X6, lease or buy?

[Mako]

I would put around 10,000 miles/year on it.

looks like I can get invoice price on it, and if I lease the residual is 60%.
If I lease I need to sell my X3 on its own (worth around $30,000), If I buy with normal financing I can get trade in credit.

the way I am looking at it
Lease negatives:
-no trade in credit on X3, have to try and sell it on my own (has some body scratches that I would probably need to repair if doing that)
-timing, have to buy/lease a new car in 3 years even if the next model we want is coming out in 6-12 months after that, can't wait

Lease positives:
-accidents! if you get in one and have it repaired to BMW specifications, no issues at lease turn in, no extra fees... If you buy it will be on carfax and likely mean lower resale price
-get a new car every 3 years!
-60% residual, no mater what happens to used car market you only lose 40% over those 3 years, no matter what options we get, only paying 40% of the cost!

Buying positives:
-trade in credit on our current car, trade in on the X6 when we buy a new one...
-if we really like it, we can keep it longer, no pressure to buy a car by X date.
Buying negatives:
-Accident thing
-worrying about resale value (especially on options), lots of them get $0 back when you sell/trade in the car.

[Kzang]

One thing to consider is that you can extend your lease to accommodate the next model you are looking for on your next car.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by Kzang

One thing to consider is that you can extend your lease to accommodate the next model you are looking for on your next car.

Is there any set time frame on this? like a max of X months?

[Kzang]

Check with your dealer.. I don't have all the details. I know I was offered to extend my lease if I wanted to.

[POBA]

Based on previous experience, BMWFS will extend the lease if you have an order on a new car, regardless lease or buy as long as they get verification from the dealer. They offered me to keep the car until the new car arrives. This was few years ago. You can always call BMWFS to check and see what is their current policy. I know this is different, for example MB will extend the lease for 3 months upon request, or 6 months with credit report check. Hope this helps. Good luck...

[senoromar]

I don't follow, why can't you trade in your X3 when you lease the X6? If there is equity in it, you can apply that to the lease. If you own it outright, I don't see why you can't just get a check for it's value. Selling private would net you a little more, but then there is the cost of cleanup/repair and hunting for a buyer.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by senoromar

I don't follow, why can't you trade in your X3 when you lease the X6? If there is equity in it, you can apply that to the lease. If you own it outright, I don't see why you can't just get a check for it's value. Selling private would net you a little more, but then there is the cost of cleanup/repair and hunting for a buyer.

No trade in credit is the issue. Part of new Illinois lease tax laws, finally we only pay taxes on lease payments but no more trade in credit for taxes when leasing. So a $30,000 trade in gets $0 tax savings bs $2100 if I bought the car with regular financing.

[Barbja]

What's to keep you from getting a new car every three years if you buy? That guilty feeling?

With leasing, you're still paying off the entire depreciation of the car to the lease end plus interest on the residual. There's nothing magical about it; although they try their best to make it appear so.

As the OP mentioned though, a big plus is the carfax caveat. However, that only kicks in if the incident is your fault. If it isn't, the offender's insurance company is liable for disminished value. If you want it, you gotta say it loud and say it often. It's not like they're just going to offer it up. Diminished value is what ended up totaling my >3yo X6.

[jlstyle]

For straight $ to $, lease with MSD is a better deal for X5/X6 than a financing because of interest rates.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by jlstyle

For straight $ to $, lease with MSD is a better deal for X5/X6 than a financing because of interest rates.

but interest rates are 0.90% on them for 36 month financing, with MSD its still equal to 1.94% with lease, although that percentage is only on the leased amount, not the full purchase price...

To me a lease is a no brainer when it has a ridiculous residual like the M3/M4 right now (10K mile M3 lease is 65%), I highly doubt you will only lose 35% after 3 years if you bought one, especially if its loaded (options lose a lot more value than a stock car, especially if trading it back to the dealer).

[EastCoast335i]

Originally Posted by Mako

but interest rates are 0.90% on them for 36 month financing, with MSD its still equal to 1.94% with lease, although that percentage is only on the leased amount, not the full purchase price...

