|
Hey Brad,
In a perfect world you lease with $0 down for a reasonable number of months with reasonable mileage. If you even consider wanting to have the car longer then purchase it... the whole point to leasing is to conserve cash... if you put down a big payment then you start burning cash. Again, in a perfect world.
I used to lease for the low payments but always ended up feeling screwed when I didn't have anything in the end (or ended up owing money for mileage). Then I started buying cars. Worked great for the wife's car... she has sworn to drive it until it dies (one day in the church of BMW she is now a true motorhead...). I bought my Audi, which I'm now regretting...
Here's my personal take.
1) If you want to have the car for a long time then buy it. Interest rates are great right now.
2) If you know that you'll want a new car in a couple of years and don't want to go through the hassle of private sale then lease it.
I'm sure that you've heard all of the arguments.
To answer your question.... I purchased. Once I calculated it all out I found that the lease payment ($0 down) was within a couple hundred of the 60 month finance payment with minimal down ($5000).
Here's some info that may be useful for you:
As of 12/5/01
BMWFS lease specs...
Money Factor: .0029
Residual (36 mo, 10k/year): 64%
Residual (36 mo, 12k/year): 61% (I think)
There are a number of lease calculators on the web that you can use with these numbers to get an actual figure... the one on the BMW web site is a little off. Also remember that there's a sales tax component to a lease payment that isn't always reported to you. If you want the actual formulas to build your own excel spreadheet let me know and I'll send them to you.
-Andrew
__________________
'08 M5 Sedan Silverstone/Black
'07 M6 Coupe Silverstone/Black (gone)
'07 Z4 M Coupe Sapphire Black/Black (gone)
'06 330i Sapphire Black/Black
'03 M5 Sedan Imola Red/Black
'93 M5 Sedan (3.6) Sterling Silver/Black
|
Linear Mode
