Took delivery of my new 35is on Saturday

I sold my SRT-6 two years ago and I've missed having a two seater ever since.

Thanks to the great tip off by Kief, I knew now was the time to lease myself a new playmate for the next couple of years.

My deal was absolutely insane. I found an Atacama yellow 35is for sale on ebay.

The buy it now price combined with the 10K, 24 month MSDx7 + (R/L)oyalty lease deal led to a payment (incl. CT 6% tax) of just $362.27/month with nothing but the security deposit(s) and first months payment out of pocket.

The MSDs return about 24.9% (per year!) in the form of reduced payments.

Car has the premium package, premium sound, NAV, cold weather, comfort access, and the (damned!) 19" rims. The ebay price included a set of wheel locks, a pair of OEM winter floor mats & window tinting (35%) that will survive in the north east only until the first time I get pulled over for them.

Throw in $440 for a plane ticket, a couple hundred bucks in gas, buying my in-laws breakfast after I stayed a night with them to break up my drive back to CT, an awesome road trip and one trashed rear tire (maybe the rim, too. I'll know for sure tomorrow) and it has been a hell of a four day run.

I was alone for the trip, and I was intent on covering a lot of miles in less than 2 days, so I didn't take many pictures. These two are my favorites.





And, FWIW, you can get almost 29 mpg out of a 35is is you don't drive too fast (even varying engine speeds for break in) and if you do 95+% highway driving.

So you did European Delivery through Ebay? Like the color. Did you have to file damages before dropping the car off for shipment to the US?

Nope, just bought if out of a domestic dealer's inventory at a crazy discount, high residual & low MF.

It was in their inventory for at least 7 months based on the shipping date.

That color is BEAUTIFUL. I drove my Z (35I) to the Florida Keys from Illinois. Long but amazingly fun experience. We got 29 miles to the gallon. We were very pleased and looked hot on the highway. Can't wait to go on another road trip.

Congrats, definitely uniquely looking car. Hope the cops don't pay too much attention to it

Nice ride. If you doubt mind me asking, what was the negotiated price?

I know the lease deal is good but I have not been able to come anywhere below 400/mo

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Originally Posted by ZoomVT

Nice ride. If you doubt mind me asking, what was the negotiated price?

I know the lease deal is good but I have not been able to come anywhere below 400/mo

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You have to do an ED lease to get below $400, the fact he got it from a domestic dealer was remarkable.

When I test drove the Z4 35is, I was really concerned about the 19" wheels, guess I was right.

Originally Posted by dtc100

You have to do an ED lease to get below $400, the fact he got it from a domestic dealer was remarkable.

Not necessarily. If you're willing to travel to find the most aggressive deal (i.e., a Z that has been sitting on the lot for months and is significantly discounted already) and willing to put down MSDs, these deals can be found.

When I originally started this thread, my local dealer had an "is" stickered at $70,825, listed for $59,500 and that's before you even negotiated further! Monthly payment would have been in the low $300s w/o any cap cost red and included tax, but unfortunately, the car had sold the month prior and was still listed on their website.

Originally Posted by Display_Name

I sold my SRT-6 two years ago and I've missed having a two seater ever since.

Thanks to the great tip off by Kief, I knew now was the time to lease myself a new playmate for the next couple of years.

My deal was absolutely insane. I found an Atacama yellow 35is for sale on ebay.

The buy it now price combined with the 10K, 24 month MSDx7 + (R/L)oyalty lease deal lead to a payment (incl. CT 6% tax) of just $362.27/month with nothing but the security deposit(s) and first months payment out of pocket.

The MSDs return about 24.9% (per year!) in the form of reduced payments.

Car has the premium package, premium sound, NAV, cold weather, comfort access, and the (damned!) 19" rims. The ebay price included a set of wheel locks, a pair of OEM winter floor mats & window tinting (35%) that will survive in the north east only until the first time I get pulled over for them.

Throw in $440 for a plane ticket, a couple hundred bucks in gas, buying my in-laws breakfast after I stayed a night with them to break up my drive back to CT, an awesome road trip and one trashed rear tire (maybe the rim, too. I'll know for sure tomorrow) and it has been a hell of a four day run.

I was alone for the trip, and I was intent on covering a lot of miles in less than 2 days, so I didn't take many pictures. These two are my favorites.

Looks great Display!
What's the story behind the wheel?

Originally Posted by Kief

Not necessarily. If you're willing to travel to find the most aggressive deal (i.e., a Z that has been sitting on the lot for months and is significantly discounted already) and willing to put down MSDs, these deals can be found.

When I originally started this thread, my local dealer had an "is" stickered at $70,825, listed for $59,500 and that's before you even negotiated further! Monthly payment would have been in the low $300s w/o any cap cost red and included tax, but unfortunately, the car had sold the month prior and was still listed on their website.

Good to know, thanks!

great deal; damn I didn't think yellow would look so good. Enjoy the car.

Originally Posted by Kief

Not necessarily. If you're willing to travel to find the most aggressive deal (i.e., a Z that has been sitting on the lot for months and is significantly discounted already) and willing to put down MSDs, these deals can be found.

When I originally started this thread, my local dealer had an "is" stickered at $70,825, listed for $59,500 and that's before you even negotiated further! Monthly payment would have been in the low $300s w/o any cap cost red and included tax, but unfortunately, the car had sold the month prior and was still listed on their website.

any specific tools you used to make your search more efficient? (yes i know, we can all use google, autotrader, etc.) I am just wondering if there is a search site that makes it easier to find vehicles in dealer inventory.

congrat! deal that you got is amazing. everytime i see great deals on Z4, i have second thought, because i'm in the market for new 3 series.^^
i guess that Z4 is not for everyday car! nice color & nice car, again.