To me a lease is a no brainer when it has a ridiculous residual like the M3/M4 right now (10K mile M3 lease is 65%), I highly doubt you will only lose 35% after 3 years if you bought one, especially if its loaded (options lose a lot more value than a stock car, especially if trading it back to the dealer).

My wife just took ownership of an X5 and we financed at 1.9%...
I've never leased because I like to own my cars instead of feeling like I'm in a long term rental agreement. Plus its a great feeling once you send in that last payment on the car

[Mako]

Originally Posted by EastCoast335i

My wife just took ownership of an X5 and we financed at 1.9%...
I've never leased because I like to own my cars instead of feeling like I'm in a long term rental agreement. Plus its a great feeling once you send in that last payment on the car

To me the biggest plus to leasing is the accident thing, my wife seems to crash every car she drives, her Audi A4 had $17,000 in damage (almost totaled), but it was a lease, no issue at turn in, if we bought it and that was on car fax, huge ding of trade in value! Of course the X6 will be her daily driver, I wish it had the 65% residual and the M3 was lower, then it would be an easy decision to lease the X6 and buy the M3

Anyone who has sold a X6, how did they hold up in value? percentage of MSRP after X years, X miles?

[EastCoast335i]

Originally Posted by Mako

To me the biggest plus to leasing is the accident thing, my wife seems to crash every car she drives, her Audi A4 had $17,000 in damage (almost totaled), but it was a lease, no issue at turn in, if we bought it and that was on car fax, huge ding of trade in value! Of course the X6 will be her daily driver, I wish it had the 65% residual and the M3 was lower, then it would be an easy decision to lease the X6 and buy the M3

Anyone who has sold a X6, how did they hold up in value? percentage of MSRP after X years, X miles?

I know exactly what you mean...
I'm waiting for the call from her which hopefully never comes...
Oh well you cant live your life based on what may happen...

[Mako]

Originally Posted by EastCoast335i

I know exactly what you mean...
I'm waiting for the call from her which hopefully never comes...
Oh well you cant live your life based on what may happen...

Let me correct you "based on what WILL happen"

There is a reason I have a $1,000 deductible on my car (only accident I ever caused was when I was 16 and that's debatable as to it being my fault), while I put a $500 deductible on my wive's car!

[aas5]

There are a lot of lease vs. buy calculators that let you compare the deals. For me, the bottom line is that with the low interest rates, the cost of leasing is usually negligibly more expensive (assuming you like driving new cars) than buying and leasing offers tremendous flexibility that buying doesn’t:
• Get a new car every three years – you can always buy your car at the end of the lease if you want – free option

• High residuals – the residual rates now are higher than even three years ago – x6 leases are up at least 3% compared to a few years ago. I doubt the dealers would offer a higher residual for a trade-in, unless they are making more on the lease than they would without a trade-in. More importantly, you completely eliminate the need to negotiate the sale price of your car which often takes significant time and effort

• Warranty coverage – you are on your own after year 4 if you buy

• Credit – when you finance, you have a larger loan showing up on your credit report than if you lease. I don’t know if it has any negative impact on the credit score, I suspect not

• Accidents – as others here wrote

• Taxes – if you change cars often, you will never pay more in tax if you lease – for example, I had an Infiniti M45 that I sold to get an x6 lease. BMW dealers were offering me attractive lease deals but not attractive trade in values. So in my example, I ended up paying a full sales tax on the M45 when I bought it and not getting any tax benefit when I sold it. The higher sale price at the end more than offset the tax benefit from a trade-in I could have gotten

[Kzang]

Originally Posted by EastCoast335i

My wife just took ownership of an X5 and we financed at 1.9%...
I've never leased because I like to own my cars instead of feeling like I'm in a long term rental agreement. Plus its a great feeling once you send in that last payment on the car

This is something everyone feels at first when leasing.. for me I felt this way too but it went away after a few months.. why? Because if I wanted to purchase the leased car after the lease is up I can.. So the feeling that it is a rental is just in your mind... because to be honest even if you finance the car it isn't yours until you make the final payment so in reality your renting to own

[Barbja]

Originally Posted by Mako

Anyone who has sold a X6, how did they hold up in value? percentage of MSRP after X years, X miles?

