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Leasing a BMW...

B

BarneyFife

Diamond Member
So I filled out the credit application last night because I had a change of decision and thought it would be better for me to lease a 335i than to buy one. I don't feel comfortable with the repair costs after the warranty is over. Anyway I get a call from some lady at Ann Arbor BMW today asking me that my application was rejected blah blah blah and I need a cosignor (I've never had a mortgage or car lease). I'm like I'm not interested in a cosignor, can I just put down a refundable security deposit. Then she gave me a whole speech on that I shouldn't fill out an application because I'm not ready to get a car and that I'm wasting her time when I was intending to get one in a couple weeks.

I'm like then I would be wasting my time if I came down to the dealership and test drove a car and got rejected. This left a sour taste in my mouth over BMW. Its not like I applied with a 15k per year stock boy job trying to get a 7 series, I'm an engineer with a decent salary. Are all bmw dealerships like this? She acted like I was some peasant and I was fortunate enough to talk to her.

Cliff notes.
1. Filled out bmw application
2. Get call from dealership, lease app requires cosignor
3. Ask if I can put down refundable security deposit
4. Told I was wasting her time and wasn't interested in car even though I was going to lease car within 3 weeks.
5. BMW dealer left sour taste in mouth
 
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
 
I'm actually working with Bavarian Bmw right now and this guy is pretty friendly. I'm going to wait to see how this plays out. I understand if I can't get approved for a lease but no need to lecture me on the phone. I'm 27 for crying out loud.
 
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
Click to expand...


Actually have a 760 credit score and pay all my bills on time. I just never leased before. I bought my car used with cash in college. I think BMW is just more stringent because I was approved for a CTS and they both are around the same msrp.
 
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
I'm actually working with Bavarian Bmw right now and this guy is pretty friendly. I'm going to wait to see how this plays out. I understand if I can't get approved for a lease but no need to lecture me on the phone. I'm 27 for crying out loud.
Click to expand...

What sales person? My guy at Bavarian is great! :thumbsup: Young guy, he is honest and to the point. He never tried to scam me or anything. I told him what I wanted and what I knew the price was and ended up happy.

BTW, Bavarian told me that if you get approved for a lease through them then your credit score will not get you a better MF. It's either approved or not and that is it.
 
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
Click to expand...


Actually have a 760 credit score and pay all my bills on time. I just never leased before. I bought my car used with cash in college. I think BMW is just more stringent because I was approved for a CTS and they both are around the same msrp.
Click to expand...

Probably a lack of tradelines. Credit score is only a level...what makes that up is whats important.

You can have an 800, but if you have nothing over 2 years old and no serious credit then most will not want to touch you.
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
Click to expand...


Actually have a 760 credit score and pay all my bills on time. I just never leased before. I bought my car used with cash in college. I think BMW is just more stringent because I was approved for a CTS and they both are around the same msrp.
Click to expand...

Probably a lack of tradelines. Credit score is only a level...what makes that up is whats important.

You can have an 800, but if you have nothing over 2 years old and no serious credit then most will not want to touch you.
Click to expand...


Define serious credit? I have about 50k in credit card limit and use them alot without any balance. If you're talking about a mortgage or car loan, no I haven't had one in the last 2 years.
 
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
Click to expand...

Actually have a 760 credit score and pay all my bills on time. I just never leased before. I bought my car used with cash in college. I think BMW is just more stringent because I was approved for a CTS and they both are around the same msrp.
Click to expand...

Probably a lack of tradelines. Credit score is only a level...what makes that up is whats important.

You can have an 800, but if you have nothing over 2 years old and no serious credit then most will not want to touch you.
Click to expand...

Define serious credit? I have about 50k in credit card limit and use them alot without any balance. If you're talking about a mortgage or car loan, no I haven't had one in the last 2 years.
Click to expand...

And that's why you're not leasing a ~$50k BMW.

