Suggestions/Opinion on Third Car

[Need4spd28]

Alright gang, really interested to hear your thoughts on this one. My fiancé and I both lease our BMW's, my M3 and her X1. Collectively, I've realized that we drive about 50K miles per year, me 20K and her 30K. As luck would have it, she switched jobs and decided to join me in sales about three months after getting her car. Plus, we take her car on road trips to SoCal and what not so her car is getting hammered. At this rate she will hit her full 3-year mileage allotment in another 6-7 months, roughly halfway through term.

So I've decided the best way to address this issue is by getting a third car that we can put 20K miles a year on. She will drive it about 75% of the time and I will drive it 25% of the time. In a perfect world I'd like to get a larger (than her X1, that is) SUV with all wheel drive that we can drive up to the snow in. This is something we just got into doing this winter but I can see it becoming a more regular thing in the future.

The budget here would be less than $15K ideally. I originally wanted to just pay cash and avoid another car payment but I've realized that I won't be able to find a new enough car/SUV, with low enough mileage, that I like enough, that's in the price range of what I'm willing to put down in cash.

This car is going to get driven a fair amount so it can't be some old beater. At the top of my wish list is a Grand Cherokee, but my Lord do they hold their value. Tough finding a 2011+ with a reasonable amount of mileage for less than $20K. Others on the list include a Touareg, Golf/GTI, Mini Cooper Countryman S, and I've even found a couple of GLK350's for sale that are in range.

All things considered, including reliability and maintenance, price, ROI, drivability and enjoyment, what are everyone's thoughts? Other suggestions?

[GATORB8]

What about a Buick Encore? Looks like they've taken a beating in depreciation. A quick look on cargurus shows a 2014 CPO w/ 17k miles for under $15k.

Not sure what Dieselgate is doing to the VAG TDI SUVs. I wonder if you could pickup an SUV that will be buyback eligible, then dump it right at the end of the buyback period for a profit.

[FriskyDingo]

4Runner. Or last-gen Pathfinder/X-Terra.

No way would I put that many miles on a Touareg. You're asking for trouble. The GLK is huge pile of shit. The Cooper will be a money pit. Golf/GTI are great, but lacking the AWD you want.

[GATORB8]

Be tough to find a 2011+ 4Runner under 15K, even if it's done 150k+.

Although, he probably would be driving for almost free, depreciation curves on 4runners are about as flat as they get.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by FriskyDingo

4Runner. Or last-gen Pathfinder/X-Terra.

No way would I put that many miles on a Touareg. You're asking for trouble. The GLK is huge pile of shit. The Cooper will be a money pit. Golf/GTI are great, but lacking the AWD you want.

This, except the AWD bit. Who cares? Just run a set of winters and be done with it, AWD doe snot help braking which is far more important than traction.

The answer to the OP is RAV4.

[FriskyDingo]

Rav4 is a solid choice, too.

[Need4spd28]

Great feedback so far. I knew I could count on this crowd! So a couple of things:

1) AWD is not a requirement, but a nice to have.
2) Why are GLK's such garbage? Not being a wise guy, I really dont know much of anything about them.

[Need4spd28]

Originally Posted by GATORB8

What about a Buick Encore? Looks like they've taken a beating in depreciation. A quick look on cargurus shows a 2014 CPO w/ 17k miles for under $15k.

Not sure what Dieselgate is doing to the VAG TDI SUVs. I wonder if you could pickup an SUV that will be buyback eligible, then dump it right at the end of the buyback period for a profit.

I want to be in something slightly bigger but this did get me to looking at the Enclave. The Encore, RAV4, etcetera, are too close in size for me to the X1. I'm not thrilled about having to get a third car in the first place so I at least want it to be able to serve a different purpose when it's called for.

[Need4spd28]

Originally Posted by Need4spd28

I want to be in something slightly bigger but this did get me to looking at the Enclave. The Encore, RAV4, etcetera, are too close in size for me to the X1. I'm not thrilled about having to get a third car in the first place so I at least want it to be able to serve a different purpose when it's called for.

Yes, and I know it's a little contradictory since the GTI and Mini are on my list. They are essentially there because I think they are worthy plan B's, and in the event that I concede to not getting an SUV, or just come across a deal that I just can't refuse.

[instantexpert]

I'll fully admit this might be a dumb idea but...

An additional 45,000 miles added to the lease (presuming they'll sell you that many) would only be $7,200 @ 0.16/mile (random search told me 0.16). Sure, you wouldn't have the hard asset at the end of a third car but you'd also only be spending half as much and not be juggling multiple cars.

I'd consider this especially relevant if you consider third car driving days to be penalty box days.

You can also wait until 6 months out from lease return to buy the miles, giving you the opportunity to optimize the purchase.

[BEM-S4]

Consumables on the T-Reg are very expensive. It was one of Dr. P's pet engineering projects. Brakes for instance $3k to do pads, sensors and rotors. That said I loved mine, just something to be mindful of.

[Alfisti]

Yeah frankly you don't need a third car, just go back to BMW and sign a new lease with more suitable terms, they will work something out.

[GATORB8]

Originally Posted by instantexpert

I'll fully admit this might be a dumb idea but...

