New England leasing buggers.... - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Bagger · 28th July 2003, 05:17

Because I was stupid (no need to agree...), I leased a 2003 M3 coupe... instead of a new M5. Now... only 6 months later, I find that many...if not ALL... lending institutions will not lend moneys to folks seeking leases in many of the New England states. CT, where I live, being one of those. Bummin' me out, bros....

I'm wondering if I have to go thru BMW now... which is certainly more expensive than USBank/FirstStar, yada, yada... ? And, what are other's doing "lease-wize" in our wonderful litigation-prone New England?

I know.... just buy it. Well, I change cars quite a bit. And 2 years is a lot of time for me. Buyin' it is not what I wanna do.

And.... the reason I got the M3 was.. I was anticipating the NEW M5 wif 500 HP... until I saw it. Don't much care for the new "5 series" Pontiac-look vehicles. Sorry....

But, lemme know what yew folks in NE are now doing with leasing. TIA BAGGER

M Power · 28th July 2003, 14:50

Bagger, I too live in CT.. Have you tried Chase.. Last I checked (3months ago) they were still doing leases..

Bagger · 28th July 2003, 15:20

Thanx for the 'heads up', but I spoke with a leasor in TX last week. He told me that virtually ALL lending institutions have ceased to lend moneys to ME, CT, RI and NY because of litigation against them.... and I believe, Chase just lost a multi-million dollar litigation in one of these states recently. **** lawyaz!

I may be relegated to driving the M3 for some while more, but I have been working to 'flip' this lease for an M5s. Just no luck.

Beastie Boy · 28th July 2003, 15:45

I ran into the same problem a few months ago. Ended up with BMW which cost me a few hundered extra a month because I was looking for a 60 month lease and they would only do 48. If you can somehow register the car out of state that would be one loophole around this...

apt333 · 28th July 2003, 16:15

This was discussed briefly on this board last summer when this topic was in the news. It has to do with "vicarious liability' laws. These laws were put on the books many years ago (before mandatory auto insurance) to allow plantiffs to sue the ultimate owner of vehicles, not just the driver. The original intent was to allow accident victims to sue the rich car owners, not just the poor chaufeurs (sic) who were not likely to be able to pay judgements.
There was a case in NY that went to trial last year where the plantiffs used this law to sue the ultimate owner of the leased car, and the plantiff won a multimillion $ judgement-I think it was against GMAC, but can't remember exactly.
Post the judgement, GMAC announced they stopped writing auto leases in NY, and were followed by other leasing companies. I did not realize they stopped in other NE states, but I assume they would do so in any state that has vicarious liability laws on the books without protection for lessors.
The NY legislature is supposedly looking at legislation to remedy this, but given the power of trial lawyers I am not sure how far it has gotten. It will probably accelerate once the State realizes how much revenue they are losing.
This will probably be a state by state issue, and the leasing companies should try to figure out a way to write the contract that proctects them, without waiting on

MEnthusiast · 28th July 2003, 18:30

I believe the case was in RI and it was Ford. It got a lot of publicity. Many leasing companies are running for the hills- and I dont blame them one bit. Others, like BMW Financial Services are charging more on leases now. I suspect they are taking out insurance and passing the cost on.