The lease is up on my '05 fully loaded 545i on June 30. I spoke with my dealer today about options for buying it and he told me there is a special promotion right now where they can waive my last 3 payments (about $2700 total), sell me the car at my residual ($38,000), and certify it CPO for $3000 and then finance it at 3.9%. I can afford to pay the car off over 1 year so I wouldn't be financing long. I'm way under on my miles (27k right now) and it's in perfect shape so I'm considering it. The residual is probably high but I figure I'm saving $2700 in payments so that probably brings it in line with market value.

I just want to run it by you guys and make sure I'm not getting hosed. I like the car and this way I figure I can drive it under warranty until the new model comes out.

 

In my experience with Volvo, I have been told that they will negotiate over the residuals at the end of leases if you want to buy them. When I turned in my last Volvo to get a new one, they told me that they would "waive" my last two payments on the Volvo I was turning in, but then when they showed me the paperwork, I saw where they were really just giving me a credit for those payments against my purchase price. Thus, I told them I would just keep my Volvo for the last two months and have them apply that "waived" amount to the purchase price.

My point is that, in my opinion, if you kept it for three more months, you probably could get them to negotiate the purchase price/residual down at least the $2700 and maybe more during that time, which may help you from a sales tax standpoint as opposed to paying $38k for it now.

 

Find out how much it costs just to add the extended warranty from BMW NA.

I would guess it's less than $3000 but it would be interesting to find out.

For all intents and purposes, your cost for the CPO is $300 since they are getting you out of $2700 in payments. That unto itself is a good deal.

They probably do make money on the financing (not visible to you in this transaction) and they might be getting the car for a lot less than $38,000.

I would still negotiate and enquire about just adding the BMW extended warranty - if for no other reason than to have a means of comparison.

 

I see what you are saying, but everything I've heard on this forum and elsewhere says that BMWFA does not negotiate residual values, unlike most auto financers. My deal does not roll in the cost of my last 3 payments, I checked very carefully. The dealer told me (for what it's worth) that BMWFA is offering the 3 month early deal on the 2005 E60 lease turn-ins as an incentive to sell CPOs.

I'm interested in what others think about it though.

 

I think you should be able to get the car at less than 38K, maybe 35k. Did you price the market for similar cars and pricing and trade in values. Tread carefully, dealers don't give money away and I am not aware of a special from BMW about waiving the last 3 months, call other BMW dealers and check with them.

 

I just checked quickly and this car wholesales around 31K to 32K in the auction.

 

Having just looked into this for my old 545, I can tell you the extended warranty from BMWNA is $3,800+ for a 545. It is lower for the 530 and 525.

 

Good info., thanks. The dealer will CPO it with warranty for $3k.

 

Searching on cars.com it looks like there are more than 70 2005 545s for sale in Southern California right now. The lowest priced CPO is asking $32,995 with 49k miles. The highest priced CPO is $48,315 with 34k mi. The median price is just under $40k with 39k mi.

So it looks like an OK deal for you ... but these days you could probably get them down even further.

Overall, it sounds like a good plan.

 

As tachyon points out, sounds like a pretty good deal. You know your dealer best but given the current economic environment you may be able to push a little harder. If they don't move, you've still got a pretty good deal in hand...