An additional 45,000 miles added to the lease (presuming they'll sell you that many) would only be $7,200 @ 0.16/mile (random search told me 0.16). Sure, you wouldn't have the hard asset at the end of a third car but you'd also only be spending half as much and not be juggling multiple cars.

I'd consider this especially relevant if you consider third car driving days to be penalty box days.

You can also wait until 6 months out from lease return to buy the miles, giving you the opportunity to optimize the purchase.

Along these lines. I wonder if you could get your dealer to buy out your lease (which appears to be something they do to get you in another car per some posts on here), swap to a 20k mile lease, then only be on the hook for an additional $1,600/year.

[Need4spd28]

Originally Posted by GATORB8

Along these lines. I wonder if you could get your dealer to buy out your lease (which appears to be something they do to get you in another car per some posts on here), swap to a 20k mile lease, then only be on the hook for an additional $1,600/year.

I really don't see that happening. They're not just going to let me out of the lease two years early. There is such a thing as a pull ahead program but that's only 90-180 days from maturation. Again, I don't see it unless someone knows something that I don't.

Mileage, by the way, is $.23 on the X1 and $.27 on the M3 IF miles are paid for in advance. My math tells me she will owe about $10K and I will owe about $4K in excess when it's all said and done. The fact is that this is just a byproduct of our profession and our lifestyle. When two people are driving a total of 50K miles a year there's no easy to deal with it. Even if we didn't lease her car she would still have a car with 90,000 miles on it after three years which translates into a ton of negative equity, potential maintenance issues, etcetera. You gotta pay to play one way or the other.

If it were just me I'd eat the $4K to keep driving my M3 in a heartbeat, no questions asked. That extra $10K to drive an X1 is a tough pill to swallow though.

[Need4spd28]

Also, maximum amount of miles on a lease through BMWFS is 15,000 per year.

[mxa121]

Not sure what your ideal parameters are, but what about a pre owned X5?
For $20k, you can get a 2012 X5 35i w/ 80k miles.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/ctd/6002159459.html

Or a 2012 Grand Cherokee 5.7L just shy of 100k miles.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/ctd/5997874081.html

Plenty of options out there for $20k.

[Need4spd28]

You're right, there are. That Cherokee you linked is pretty much my dream third car. Hell, that thing is nicer than our X1. I really don't want to go up to $20K on this car though. I didn't even want to go up to $15K originally but I've realized that I probably need to.

[BEM-S4]

Do you currently have different legal addresses and will the lease expire on her car before you're married? Will explain why if those are both true.

[Need4spd28]

Hmmm, I'm not 100% sure how a legal address is defined, but we do live together and both of our cars are currently registered at that address. Different addresses on our drivers licenses though, if that makes a difference.

And I suppose it's possible that the lease could expire beforehand, for the sake of argument. I mean, a date isn't set yet anyway.

[Alfisti]

If you walk into the BMW dealer with a year left on your lease of an X1 and you say "hey bucko, I want to sign up for an X3 for 3 years right now" .... they'll do it and let you out, would be insane not to.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by Need4spd28

Hmmm, I'm not 100% sure how a legal address is defined, but we do live together and both of our cars are currently registered at that address. Different addresses on our drivers licenses though, if that makes a difference.

And I suppose it's possible that the lease could expire beforehand, for the sake of argument. I mean, a date isn't set yet anyway.

OK - I am in a similar situation and have done extensive research on this. Easier if the car "changes hands" will explain what I mean. You're best plan, purely from a $-savings perspective, is to stick with the two cars and put as many miles as you can on the X1 to save your M3. You don't want to both go over. You won't want to just turn the car in since you'll pay a huge mileage penalty. And you cannot under any circumstances buy it out since you will be overpaying big time and you cannot renegotiate your residual. It is what it is. That said 120 days before lease expires your dealer can, if they want, negotiate a fair market wholesale value for the car and buy it. So let's say your buyout is $30K and the car is worth $20K. You have to pay $30K there is no discussion there. Dealer can pay $20K to then put it on the lot and sell it themselves. You should speak with your dealer as I have with mine, and this is where the address and married or not can matter. Dealer buying the car to put into stock and selling it back to her is somewhat fishy because they are basically sticking it to BMW. They can, however, sell it to you because on paper the two of you have nothing to do with each other. At least not yet. So you need a dealer willing to do you a solid and you'll have to pay some fees for inspections and whatnot since they are selling you a car that they own and you could come after them if they sold you a car with crap brakes or something, but it can be done. Assuming you have a decent relationship with your dealer it should not be too much of a problem. Some dealers would buy and sell to her, but it's just a lot less problematic to sell the car to you.

That's if you want to keep the X1. If you don't, you can do everything I just described and get another car - but it would have to be a BMW from the dealer that was doing a "courtesy deal" on the car you weren't keeping. If you want to leave BMW entirely all of this gets much more complicated.

So bottom line before you do anything give your dealer a call and talk through options with him. I assume were it not for the mileage issues you're perfectly happy with the cars and aren't looking at another just for fun. My advice was based on the premise of minimizing $-hemorrhage until your leases are up.

[Buddy628]

Subaru Outback is an option, all wheel drive ,decent gas milage, tough as nails, inexpensive to maintain and repair