Is ED Lease worth it for me?

I was all set to do the European Delivery lease until I started reading these success stories of domestic lease that is not all that much more than the ED, when factoring in plane tickets and hotels.

I did my spreadsheet and basically, I'm looking to get a fully loaded 35IS with a MSRP of $72,000 and have to find a dealer who can sell it to me at the net cap cost of under $66,000. This would require them to sell the car at below their invoice because the acquisition fee & registration would cost about $725 and $800, respectively. leaving the car cost to be under $64,500.

Is this possible? I'm looking for the 24 months, 10k/yr lease. If it is, after 7 MSD's, but no loyalty, I can get my monthly payment to be $467 or so before taxes. This is about $100 more per month than the ED lease, or $2400 more for the lease term, but something I'm willing to pay to avoid the inconvenience of flying to Germany. The plane ticket alone is $1700 for the pick up date I'm getting. I don't desire to do any traveling so flying there would be an inconvenience, not pleausre.

It sounds like you should lease from your local dealer and avoid all the problems with ED. Me; I'm goin' to Munich to get mine...

Dick

Originally Posted by angrypandy

I don't desire to do any traveling so flying there would be an inconvenience, not pleausre.

If you're not looking to do the trip/wouldn't do it anyway, doing ED for the cost savings doesn't really make sense unless you get an award ticket and turn the car around in Munich same-day or after a few days. That being said, on a Z4 you should be able to get somewhere around $4K off your otherwise lowest price by doing ED.

The Z4 I was looking at when I considered one had an MSRP of $70,825, and an ED invoice of $61,130. With $1000 dealer profit a 10K 24 month lease (w/ MSDs and ED adder but without loyalty) comes out to $405 + tax. Using a cap cost of $66,130, which is $1000 profit on a US delivery, the same lease comes out to $542 + tax.

Personally, I don't think you're going to get under invoice, and since invoice on a $72K MSRP car is somewhere around $65-66K getting the cap cost to $64,500 on a US delivery is probably not doable.

Originally Posted by jcain

If you're not looking to do the trip/wouldn't do it anyway, doing ED for the cost savings doesn't really make sense unless you get an award ticket and turn the car around in Munich same-day or after a few days. That being said, on a Z4 you should be able to get somewhere around $4K off your otherwise lowest price by doing ED.

The Z4 I was looking at when I considered one had an MSRP of $70,825, and an ED invoice of $61,130. With $1000 dealer profit a 10K 24 month lease (w/ MSDs and ED adder but without loyalty) comes out to $405 + tax. Using a cap cost of $66,130, which is $1000 profit on a US delivery, the same lease comes out to $542 + tax.

Personally, I don't think you're going to get under invoice, and since invoice on a $72K MSRP car is somewhere around $65-66K getting the cap cost to $64,500 on a US delivery is probably not doable.

So basically, if I can't get below the invoice in the domestic lease, even with the plane ticket and a few nights in hotel, the ED will make more sense financially.

Originally Posted by angrypandy

I was all set to do the European Delivery lease until I started reading these success stories of domestic lease that is not all that much more than the ED, when factoring in plane tickets and hotels.

I did my spreadsheet and basically, I'm looking to get a fully loaded 35IS with a MSRP of $72,000 and have to find a dealer who can sell it to me at the net cap cost of under $66,000. This would require them to sell the car at below their invoice because the acquisition fee & registration would cost about $725 and $800, respectively. leaving the car cost to be under $64,500.

Is this possible? I'm looking for the 24 months, 10k/yr lease. If it is, after 7 MSD's, but no loyalty, I can get my monthly payment to be $467 or so before taxes. This is about $100 more per month than the ED lease, or $2400 more for the lease term, but something I'm willing to pay to avoid the inconvenience of flying to Germany. The plane ticket alone is $1700 for the pick up date I'm getting. I don't desire to do any traveling so flying there would be an inconvenience, not pleausre.

You're not going to get the car for under dealer cost. Sometimes you might get a car for under invoice if it has additional cash incentives tied to it(not true in this case) or if it were a dealer demo (again not true here),
Sure there are always urban legend type stories about how someone got an amazing below cost deal because the dealer was trying to make a certain sales target but I really wouldn't bank on being able to find such a thing when you're comparing total Ed cost to us pickup cost.

Originally Posted by angrypandy

but something I'm willing to pay to avoid the inconvenience of flying to Germany. The plane ticket alone is $1700 for the pick up date I'm getting. I don't desire to do any traveling so flying there would be an inconvenience, not pleausre.

Angry, I realize you are trying to get the best deal, but if you were only interested in ED for the savings, then this subforum isn't for you--at least for now.

For the vast majority of us, ED is an experience. Everything from neg. the deal, preparing for the trip, taking delivery, driving throughout Europe, etc...Flying to Germany for ED should never be an inconvenience. Perhaps you are correct and should search more for a traditional del., or even a state or two away.

Someday when your schedule allows, then you can savor the experience

GL w/your search

There is no better case for unintended consequences than the idea that people would pay up front for a car that doesn't exist, lose a few days of their life to fly to Europe and back, and then not see the car again for 6 to 8 weeks while they are paying for it... only for the potential to save a few bucks.

