[eshoukry93]

To keep my payments reasonable, I'm planning on buying my e92 335i using BMW's owner's choice program. It allows me to lease for 3 years and then refinance the balance (around $28K) for whatever period I want.

After pulling my credit the sales guy called me a "bullet." I guess that's what you call people with 850 credit scores. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to be getting a great deal on the owner's choice program.

This is what mine looks like:

$10k down
3 yr lease at 10K miles with option to buy for $28k
$508 a mo payment
6.5% interest

The mileage is irrelevent because I'm planning on buying the car after the 3 yr lease. I figure even if I don't want to keep the car, I can refinance and sell it. I'm hoping that my $50k car will be worth more than $28k in 3 years.

Anyway, does anyone know if that 6.5% interest rate is negotiable? How do my numbers look. The price of my car is $46,600 plus tax.

Thanks.

[matt_435xi]

anything is negotiable?

[GTownUDM]

Originally Posted by eshoukry93

To keep my payments reasonable, I'm planning on buying my e92 335i using BMW's owner's choice program. It allows me to lease for 3 years and then refinance the balance (around $28K) for whatever period I want.

After pulling my credit the sales guy called me a "bullet." I guess that's what you call people with 850 credit scores. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to be getting a great deal on the owner's choice program.

This is what mine looks like:

$10k down
3 yr lease at 10K miles with option to buy for $28k
$508 a mo payment
6.5% interest

The mileage is irrelevent because I'm planning on buying the car after the 3 yr lease. I figure even if I don't want to keep the car, I can refinance and sell it. I'm hoping that my $50k car will be worth more than $28k in 3 years.

Anyway, does anyone know if that 6.5% interest rate is negotiable? How do my numbers look. The price of my car is $46,600 plus tax.

Thanks.

The 6.5% is the money factor in the lease, right???? The $10K is all for cap reduction???? That isn't really a good deal. 6.5% is somewhere near .0027 money factor. You can do better. Just getting the money factor down to .0020 (4.8%) will save you about $50 a month.

If they won't negotiate the numbers go to a different dealer or look into 3rd party leasing.

[STE92VE]

If you purchase the car at the end of the lease, you will already have paid $56288 for the $50K car, and then add more interest for the $28K loan you will be taking out. Doesn't sound like a good deal.

I am purchasing my car from day 1.
I'm putting zero down, taking a home equity loan @ 6.49% for 5 years. With the additional interest I will earn on the money and the advantage of deducting the interest on the loan, this method affords the lowest cost of ownership, other than paying for the total purchase price at day 1.

If you own a home, and have enough equity, I suggest you look into this.

[matt_435xi]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

If you purchase the car at the end of the lease, you will already have paid $56288 for the $50K car, and then add more interest for the $28K loan you will be taking out. Doesn't sound like a good deal.

I am purchasing my car from day 1.
I'm putting zero down, taking a home equity loan @ 6.49% for 5 years. With the additional interest I will earn on the money and the advantage of deducting the interest on the loan, this method affords the lowest cost of ownership, other than paying for the total purchase price at day 1.

If you own a home, and have enough equity, I suggest you look into this.

ONLY if you are staying in your home for the next 5 years!

very dangerous to use HEL to finance a depreciating asset...maybe upgrading your home to make it more valuable, but i am not sure this is always a smart move.

[STE92VE]

Originally Posted by matt_335Ci

ONLY if you are staying in your home for the next 5 years!

very dangerous to use HEL to finance a depreciating asset...maybe upgrading your home to make it more valuable, but i am not sure this is always a smart move.

True, not every financing option works well for everyone. Best bet would be to consult with your accountant or financial planner to investigate what would apply to your situation.

[eshoukry93]

I think everyone will agree or at least should that paying cash for a car outright will get you the best deal. Afterall cash is king!

I was wondering if anyone has taken advantage of the Owner's Choice program and had success lowering the interest rate or anything else for that matter.

The program is what it is....it's not comparable to a straight lease because you can buy at the end. Has anyone used this program before?