I understand that you shouldn't have gotten a lecture, but it sounds like you gave her some lip, and it's not like she made the credit decision (or got paid for telling you your app got rejected either).
Another thing to keep in mind too is that if corporate rejected your credit app, just walking over to another BMW dealership is not going to get you approved. And usually the only reason they asked for a cosigner is because your credit was not acceptable. Score is not everything.

edit: by chance, I just spoke with a friend of mine who works F&I. He says BMW requires 5 active tradelines in the past 24 months, 2 of which must be installment (or mortgages) > $10k original balance.
 
Well Vic, you understood wrong. She said I could buy the car but I told her I didn't want to buy it. She wanted to stick me with a high interest capital one loan. After I said I was not interested in buying, she lost it. I even said thanks for your time and hung up. Like I said, I don't mind getting rejected for a BMW loan if they don't want me as a customer, it was the way she went nuts after I said I wasn't interested in buying it.

And the guy that iamwiz used in his transaction called me and we found a way with a security deposit to get me the lease. Going to email that lady's manager and cc her after I get it from the other dealer and tell her that she just lost a customer. No way to talk like that to someone, especially an interested customer in this HORRIBLE Michigan recession.

 
Luxury Car leases are severely unwise, unless the car depreciates like a rock (the 335i won't, btw).

Buy it, there's nothing stopping you from trading it in when you feel like it. Do a decent down payment, and if you run 36-month financing, you can have the thing fully paid off and ready for a cash trade-in in 3 years. With the 335i, you'll probably be looking at 70% original value retention. $50k today, $30+k in 3 years.
 
Originally posted by: Arkaign
Luxury Car leases are severely unwise, unless the car depreciates like a rock (the 335i won't, btw).

Buy it, there's nothing stopping you from trading it in when you feel like it. Do a decent down payment, and if you run 36-month financing, you can have the thing fully paid off and ready for a cash trade-in in 3 years. With the 335i, you'll probably be looking at 70% original value retention. $50k today, $30+k in 3 years.
Click to expand...

Leases are better deals when they don't depreciate like a rock, have high rebates/dealer incentives, and low interest rates. Higher depreciation would mean you pay more.
 
Putting money down on a lease is one of the dumbest financial moves you can make. And my guess is the terms of your lease aren't all that favorable.

But at least you have a BMW now.
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Arkaign
Luxury Car leases are severely unwise, unless the car depreciates like a rock (the 335i won't, btw).

Buy it, there's nothing stopping you from trading it in when you feel like it. Do a decent down payment, and if you run 36-month financing, you can have the thing fully paid off and ready for a cash trade-in in 3 years. With the 335i, you'll probably be looking at 70% original value retention. $50k today, $30+k in 3 years.
Click to expand...

Leases are better deals when they don't depreciate like a rock, have high rebates/dealer incentives, and low interest rates. Higher depreciation would mean you pay more.
Click to expand...

I can sort of see what you're saying, but my problem with leases on this kind of thing is this :

With a lease, you pay a significant amount of money to drive the car, then you have nothing to show for it at the end of the lease term (besides some possible fees/penalties).

With a purchase (at least of a vehicle that maintains a significant % of it's purchase price), you have something to show for it when it's paid off (or even before then, provided you don't get upside down on the deal).

If he leases a 335i for 3 years, he pays X $, and gets nothing from it besides the ability to drive that car. If he buys it, he can keep it (with no additional penalties/fees), or trade-in/sell it for the value contained therein. That 335i will likely command at least $30k in 3 years, so his price of driving for the three years would be the difference between original purchase price and what it's worth in that time. Of course, he has to have the $ on hand to do this, but it just makes more sense to me.
 
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Putting money down on a lease is one of the dumbest financial moves you can make. And my guess is the terms of your lease aren't all that favorable.

But at least you have a BMW now.
Click to expand...

Wow, a lot of jumping to conclusion here.

A refundable security deposit is a month's payment.

If I have a high money factor that isn't inline with the money factor and residual posted on various boards then I'm not touching it.

I told the person that I'm not interested in reducing the cap cost by putting down a large down payment. The money is gone if you total it or have it stolen.

I don't have a BMW now. I never signed anything.

I've been researching this for over a year. I didn't just wake up one day and say I'm leasing a BMW. If I can't get the 335i, then I will move on.