How much is driving your own car around Europe for a few weeks worth to you? If the answer is not much, save yourself a bunch of trouble and don't even consider European Delivery.

I appreciate everyones input. I was able to locate a Z4 35IS about 400 miles away and the dealer has the car priced at $200 over their invoice. But are there a lot more additional costs for a domestic lease? Aside from the $725 acquisition fee, they were listing a bunch of other fees that added up to almost $2000. And how do I know it's truly $200 above the invoice?

Even with the car prices at their invoice, the overall cost of a 2 year lease is about $3000 more than the ED not counting travel expenses.

Originally Posted by angrypandy

I appreciate everyones input. I was able to locate a Z4 35IS about 400 miles away and the dealer has the car priced at $200 over their invoice. But are there a lot more additional costs for a domestic lease? Aside from the $725 acquisition fee, they were listing a bunch of other fees that added up to almost $2000. And how do I know it's truly $200 above the invoice?

Even with the car prices at their invoice, the overall cost of a 2 year lease is about $3000 more than the ED not counting travel expenses.

There's MACO/Training, but I think those are around $500 combined. If their fees are adding up to $2000 WITHOUT the acq. fee they're probably not giving you anywhere close to $200 over invoice. Check their bottom line price against the invoice on edmunds.com and see what their dealer profit actually is.

Also, I'll now say what everybody says, which is contact a board sponsor. They'll most likely give you a fair price, and the experience will probably be better. Where are you in CA? If you're close to Torrance I can recommend Philippe Kahn at South Bay BMW. I did my 1st and am doing my 2nd ED with them and have been happy with the level of service and pricing.

Originally Posted by jcain

There's MACO/Training, but I think those are around $500 combined. If their fees are adding up to $2000 WITHOUT the acq. fee they're probably not giving you anywhere close to $200 over invoice. Check their bottom line price against the invoice on edmunds.com and see what their dealer profit actually is.

Also, I'll now say what everybody says, which is contact a board sponsor. They'll most likely give you a fair price, and the experience will probably be better. Where are you in CA? If you're close to Torrance I can recommend Philippe Kahn at South Bay BMW. I did my 1st and am doing my 2nd ED with them and have been happy with the level of service and pricing.

+1
many dealers play the game of quoting a low over invoice cost and then tacking on various fees. Other than 725 acq, training, Maco and maybe a small doc fee they're just additional profit. Also beware of marked up money factors. Kind of like airlines quoting low fares and then charging for luggage.
Also 2nd the Philippe recommendation for us or ed.

Originally Posted by 11gt535

There is no better case for unintended consequences than the idea that people would pay up front for a car that doesn't exist, lose a few days of their life to fly to Europe and back, and then not see the car again for 6 to 8 weeks while they are paying for it... only for the potential to save a few bucks.

How much is driving your own car around Europe for a few weeks worth to you? If the answer is not much, save yourself a bunch of trouble and don't even consider European Delivery.

Not really true. You don't really "pay" until a week or so before scheduled pickup, which by then, the car already exists. And again, you're not really "paying" for the car for the entire 6 to 8 weeks since your 2nd month lease payment is covered by BMWFS. And as you can see in this thread, the "potential to save a few bucks" is actually more a firm reality that you'll be saving somewhere north of $2,500 over the life of the lease.

At the end of the day, even if you were strictly going to fly to europe solely to pick up the car and drop it off immediately, you can easily end up still saving some money and visiting Munich, if only for a night or two. This is assuming, of course, that you can spare a day or two in your schedule and don't mind catching up on movies/magazines while on the plane.

Originally Posted by bmw325

+1
many dealers play the game of quoting a low over invoice cost and then tacking on various fees. Other than 725 acq, training, Maco and maybe a small doc fee they're just additional profit. Also beware of marked up money factors. Kind of like airlines quoting low fares and then charging for luggage.
Also 2nd the Philippe recommendation for us or ed.

How about registration, is that just what I take care of at the DMV or do some dealers charge you a fee for that as well?

Originally Posted by angrypandy

How about registration, is that just what I take care of at the DMV or do some dealers charge you a fee for that as well?

The car has to be registered and the dealer takes care of that for you, BMW or not. Here's the fees that I paid, some of these will vary based on the selling price of the car:

• Doc prep fee: $55
• DMV electronic filing fee: $29
• License fee: $599 (estimated) (varies based on price of car)
• Registration/titling/transfer fees: $86 (estimated)
• CA tire fee: $7.00

UPDATE!

I'm about 80% sure that I will be going through with the ED!
The CA gave me a pick up date of 7/30, which would work decently well for my parents who will be making the trip themselves. The CA told me that I can make the paperwork so that my father can be on the document and he can pick it up. Now I guess the only thing left to do is bug you guys more about how to plan a trip for them. Flights around 7/30 are expensive but ED rocks!

The new motto of ED should be:
Get the car you want for much less, and send you parents to a nice European vacation in the process!

You understand the lease starts the day you sign the papers or at least a week before the pick up in Munich.

You will then not see the car for about 8 weeks.