I know I could take the $10k and put it down using traditional financing but that still leaves me with a $700+ a month payment. I am much more comfortable with $500.

[Fraposo]

Originally Posted by eshoukry93

To keep my payments reasonable, I'm planning on buying my e92 335i using BMW's owner's choice program. It allows me to lease for 3 years and then refinance the balance (around $28K) for whatever period I want.

After pulling my credit the sales guy called me a "bullet." I guess that's what you call people with 850 credit scores. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to be getting a great deal on the owner's choice program.

This is what mine looks like:

$10k down
3 yr lease at 10K miles with option to buy for $28k
$508 a mo payment
6.5% interest

The mileage is irrelevent because I'm planning on buying the car after the 3 yr lease. I figure even if I don't want to keep the car, I can refinance and sell it. I'm hoping that my $50k car will be worth more than $28k in 3 years.

Anyway, does anyone know if that 6.5% interest rate is negotiable? How do my numbers look. The price of my car is $46,600 plus tax.

Thanks.

These are very strange numbers. I am purchasing a 335i priced at 46,250 before taxes/fees/license and I asked my broker to quote me montly payments on a lease for 3 years if I put 10k down with a 7% interest rate and 15k miles a year. I was quoted at 405 a month with a buy option to buy at 29k. If I went with 12k a year I was quoted at 380 a month. I live in southern california, so I don't know if that makes a difference, but I would definitly not pay over 500 for a lease with 10k down. I would shop around a little more. Good luck!

[eshoukry93]

I actually plugged in my numbers on the estimate payment calculator on bmw's web site for the owner's choice program and came back with very similar numbers. I added an additional $3000 to my cost to account for taxes and fees.

I also picked Texas as my state which I'm not sure makes a difference or not.

[matt_435xi]

Originally Posted by Fraposo

These are very strange numbers. I am purchasing a 335i priced at 46,250 before taxes/fees/license and I asked my broker to quote me montly payments on a lease for 3 years if I put 10k down with a 7% interest rate and 15k miles a year. I was quoted at 405 a month with a buy option to buy at 29k. If I went with 12k a year I was quoted at 380 a month. I live in southern california, so I don't know if that makes a difference, but I would definitly not pay over 500 for a lease with 10k down. I would shop around a little more. Good luck!

i agree its simple math, if the going rate for pretty much loaded 335i coupe with 0 down is around $700 (thats my deal) then if you just save the 10k and apply it each month in even amounts (10000 / # payments) in my case 36 payments i would be down to $423. just doesn't make sense?

[scb]

Originally Posted by eshoukry93

I think everyone will agree or at least should that paying cash for a car outright will get you the best deal.

why?

if i'm paying cash of if a bank is lending me the money, the dealer still gets the same amount. it's just from a different source

[BMW_drei]

Originally Posted by eshoukry93

I think everyone will agree or at least should that paying cash for a car outright will get you the best deal. Afterall cash is king!

....

Maybe -- I've got a 5% loan, financed the whole thing and am making >5% return on the cash I would have used for the down payment.

Everyone's case is different -- I could have used home equity at a slightly higher interest rate. Sometimes financing through the dealer lets you negotiate a lower price (depends on their set-up).

I also considered the BMW Owner's Choice option to keep monthly payments low, but the total costs were too high compared to straight financing (I'm a buy not lease type of person).

[STE92VE]

Originally Posted by BMW_drei

Maybe -- I've got a 5% loan, financed the whole thing and am making >5% return on the cash I would have used for the down payment.

Everyone's case is different -- I could have used home equity at a slightly higher interest rate. Sometimes financing through the dealer lets you negotiate a lower price (depends on their set-up).

I also considered the BMW Owner's Choice option to keep monthly payments low, but the total costs were too high compared to straight financing (I'm a buy not lease type of person).

What institution is @ 5%?