 
Originally posted by: Arkaign
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Arkaign
Luxury Car leases are severely unwise, unless the car depreciates like a rock (the 335i won't, btw).

Buy it, there's nothing stopping you from trading it in when you feel like it. Do a decent down payment, and if you run 36-month financing, you can have the thing fully paid off and ready for a cash trade-in in 3 years. With the 335i, you'll probably be looking at 70% original value retention. $50k today, $30+k in 3 years.
Click to expand...

Leases are better deals when they don't depreciate like a rock, have high rebates/dealer incentives, and low interest rates. Higher depreciation would mean you pay more.
Click to expand...

I can sort of see what you're saying, but my problem with leases on this kind of thing is this :

With a lease, you pay a significant amount of money to drive the car, then you have nothing to show for it at the end of the lease term (besides some possible fees/penalties).

With a purchase (at least of a vehicle that maintains a significant % of it's purchase price), you have something to show for it when it's paid off (or even before then, provided you don't get upside down on the deal).

If he leases a 335i for 3 years, he pays X $, and gets nothing from it besides the ability to drive that car. If he buys it, he can keep it (with no additional penalties/fees), or trade-in/sell it for the value contained therein. That 335i will likely command at least $30k in 3 years, so his price of driving for the three years would be the difference between original purchase price and what it's worth in that time. Of course, he has to have the $ on hand to do this, but it just makes more sense to me.
Click to expand...

This is not the thread to debate leasing, but if you run numbers on good leases and compare them to the exact same situation when buying you will understand.
 
Fair enough, I sent you a PM to discuss the merits respective to buy vs. lease.

OP, hope something decent works out for you. Keep us posted, and are you looking for Sedan or Coupe? The new G37 is a very nice contemporary to the 3 series, worth a definite look if you haven't yet.
 
OP, for the money, the CTS might be a nicer car anyway 🙂 Subjective opinion, of course, but the 335i has a lot of "BMW tax" built into the sticker price, but I also admit I'm biased because here in the DC area, 3-series are a dime a dozen on the road and have lost that wow factor for me.

Hopefully you get it figured out and end up with the car you really want, and then enjoy driving it. If you can afford it, nobody has any right to criticize your decision.
 
Arkaign:

Right now I can lease a BMW 328i for $369 a month for 36 months, after $3,269 down or a total of $459 a month.

The same car (MSRP $34,450) would run me about $650 a month for 60 months at 5%, if I pay taxes and fees and only finance $34,450.

$459 a month I will do, $650 I won't.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Leasing is for people with good credit. If you don't have good credit, or a long established credit history, then you're not going to get a lease. That is why they asked for a cosigner.
Click to expand...

Actually have a 760 credit score and pay all my bills on time. I just never leased before. I bought my car used with cash in college. I think BMW is just more stringent because I was approved for a CTS and they both are around the same msrp.
Click to expand...

Probably a lack of tradelines. Credit score is only a level...what makes that up is whats important.

You can have an 800, but if you have nothing over 2 years old and no serious credit then most will not want to touch you.
Click to expand...

Define serious credit? I have about 50k in credit card limit and use them alot without any balance. If you're talking about a mortgage or car loan, no I haven't had one in the last 2 years.
Click to expand...

And that's why you're not leasing a ~$50k BMW.

I understand that you shouldn't have gotten a lecture, but it sounds like you gave her some lip, and it's not like she made the credit decision (or got paid for telling you your app got rejected either).
Another thing to keep in mind too is that if corporate rejected your credit app, just walking over to another BMW dealership is not going to get you approved. And usually the only reason they asked for a cosigner is because your credit was not acceptable. Score is not everything.

edit: by chance, I just spoke with a friend of mine who works F&I. He says BMW requires 5 active tradelines in the past 24 months, 2 of which must be installment (or mortgages) > $10k original balance.
Click to expand...

QFT...no balance...a lease is a balance, a house is a balance, etc. This is why so many people that brag about how they have some great credit score can get no REAL credit.

Next time look at your situation instead of attacking the messenger Barney.
 
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