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MINI Cooper Lease Questions

729 messages,  Last post on May 19, 2013 at 9:02 PM

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What is this discussion about? MINI Cooper, MINI Cooper Countryman, Car Leasing, Coupe, Convertible, Hatchback, SUV

Messages Page 5 of 73

#40 of 729 Re: 2006 Cooper S Lease money factor [minilover] by saabgirl

Jul 13, 2006 (8:38 pm)

Replying to: minilover (Jun 21, 2006 9:36 am)
If you can take your car payment as a tax deduction leasing may make sense. But for everyone else, as your example shows, it's probably financially nuts, especially for a hot car.
 
In this case, you shovel in $6500. Then you shovel in another $500 per for X months. At the end, they keep all the money and you give them back the car. Nonono.
 
My .02 is that someone in this position should examine their options far away from the showroom floor and from any marketing propaganda.
 
If you must have a Mini, finance the base model trying for a down payment as close to 50% of the total deal as you can manage. Work the phone and Internet to find the best rate. Then, even if you do stretch out the payments, you'll have equity in the car which will protect you if you change your mind a year or two down the road. Plus, you can complete the loan early by paying every third week instead of every fourth week. (Or if you've found a really good rate, you may decide there's no reason to pay early, esp if interest rates go up.) But it will be your choice.
 
Applicable cliches: 1) A car is your biggest non-appreciating expenditure, so you need to understand where your best interests are, 2) For most buyers, leasing is a sucker's game, 3) You will lose any negotiation unless you are willing to get up and walk away, 4) Even after you have numbers that seem okay, say, "I need 12 hours to think about it."
 
You know the little voice that says you must have something, and you need to make the sales person think you're a good guy? Well fire it. He's probably cost you a fortune already.

#41 of 729 Re: 2006 Cooper S Lease money factor [minilover] by Car_man HOST

Jul 16, 2006 (10:54 am)

Replying to: minilover (Jun 21, 2006 9:36 am)
Wow, minilover, the money factor that you were quoted is really bad. Even though BMW is not providing any sort of lease support on Minis right now, its standard lease money factors are a lot better than that. BMW Financial Services' current buy rate lease money factor for consumers who lease a Mini and qualify for its top credit tier is actually around .00385 and for consumers who qualify for the next tier down it's .00310 - .00315 or so. BMW FS' exact standard money factors vary depending upon what part of the country one is in. Your money factor for this car should be much better than this unless your credit is in really rough shape.
 
Furthermore, $6,500 is way too much money to put down when leasing. If your leased vehicle is totaled in an accident or stolen and never recovered that $6,500 will just disappear. If you have that much money to put down on your lease, you would be much better off using it to make additional security deposits. Each additional deposit that you make, up to seven additional, will reduce your car's money factor by .00007.
 
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#42 of 729 Re: 2006 Cooper S Lease money factor [mattinla] by Car_man HOST

Jul 16, 2006 (11:42 am)

Replying to: mattinla (Jun 21, 2006 10:07 am)
Hi mattinla. See my previous post for info on Mini's money factors. As far as their acquisition fees go, BMW FS charges an acquisition fee of $625 in most states. If you are asked to pay more than this, there is a good chance that the dealer you are working with is trying to mark your car's factor up to add additional back-end profit to your deal.
 
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#43 of 729 Re: 2006 Cooper S Lease money factor [minilover] by Car_man HOST

Jul 16, 2006 (11:44 am)

Replying to: minilover (Jun 21, 2006 11:30 am)
The reason why you are seeing different dealers quote different money factors for the same car, minilover, is because dealers are allowed to mark banks' buy rate money factors up to add additional back-end profit to deals. This is why it is important to find out what the buy rate is for the vehicle that you want.
 
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#44 of 729 Ok deal? by mynewmini

Aug 01, 2006 (10:03 am)

I'm leasing a 2006 Mini with an MSRP of $21,700; the adjusted cap. cost (wish I knew what this was!) is $22,448. I'm in Washington State. The lease is for 15K miles/year for 36 months. I'm putting $1,500 down, the lease factor is .00320, and my total payment comes out to $363 (base monthly rental of $332.70 + 9.1% tax). Is this an ok deal? Is anything here negotiable? Thanks!