[eshoukry93]

This seems to be confusing because the owner's choice program is not available everywhere. I went to bmwusa.com and selected california on the estimate payment tool and owner's choice was not an option.

i even selected a bunch of other states and it didn't come up. Maybe this is a texas thing. In any event, I'm still not clear whether I have much negotiation room here or not.

[BMW_drei]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

What institution is @ 5%?

Vista FCU, for Disney and (loosely) associated folks. Another (local) credit union was within a couple .1s of their offer. Just by negotiating I got both of them down by a few .1s from their initial offers.

[GTownUDM]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

What institution is @ 5%?

I can get 5.05% at my credit union.

[STE92VE]

That's a great rate...my CU is @ 5.99% for 60 months for a conventional auto loan. Damn, everything costs more in NY.

[GTownUDM]

Originally Posted by STE92VE

That's a great rate...my CU is @ 5.99% for 60 months for a conventional auto loan. Damn, everything costs more in NY.

That 5.05% is for 30 months and less, plus a 1/10th deduction for "good" customers. 60 month rate is 5.9%. So not much difference.

[Enkur]

I recently purchased a 328i using the Owners Choice and here is the breakdown

BMW Euro (Invoice) US MSRP
328i Cp Coupe 2 Door $ 30,205.00 $ 35,300.00
Premium Package $ 2,865.00 $ 3,150.00
Sport Package $ 910.00 $ 1,000.00
Heated Seats $ 455.00 $ 500.00
Navigation $ 1,910.00 $ 2,100.00
Comfort Access $ 455.00 $ 500.00
Dealer Profit $ 1,200.00
Transportation $ 695.00 $ 695.00
Total $ 38,695.00 $ 43,245.00

Sales Tax $2418.44
Inventory Tax $85.90
License&Doc $182.05
Total(TTL) $41381.39

36 Months 12000miles/year

Down Payment of $3800
5.2% interest rate
36 payments of $465.05
Final Baloon payment of $25947.00 (43245 * 0.60)

This deal was done through BMWFS Owners Choice

[John 070]

Originally Posted by eshoukry93

I think everyone will agree or at least should that paying cash for a car outright will get you the best deal. Afterall cash is king!

I was wondering if anyone has taken advantage of the Owner's Choice program and had success lowering the interest rate or anything else for that matter.

The program is what it is....it's not comparable to a straight lease because you can buy at the end. Has anyone used this program before?

I know I could take the $10k and put it down using traditional financing but that still leaves me with a $700+ a month payment. I am much more comfortable with $500.

I agree, because when one pays cash, it becomes clear that it's truly disposable income. The rationalization that "I can invest the money instead and make even more money" is a farce. It can be done, but it cannot be sustained, therefore it falters as a rule or principle.

For a bullet-proof credit rating, those were horrible terms imho. I think if one decides to lease, drive the car, and get rid of it at the end of the term. Consider the payments to be a rental fee, which they are. Never pay more for the car when the lease is done.

I dunno about you guys, but 28k residual is not good news for those of us who bought our cars. What happened to good resale and BMW? Looks like Honda blows BMW away, even edmunds says nearly 10k depreciation year 1 on a 335. That's horrible. Only way to fight that number is to keep the car forever, but then we have the German maintenance bill. Darn these cars are costly, but on the other hand fun to drive.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by GTownUDM

I can get 5.05% at my credit union.

A friend got that rate for 72 mos. through the navy fcu. Dealer gave me 5.5 through BoA. The dealer can do anything they want, they have tremendous pull with local (i.e. national) banks. My cu was 5.75 at best.

[STE92VE]

I look at the cost of ownership probably a little different than most people. Maybe some of you would agree, at least the true enthusiasts.

I really couldn't care less (gross exaggeration) if my E92 depreciated to a value of $0 after I drive away from PCD. I'm purchasing this car for the purpose of the sheer driving pleasure it affords and IMHO, whatever it costs, it costs.

Let's not disregard the fact that we can financially afford to own this vehicle. If we couldn't, then what we really should be driving around with is a Suzuki or Kia.