final contract also has $1900 maintenance agreement. The financial manager said it is free. However, I found the dealer rebates($8923 including $7500 federal) do not really pay it off, although my monthly is not increased. They are $521 in both papers.

In addition, the car has $310 accessories in MSRP, and $149 dealer add-on(phantom footprint). I really do not need them, but cannot negotiate them off.

IMG_1455.HEIC
IMG_1455.HEIC3024Ă—4032 2.59 MB

IMG_1466.HEIC
IMG_1466.HEIC3024Ă—4032 3.66 MB

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Here is your corrected calculator (I’m off by $5/mo for some reason, everything else ties)

The finance guy screwed you over and butted in on your deal:

1 - he did lie about DAS which was clearly stated as $6,850 on line 28 of the deal sheet
2 - your original CCR was supposed to be 946.84 (line 11) but he bumped it up by ~ the first month pmt. Now you are at 8924 - 7500 = 1424.
3 - he added that $1900 contract (it’s part of your cap cost!) but seemingly backed out add-ons and accessories probably to stay close to the quoted payment… which tells me that he’s done it before. Probably his go-to move. NVM that EV’s do not need much maintenance and BMW already includes it at no cost.

Good news is that you can get him back and cancel that snake oil contract per CA law Guide to Automobile Service Contracts, Extended Warranties and Other Repair Agreements

Can I Cancel a VSC ?

All VSCs are cancelable under California Civil Code Section 1794.41. The obligor must give you a full refund of the VSC purchase price if you meet all of the following requirements:

  • You cancel the VSC within 60 days after receiving the contract, or 30 days if your car is used and came without a manufacturer warranty.
  • You send your cancellation notice as specified in the VSC.
  • You have not filed a claim with the dealer or VSCP.(If you have filed a claim, you may still cancel, but you will only receive a partial refund. The obligor may keep some of the purchase price based on the elapsed time or mileage, as specified in the VSC.)

You are entitled to a partial refund if you cancel after either 60 or 30 days (whichever is applicable) regardless of whether you have filed a claim. The obligor may keep some of the premium based on the elapsed time or mileage, as specified in the VSC. The obligor may also keep a fee of up to $25.00 or 10% of the premium, whichever is less.

If a VSCP or dealer is not honoring the cancellation and refund sections of the contract, then contact the insurance company listed on the VSC. If the insurance company does not resolve the problem, then contact the CDI.

Lastly, at $628 DMV does seem high for a $50K car. Compare to the actual number DMV generates when you get your registration.

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That figure is correct. Most everything is expensive here in California.

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CA reg tends to be around 1.25-1.5% of MSRP, so that’s definitely in the right neighborhood.

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You did well. You got a good discount on an in stock i4 which is uncommon. Just get that maintenance add on refunded and you’re good. Enjoy your i4.

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Thank you Bro!
The information you provided is very helpful! You are so professional.
I will ask for cancelling the maintenance plan.

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I reviewed your calculator.
After increasing MF to 0.0021, the number finally matches.
Here is the real calculator based on the final contract.

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Congrats! Imagine if BMW allowed one-pay.

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Seems like a solid deal! Enjoy!

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Good luck and keep us posted. If they play hardball, tell them that you know the state law and you’re within your legal rights. If you paid by CC, you can also dispute it after filing a complaint with CA Dept of insurance.

The only bad thing about it is that this will hurt the salesperson who made the original deal with you. But then it was their F&I guy who screwed them and started this whole mess. See it happen way too often… Woud love to hear from our dealers on how management deals with situations like this. @Samaudibh @derekoh1991 @Calvin.MB - whenever you have have a second, any insight would be appreciated.

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Actually, that depends on the car’s value since CA has changed the DMV fee structure some years ago (2019-2020???) . It used to be that fairly low “junk fees” were fixed regardless of the value and only license portion was ad valorem. Now these fees are close to $300 and vary just a bit depending on the year and value. The license is about 0.65% of the value which means that cheaper cars can be assessed higher rates as you stated while more expensive cars can be under 1%. Case in point, my cap cost was $92,200, my first year DMV was $916 or under 1%.

And, BTW, $628 is correct for this car.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/newVehicleForm.do

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Fun fact: cap cost didn’t have to be disclosed back in the 1990s and it was all about the payment… or so the dealers used to tell everyone. You could back into it IF you knew how to calculate it (most people had absolutely no clue and there was no Google then) or you could take a shortcut and simply back into it knowing CA DMV was fixed 1.1% (I think).

I worked at a dealership for a whopping 3.5 months while finishing JC before transfer to a 4 year school. The prof in my Econ 301 was a total prick who was totally full of himself. One day he decided to teach us auto leasing using real life example of him “helping” a friend to score a deal. I knew he was off by thousands even before he finished the sentence using my DMV method. Couldn’t help myself not to embarrass him in front of the whole class by showing two calculations which were within tiny rounding error. That got me a C in his class, lol! I got a good last laugh though years later when this became public information after he got outted by his two former buddies saying that he crossed some lines even in the filthy illegal sex tourism biz in Thailand. Kenny ng csun professor Thailand sex tourism blog - Google Search

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You technically have 3 days to re-contract, if contract is deemed incorrect, meaning BMW has to buy that contract back and re-hash, and start over.

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I meant dynamics between the salesperson who made the original deal and the finance guy who stole his commissions by completely changing the deal. And now the store stands to lose about $1400 net if the maintenance contract gets refunded per CA law.

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BMW does offer a one pay lease.

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I went to Stevens Creek BMW today, they quoted me a similar costing car to be $870 a month with similar cash down. I left and said id come back tomorrow after i did some more research. What a wild place, so happy I learned about this site

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Who was your finance manager? They did the same thing to me at SC when I got my M340i from them back in 2020 :sweat_smile: I see their tactics haven’t changed.

Took about 4 months and a call with their head of finance to finally get the service contract refunded.

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I didn’t get his name. He looks like an Indian guy but without Indian accent.
He originally wanted to add $10 to my monthly for maintenance, I declined, then $5, I declined. Finally he said it is “free”…

It looks like it was a big effort to get the maintenance plan refund. Is there any suggestion to get it back easier?

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I used honesty car, no fuss, no add ons. Base e35 $3000 das, $430/mo + tax, max msds, 7.5k/36.

Broker fee was $700 but deal was done in 4 hours with no negotiation.

You can find my contract on signed

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Update? Did you get your money back?