#45 of 729 Re: Ok deal? [mynewmini] by qbrozen

Aug 01, 2006 (1:12 pm)

Replying to: mynewmini (Aug 01, 2006 10:03 am)
hmmm... well, do you know what they are selling the car to you for? Adjusted cap cost COULD include fees (bank fee, doc fees, DMV fees). But all of that would add up to more than $748. So either they are selling the car below MSRP and then adding all fees, OR they are only accounting for some fees in the adjusted cap, OR they are charging you over MSRP and it takes no fees into account.
 
You also want to find out what of that $1500 down is actually going towards cap cost reduction.

#46 of 729 Re: Ok deal? [qbrozen] by mynewmini

Aug 01, 2006 (1:32 pm)

Replying to: qbrozen (Aug 01, 2006 1:12 pm)
Here's the information that they gave me when I asked for the lease terms:
 
MSRP: $21,700
L.E.V. %: 68%
Lease-End Value: $14,756
Lease term: 36 mos
Documentary fee: $35.00
Initial Cap. Cost: $22,150
Cash Cap. Reduction: $527.29
Total Cap Reduction: $527.29
Total Add Cap Cost: $825
Adjusted Cap. Cost: $22,447.71
Lease factor: .00320
Base Monthly Rental: $332.70
Monthly Tax: 9.1%: $30.28
Total Monthly Payment: $362.98
Security Deposit: $400
License Fee: $124.25
Cap Reduc. Tax: 9.1%: $47.98
Amount Due at Start: $1,500
Customer Cash Down: $1,500
Total Sales Tax: $1,138.06
Total Working Cash: $1,500
VSC Tax Rt/Amt: 8.8%

#47 of 729 Re: Ok deal? [mynewmini] by qbrozen

Aug 01, 2006 (1:43 pm)

Replying to: mynewmini (Aug 01, 2006 1:32 pm)
oy vey. I'm lost. Hopefully someone who understands all of this better will chime in.
 
I'm not clear on what is going on here. I would think your initial cap cost is the selling price, but why is it $450 over the MSRP? Are they charging you over MSRP? Or is that MSRP excluding destination? Destination, however, is $550. Hmmmm... So are they giving you $100 off the car, then adding destination? Or are they overcharging you $450 for the car? This is the question I am unable to ascertain by looking at this list of numbers. What did the sticker on the car say? The sticker should have included destination.

#48 of 729 Re: Ok deal? [mynewmini] by qbrozen

Aug 01, 2006 (1:46 pm)

Replying to: mynewmini (Aug 01, 2006 1:32 pm)
And here's something else, if i put all this into Edmunds lease calculator (found here: http://www.edmunds.com/apps/calc/CalculatorController?pmtcalAction=lease_calc), I get a payment of $306. Keep in mind, I used the MSRP up in the top as the selling price.
 
something else i just noticed, though. What is this additional 8.8% VSC tax thing at the bottom of your list??

#49 of 729 Re: Ok deal? [mynewmini] by qbrozen

Aug 01, 2006 (1:56 pm)

Replying to: mynewmini (Aug 01, 2006 1:32 pm)
Only thing I can definitely see here is that they are charging you $22975, making $972 of your downpayment vanish, and then taking the remaining $527 of your downpayment off the cap cost.
 
Your total fees listed here are:
$35 doc fee
$400 security deposit
$124.25 license fee
*********
$559.25 total
 
What about an acquisition fee?? I don't see that anywhere. Let's say, out of good faith, we estimate that the $972 they made disappear out of your down payment is going towards all of these fees (including the elusive acquisition fee).
 
If that's even the case, then why the heck is the cap cost $1275 above the MSRP?? I would have thought that was all the fees, but apparently its not.
 
I'm not an expert by any means, and maybe there is an explanation for all of this, but what I'm seeing so far does not look right at all.

Messages Page 5 of 73

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