I have 2 cars:
2018 Tesla Model 3
55k miles - paid off - original owner - warranty till 2026 [X-care]
Carvana Trade offer - $14k
2020 BMW X5 40i
12k miles - MSRP 74k - original owner - out of warranty
Financed w/ BMWFS @ 0.9% APR @ 60 months
Pay off $13.3k (46 month out of 60 months)
Carvana Trade offer - $39k
I love both cars and had a hard time parting w/ either when I purchased my '23 Toyota Sienna. At this point, I’m looking to reduce my car count from 3–>2.
Financially speaking, it makes the most sense to sell the BMW ASAP and keep driving my Tesla. However, I am looking at this as an opportunity for me to do a two for one trade into a brand new car (as a daily commuter car). My Sienna is really a weekend car for the family. I also need to have a second car in case my wife needs to drive.
Potential replacements (EVs only): Model 3 (newest), Model S, BMW i5, i4, Lucid
Is this the best time for me to get into a lease? I’ve never done it before and it’s really intimidating. That’s really also the only way to tap into the $7500 fed rebate.
Anytime is a bad time to get into a lease if you don’t know how to calculate one. So, look at wiki here and learn how to populate and use the LH calc to come up with lease target payments (researching other deals on this site) on your own for the various models interested in. Or just hire a broker to get you the vehicle you want.
You mean trade in both cars at once for a single car? I worry that this could get really confusing (and allow the dealer to do some fudging of the numbers that would not be in your favor).
This is a really broad question. Broadly, this is probably one of the worst times for you to get a lease.
But the Lucid is leasing well (or was, recently), and I think the i4 is leasing decently.
The models you’ve listed are really different. Are you chasing a payment, a certain size car, a certain amount of luxury and tech features, or…?
Or you could buyout the lease immediately.
It might be helpful if you have some specific/concrete questions.
My main goal is to trade to two cars for one brand new car.
One car is sitting and gathering dust from no use. I don’t see a point in continuing to pay 900/month for the BMW if I intend to trade it anyway.
Regarding new vehicle- I’m mainly looking to get into an EV that I can use as a DD. No ICE. I have solar and charging at work. EV just makes sense.
So if I ultimately lease, seems like my best bet is to sell it to the highest bidder and lease a car without any “trades” since I’ll end up pocketing the equity anyway and won’t apply to the lease.
Personally would just keep the Tesla and pocket the $26k of equity from the X7 - $14k isn’t an awful lot of money for a dependable car nowadays, you still have warranty, and it has low miles for a 6 year old car and you’re the original owner, so you know the history of the car.
For Tesla at least, you can’t buy out the lease, so the $7500 is a moot point imo – goes into Tesla’s pocket and not yours. Tesla’s lease offerings doesn’t seem too amazing imo.
Often but not always. I can’t recall if BMW allows for third party buyout. If you have to buy out the car to sell it to a 3rd party, then you have to pay taxes on the buyout (I think). So, if a dealer that has BMW in its network is offering you something close to what the 3rd party is offering, then sometimes it’s just easier to trade it in (b/c it ends up being a wash financially).
So it would be a good idea to get actual offers to see which route makes the most sense for you.
I personally would keep the Tesla and trade in the BMW, rather than trying to trade in 2 cars.
Sounds like it comes down to what is likely to cost you less over the next few years. Given the lowish value on the Tesla and its under warranty, I can’t imagine that car would depreciate more than the cost of a lease for a similar time frame. So I’d cash out the BMaw and just keep the Tesla unless the BMW works for you better or some other consideration.
Broadly, this is probably one of the worst times for you to get a lease
Is that in general? Why?
Context - I’ve been looking into leasing for a while too and was in the market right now. I do less low inventory in the cars and configuration I was looking at.
High MF, more realistic RVs (esp from BMW), dealers perhaps not as willing to agree to pre-incentive discount, not much in the way of rebates/incentives.
