7000 miles isn’t “oops, I took an extra trip over the summer” miles. It’s a “when I took out the lease, I didn’t properly account for how many miles I needed” amount.
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Depends on were you are going 
Oh well.
Not too worried about the miles at this point. I will be returning the VW real soon. It’s under miles. The amount I saved on “not leasing” this time will cover any extra miles I do on my RLX (no acquisition fee, disposition fee, no interest % at all). Even if I put 70,000 miles, I will still get reasonable money for it!
As much as I like them, the RLX has one of the worst residuals of any vehicle on the market today.
I think in 3 years you’d be lucky to get $25k for it, which would make it effectively over $700/mo.
I know this post wasn’t directed to me, but I actually live in NYC. Not the suburbs (or Brooklyn) but the city itself. Car will be parked on the street basically anywhere I go… and this is a real concern for me.
Apart from people hitting/scratching/bumping into it which I can’t really avoid anywhere, are there any reasonable precautions I can take? Or should I factor in an additional $1500 at the end of the lease when making my decision?
Except you knew that cost going in. If you’re over miles, you have to pay. Whether it’s 7 miles or 7,000.
As far as scratches and dents go, this is all normal. Normal scratches and dents are not charged. Excessive damage is, and it’s explained in your lease end return documentation. Frankly, it’s pretty liberal what you can return without getting charged.
Tires are another expected cost. You’re renting a car, that you used the tires on. 4/32 is close to not even passing many state inspection standards, so you should replace, not because you used them, but for the safety of you and others. If you can turn it in with 4/32 left, you win, as the captive or the next guy gets stuck. If not…well, you used them.
All of these items would be issues on a buy as well. The only difference is it comes out of your pocket instead of affecting the resale value of the car when you go to get rid of it. The only way it doesn’t make a difference is if you plan on buying it and driving it into the ground.
If you’re worried about dents and scratches, buy the dent and ding contract from F&I.
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I guess in the case of a BMW (btw - I’ve changed my mind on the original post and leaning more towards the M340i now) it would be the stuff advertised here: https://www.bmwusa.com/financial-services/protection-program.html ?
I’ll check with the dealer regarding costs… thank you.
I’d be careful parking on the streets for sure…and the alternate side parking ugh…take the $1500 and put towards a garage although that would probably only get you a month or so lol
I returned my CC with rear bumper crack (repair estimate was 1.5k) and wasn’t charged a dime by VW. The A4 that I returned this year had a 2 feet long scratch (someone keyed the car) and wasn’t charged anything either. Sometimes manufacturers will forgive excess wear if you re-lease from them.
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Lol in New York $1500 gets you a month of a garage, or a closet sized studio. Plenty of over $60k cars in my area, they just live with street parking for the most part.
I’ll inquire about the re-leasing, I know that Lexus dealers do that around here. The BMW protection plan seems to be around $1250 and covers up to $3750 from what I saw online, so I may opt for it.
LOL yep I know…if you release with BMW they tend to waive any damage…just fold your mirrors in lol
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Dude no lie, I’ve witnessed someone shave an E-class’s left side mirror clean off and just drive away after a short pause.
It comes with the territory but I pray it won’t be my situation… lol
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LOL that’s the one feature believe it or not I love with my car - the folding mirrors…I am in the city a lot… believe it or not a lot of other brands don’t even have that as a standard feature.
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Did you try Manhattan BMW?
I provided feedback to Audi about having some kind of sentry mode similar to Tesla. All the new cars have cameras. If there is any break-in or damage while the car is parked, the cameras can turn on automatically and take some video or snapshot. I was seriously considering Tesla because of this nice feature but at the end didn’t feel like paying a hundreds of dollars more.
Yup, my current best quote is from them. It’s only about 8% off of MSRP pre-rebates (I only qualify for Conquest and their current incentive on the M340 so it’s $2k in rebates). I confirmed they quoted me a pre-rebate selling price of $800 under invoice.
Every other dealer came back at invoice or slightly above invoice, and because Manhattan BMW is a company store they’re pretty ardent that it’s the best they can do, which I understand… it’s a new model.
Long Island dealerships essentially price-matched them and claimed it was a better deal, but the cars I was quoted on over there were lower MSRP so it worked out to being about the same threshold of discount.
Long Island dealers are vile I actually got my car from the Manhattan dealership they beat everyone else they were actually great there.
That’s good to hear! Do you live within the 5 boroughs, LI, jersey?
Their FIRST quote (at manhattan bmw) was under invoice, no games… I was not expecting that so I pushed back hard, but when I got everyone else’s quotes, they were still the best, and it was the first one they offered me. They were very respectful and professional on the phone and email, very transparent too. I did not actually go in yet, but I’m leaning towards accepting it, because it’ll be a while before these cars start going for $2-3k under invoice in this region.
I see people doing it in the midwest… but not around here.
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I’m on LI …in all my years with BMW I have to say I actually had the best experience with them… no BS, returned my lease there, picked up new car with no issues whats so ever…It’s funny I tried them a few months ago and the pricing was bad but it’s all about timing and who you get on the phone…
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Yeah the guy I was speaking to (first contact was via email) - I’m guessing from my signature and the way it was worded, he realized I wasn’t gonna entertain any bs.
I called up rallye on LI and they were the ones who finagled some things to proportionally match the discount on a less expensive car, but they wanted $350 to go to the cap cost to do it (makes no sense).
I’ll probably end up going with them and drive down billionaire’s row on my way home 