I didn't end up selling mine since it was totaled before I had a chance to do it, but I was given a figure that ended up at about 68%, 38 months (I think), 29k miles.

The MSRP was significantly less 4y ago AND they have moved a lot of standard features into options. Options depreciate a whole heck of a lot faster than the car as a whole. I don't expect it to be anywhere near 68% this time. I'll bet that it will be about the same dollar figure as before with an MSRP (for my config that is not that far off from before) that is about $15k higher.

[Barbja]

Originally Posted by Kzang

This is something everyone feels at first when leasing.. for me I felt this way too but it went away after a few months.. why? Because if I wanted to purchase the leased car after the lease is up I can.. So the feeling that it is a rental is just in your mind... because to be honest even if you finance the car it isn't yours until you make the final payment so in reality your renting to own

For me its a psychological thing. I think that if I leased, every little thing that happened to the car would freak me out. Like I've curbed my wheels at least 3x and when it happens, I think, "F*!" and then go on with my day because its just a car. I'm pretty sure if the car were leased, I would think (F*)**2 and then worry for two weeks about how much they were going to charge me for it when I turn the car in.

BTW, just a car or not, I still want to have my curbed wheels fixed. My sister helpfully pointed one of them out this Saturday (how rude!). Hopefully I'm past my 'getting used to 20" wheels phase'.

[Chem14]

Originally Posted by Kzang

This is something everyone feels at first when leasing.. for me I felt this way too but it went away after a few months.. why? Because if I wanted to purchase the leased car after the lease is up I can.. So the feeling that it is a rental is just in your mind... because to be honest even if you finance the car it isn't yours until you make the final payment so in reality your renting to own

+1. I also lease so that I don't have to deal with repairs,and with BMW, don't have to pay for brakes and oil changes during the lease.

The biggest downside that I see is all of the cool customization that goes on for those that own/finance their cars.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by Barbja

For me its a psychological thing. I think that if I leased, every little thing that happened to the car would freak me out. Like I've curbed my wheels at least 3x and when it happens, I think, "F*!" and then go on with my day because its just a car. I'm pretty sure if the car were leased, I would think (F*)**2 and then worry for two weeks about how much they were going to charge me for it when I turn the car in.

BTW, just a car or not, I still want to have my curbed wheels fixed. My sister helpfully pointed one of them out this Saturday (how rude!). Hopefully I'm past my 'getting used to 20" wheels phase'.

if the curbed wheel isn't too deep its not that expensive to fix, a lot of places are around $75 for a single wheel, discounted if you are getting multiple fixed

[EastCoast335i]

Originally Posted by Chem14

+1. I also lease so that I don't have to deal with repairs,and with BMW, don't have to pay for brakes and oil changes during the lease.

The biggest downside that I see is all of the cool customization that goes on for those that own/finance their cars.

If you mean you don't have to stress about accidents because youre returning the car then yes, but you still do have to make repairs out of pocket before returning the car, and you have to most likely have to buy 4 new run flat tires.
As far as brakes and oil changes even if you finance you still don't pay for brakes and oil changes for the first 4 yrs.

[EastCoast335i]

Originally Posted by Kzang

This is something everyone feels at first when leasing.. for me I felt this way too but it went away after a few months.. why? Because if I wanted to purchase the leased car after the lease is up I can.. So the feeling that it is a rental is just in your mind... because to be honest even if you finance the car it isn't yours until you make the final payment so in reality your renting to own

I see what you're saying, yes the car isn't mine until the loan is paid off, I think the biggest downside for me about leasing is the mileage limit. That's what makes me feel like I'm renting the car instead of owning it.

And leasing and then buying at the end of your lease term is financially not the smartest thing to do. Most people will not pay cash for the full amount of the residual, so they finance and you get hit with another finance fee/rate which are typically higher then the promotional rates when purchasing new.