[smolik]

My lease is up in the end of January and i have a 3 yr/36,000 miles and i currently have 50075... 14,075 over at 25 cents per mile. buyout is quoted 29,500 I'm hoping to get 4-5k off my buyout and with subtracting my miles and such it comes to around 20k. My situation has come down to buying my lease or not owning a bmw.

[jblackwell]

Hey, if you call BMWFS soon enough before your lease expiration, you can buy additional miles at a discounted rate... Not sure that helps your situation and it may be beneficial for you to finance the car and sell it outright...

[MisterSkiMask]

That is the danger of the lease, it allows people to have a car when they couldn't afford to own it.

Find out what the values is of your car and go from there, you may just have to get something that isn't a "BMW" for a little while. Don't let a car damage your financial future.

[jopa489]

Sure your contract states $0.25 per mile? It's usually 20 cents, or 17 if you buy them a few months in advance. You're too close to lease end to get the discounted rate though - needs to be at least 4 months before lease end. I drive a lot of miles too, and was in your situation with my last daily driver (36k allotted, put 50k on the car). Though I anticipated it, so it was no big deal. Consider all your options though:

1) Lease a new car now, park the 335 for a couple of months. Call it 15k over at $0.20 and you're out $3,000. Double up on car payments for 2 months.
2) Keep driving the 335 to lease end, and presumably put another 4-5k miles on it. You could be out up to $4,000 by this point.
3) Buyout the car. In most cases, buying out a lease doesn't make sense - especially with BMW's inflated residuals. Maybe it makes sense for you, not sure. I don't think you'll ever get a 335 with 50k on it for $20k though.

Personally, I opted to park my last DD and double up on payments for a few months.

Theoretically, you can roll that mileage fee into your next lease or finance with BMW. Again, not something I would recommend doing, but it's an option. Next time lease with 15k per year, if you do decide to lease again. You don't drive so many miles where leasing is out of the question, just plan for it.

Not trying to be obnoxious here, but if you're this close to the line of being able to drive a BMW or not, you shouldn't be leasing a $45k+ car. If you need to go non-BMW for a while, do it. As said above, don't let a $3000 overage fee become a long-term nightmare. It's not worth it.

[Dwill335i]

Guess I don't understand how this keeps happening to people. If you get a 3 yr/36K lease, make sure you don't drive more than about 1000 miles a month on average. It's just that simple. If someone is 1-2 months to end of lease and is 14K over, they've been over mileage for a long time and knew about it. It seems a little late for "what do I do now?" What was the action plan to deal with it when the lease was up? Seems little one can do except to accept the consequences of one's actions and that usually means pay up.

Not sure where you are getting the $20K figure and talking about "subtracting the miles". If they quoted you 29.5, they aren't going to drop 9.5 K off because you went over miles. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but there doesn't seem to be a good way out on this.

[SteveMD]

The OP simply shouldn't have leased if he knew he was going to exceed the mileage or at least built the mileage into the lease up front - it would have been cheaper.

Unless he leases another new BMW and has a sympathetic dealer, he is going to have to cough up the excess mileage - $3000 as well as wear and tear - I hope his tires are within specs or that's another $800.

You simply have to do your homework prior to leasing. Unfortunately, most leasees do not even understand the calculation, they see a monthly payment and dive right in. And since 60% of Bimmer sales are leases, that's a lot of uninformed people.

If you know what you're doing however, you can get a great deal.

[1N54E92]

It's so easy to put miles on the fine cars that we drive. Calll BMW finance, see if they will lower the residual value.

[SteveMD]

Originally Posted by 1ntense135i

It's so easy to put miles on the fine cars that we drive. Calll BMW finance, see if they will lower the residual value.

Good luck with that.

[kgb1637]

Buying the discounted miles in only available if your lease ends greater than 4 months from today. They're $0.16 compared to $0.20. This is the big danger of leasing and where BMW gets you. That residual will stay at $29k because they have leverage over you. Personally I'd pay the mileage overages, but start right now putting a few hundred bucks away a week so when the time comes you have the money and can pony up and be done with it.

[smolik]

Thanks for all the input. My situation is not that i cannot afford a bmw i was just asking for some advice. I had a job that required me to do a lot of driving, thats why my miles are crazy, as for the numbers, the car is down to almost 25k buyout ( just negotiated) and instead of paying the 4 grand for miles i just put it towards the car which drops it close to 20k. I dont want to hear crap about not being able to afford, etc. im just asking for some input.

[Dwill335i]

Originally Posted by 1ntense135i

It's so easy to put miles on the fine cars that we drive. Calll BMW finance, see if they will lower the residual value.

What's the incentive for them to lower the residual value? The residual value was set up front and based on a car having only 36K miles on it at the end of the lease and that value is higher than if the car had 45Kmiles on it. Since the lease payment is based on that residual value, the OP got the benefit of a lower payment every month than he would have if he had gone $15K miles/year. Now on top of the low monthly payment, BMWFS should just forgive the fact that the car is considerably over mileage and therefore worth less to them? Since the total amount BMW gets for the car is the down payment + 36 monthly payments + the residual payout, what's in if for them to lower the payout, which means less money for them?

[1N54E92]

Originally Posted by SteveMD

Good luck with that.

I thought it was negotiable, no ?

[smolik]

BMW does not want my car they said. They said a stick with over 50k is not the best combo. They would much rather sell it to me and make something then just sending it off to the auction.

[smolik]

through bmwfs its not negotiable but at the dealer it is

[Ron1n]

Buy a 335d and use the eco credit to your advantage. It's a $4500 bargaining chip that will get you out of this pretty cleanly.

[indy335i]

Originally Posted by smolik

Thanks for all the input. My situation is not that i cannot afford a bmw i was just asking for some advice. I had a job that required me to do a lot of driving, thats why my miles are crazy, as for the numbers, the car is down to almost 25k buyout ( just negotiated) and instead of paying the 4 grand for miles i just put it towards the car which drops it close to 20k. I dont want to hear crap about not being able to afford, etc. im just asking for some input.

Glad you got it worked out. I understand about all the factors that go into a lease and ending up with more miles at the end that you planned.

Did you negotiate with BMWFS or the dealer?

[David 12]

Doesn't your company reimburse you for miles related for work? Mine pays the going IRS rate which I believe is about 55 cents per mile.

Dave

[DrGP]

I got an e mail from BMW 180 days before my lease end asking me if I wanted to buy extra mile at a discount. MY CA also told me about this option when I took delivery of my car. As far as I know, BMW is the only car company that allows you to buy discounted miles before lease end. MY understanding is that they had to be purchased at least 6 months before lease end. I'm not sure why you were not aware of this but you have missed that opportunity. Ron1n does have a good idea about using the $4500 eco credit. And if you are putting a lot of miles on your car, the diesel actually makes sense. BUT LEASING DOESN'T. Since you apparently are driving more than 15k miles/yr, leasing doesn't work to your advantage, which you have found out too late in the game.

[Solonng]

you may want to CPO the car and buy it outright. i leased my car because i don't want to have the loan upside down the first three years. After the three years, i'll just pay off the final amount (without financing) and the number works out the same as if you were to finance from the beginning. Plus, if something happens to the car during the first 3, i can just walk away and not having to deal with the headaches.

[noro]

Originally Posted by smolik

through bmwfs its not negotiable but at the dealer it is

Did you have this conversation with the dealer already?

[smolik]

yes i spoke to them already...willing to take a couple grand off my buyout price

[GnokGnik]

Buy it!