m630

sorry to disagree my legal friend, but speaking from the finance side of things, this is not correct. There certainly are costs saved by putting down some money on a lease, ive done it for years and it always works out financially for me! Its a preference thing as well, but just do the math and you will see that you are financing what is remaining on the value of the lease, so you are certainly paying to "borrow". Do you not believe that if the taxes and the aquisiton fees are rolled in that you are not paying to finance them? You do not believe that BMWFS is paying the value of the taxes upfront for you for free, do you? If the answer is ofcourse, well then you are paying additional finance charges. Now Im not saying you need to put down $20K on a lease like a finance( but you could certainly ifyou choose to have a very low payment) but you have to accept that there is a charge for the amount you are borrowing, and you have to accept that taxes are due at purchase, as well as the fees, and if you do not pay them in full up front, you are financing them.

sdg1871

This is an interesting topic and you have, as always, a good point. If you get a lease with a low money factor, then you might save a small amount by not paying the finance charge on some of the costs you pay up front (if your lease's MF is higher, than the finance charges woule be more significant). It, of course, depends on if you can invest the money at a higher rate of return than the money factor on the lease.

But to me, the risk of losing the money you put in up front if the car is stolen or totaled is the real non-starter.

Of course, if I was in the finance field on Wall Street and most of my compensation for the year came at bonus time, I might be more inclined to plow some of that into a lease. But again, there is still the risk of losing the up front money.

sdg1871

Here are the BMWFS terms for MF and residual for the Z4 for September 2009:

2010 BMW Z4 sDrive30i
24 Month ? Residual 65% of MSRP ? .00230 Base Rate
36 Month ? Residual 58% of MSRP ? .00230 Base Rate
48 Month ? Residual 35% of MSRP ? .00255 Base Rate
60 Month ? Residual 28% of MSRP ? .00255 Base Rate

2010 BMW Z4 sDrive35i
24 Month ? Residual 65% of MSRP ? .00230 Base Rate
36 Month ? Residual 58% of MSRP ? .00230 Base Rate
48 Month ? Residual 33% of MSRP ? .00255 Base Rate
60 Month ? Residual 26% of MSRP ? .00255 Base Rate

Again, these are from LeaseCompare.com as I do not have first-hand access to this information.

The lease price depends on, as discussed above, the selling price of the car, MSRP, residual and MF (as well as the sales tax if you want to roll it in).

Here is the link to my favorite lease calculator: http://www.leaseguide.com/calc.htm

m630

always good fun discussing with you as well, and as I noted above, it really is a preference as much as the costs issue. I just enjoy putting as little out of pocket each month on such things as my car, so i dont mind putting a bit down to make the payment as low as possible, that way i can spend all my leftover $$ each month on frivoluous excess!

sdg1871

Hey bro, to each their own.

amigo525

Hey how about a more on this? just for the kick.....and let's do this based on the BMWUSA deal

From the bmwusa website:
528i Xdrive automatic transmission, Premium Package and Value Package.
for 36 months
$519 First months payment
$3,600 Down payment
$550 Security deposit
$725 Acquisition fee
$5,394 Cash due at signing


*Note I am using 35 because the person is paying first month in his/her dp. I will recalculate assuming s/he does not want to write a BIG CHECK for the DP.

( (35*519) + 5394) = 23559

So now if we distribute the 23559 in 36 that gives a monthly payment of 654
So now if we distribute the 23559 in 30 that gives a monthly payment of 785
So now if we distribute the 23559 in 30 that gives a monthly payment of 981

Now let say we add NAV 1900 + Xenon 900 = 2800 * the deal in bmwusa does not include those??
2800/36 = 77, 2800/30=93,2800/24=116
so now *maybe* we need to add <-- weird calculation
for 36 654+77 = 731
for 30 785+93 = 878
for 24 981+116 = 1007

I just wanted to verify because one of my offer is 30 months no DP for $749
automatic transmission, Premium Package and Value Package.+ NAV + XEON


Actually that is more than my current lease for 24 months 528i 2008 but not xdrive. I wonder why it went high so much. My 2008i expires in NOV.

I like to know what you guys think.

Thanks..