Thank you all for your compliments.

In no particular order.

Any specific tools you used to make your search more efficient?

I really wanted an Atacama, loaded 35is. Cars.com searches for Z4, all distances, then view all results, use the filter links on the left hand side to limit models, then colors.

The hard part is finding out if the shown price (if shown at all) is MSRP or has already been discounted.

The car I wound up leasing was on cars.com (just about 1400 miles from home), but it had no pricing information in the listing.

I just stumbled upon it on ebay with a great b u y it now price. Without that I would not have found it.

What was the negotiated price?

The dealer hadn't even thought of marketing it using their ebay price along with the May 24 month lease special. I simply offered them their buy it now price IF they would insure I could do the 24 month lease special with 7 MSDs, no money down, and that I qualified for the loyalty MF reduction.

I was a lay down, but a lay down for an ebay-offered price that was already $8K+ under sticker. I really wanted the deal closed quickly and I didn't want to risk not getting it by chiseling away after an already huge discount.

There was one Atacama 35is which was just 2 states away, but the CA there advised me that he wasn't interested in matching the ebay price since he didn't want to take a $5K loss on his.

By the time I got home Monday morning, Husker BMW had already sold their other 35is, having marketed it on ebay with a payment derived from the May 24 month special.

Oh, and the car (which I'm thinking of calling Nuprin. "Little. Yellow. Different. Bimmer"), lived its whole life on the showroom floor, so the exterior is gorgeous.

What's the story behind the wheel?

Somewhere east of the Hudson on I-84 I hit some sort of road hazard at around 70mph. I don't know what it was (awfully dark at 3:30am).

Didn't know that it hurt anything until the TPMS warning came up about 10 miles later. I limped it on the RFTs to 2 gas stations at the next exit, both of whom had air machines with slashed hoses. (Apparently they slash each others' air hoses as some sort of weird competitive edge seeking...)

Finally found air, tried to see if the tire would re-pressurize, and all it did was make the hole on the sidewall smile at me. Tire was losing more than 20 psi a minute, and the area around the hole was abraded quite a bit. The rim looked dinged near the hole.

I tried BMW assist, but they would only get me to the nearest dealer, which would leave the car about 80 miles from home at 5am.

I called AAA (I have a gold AAA membership, which will tow any non-commercial vehicle, including RVs, up to 100 miles as part of the benefit) and had them flatbed me to the dealer closest to home.

The aftermarket tire warranty I picked up has already paid off. They paying for the tire, I'll just be out $10 since New Country wants $45, more than the max benefit of $35 for mounting, balancing and disposal.

The rim was bent beyond repair, so I'm now waiting for a replacement to come in. I'll find out today if the tire warranty will stand up and eat that too.

Tire warranty has a max benefit of $2,500, a little more than 8X what I paid for it.

Husker wanted more than double what I paid (CCed, not in the lease PMT) for the aftermarket warranty for the BMW brand tire/wheel policy.

I still came out ahead, I'd just hate to lose a series of wheels/tires on a leased vehicle that wind up exceeding the warranty coverage cap.

I wonder if I can get a BMWCCA discount on the rim & tire?

I guess that Z4 is not for everyday car!

I'll drive it from Spring to just before winter.

I'll keep my Volvo C30 (which I bought new for more than $8K off sticker) as a winter "beater". There's a reason my ebay userid is "cheapskate."

My wife is the primary driver of our X5. Both it and the C30 have a set of dedicated winter tires & rims.

My commute chews up about 270 miles a week.

I ran the numbers for a 12K/yr lease, and I was effectively pre-paying $0.189 per each mile. I compared that with the $0.20 per mile overage and decided to simply do the shorter mileage contract and pay for just the additional miles I might use.

Sweet

You can add miles at a discount rate as long as you do so 6 months before the lease end.

Thanks for all the great info.

Originally Posted by dtc100

You can add miles at a discount rate as long as you do so 6 months before the lease end.

Thank you for that great tidbit!

I did not know that. Makes me feel even better about my choice.

Seriously, without bimmerfest's primer on leasing and Kief's posting of the 35is deal this month, I'd likely never have convinced myself to actually get a Z4.

Display_Name: just like in the Audi commercial, take care of my future car! Put a lid on the coffee (better yet, don't allow anything in the cabin), keep the miles low, change the oil, no dings or scratches. I will pick it up in 2 years!

Nice car!

So how do you like the DCT transmission?

I was able to pick up my car last night. The aftermarket tire warranty covered a new rim, the new tire and mounting/balancing.

I had a zero-due invoice waiting for me at New Country when I picked up my car. They had it parked on the skirt just outside the showroom, right next to a brand new z4 30i that was sporting a window hanger lease offer for significantly more than what I'm paying.

I feel like a kid in a candy store. Having put together my internet search skills, my air travel booking finesse, 14 years of ebay experience, 6 months (15 years ago) car selling experience and all the tricks learned on bimmerfest to get into my dream car on the cheap my first time leasing has got me sailing with happiness.

I have the bent rim. I'll get around to taking pictures of it, probably next week. I'm not sure that the bending will be localized enough to show up in a photo. The 326M certainly doesn't appear to have a cracking problem, based on the 10 seconds I spend looking at the wheel last night.

Originally Posted by Display_Name

I was able to pick up my car last night. The aftermarket tire warranty covered a new rim, the new tire and mounting/balancing.

I had a zero-due invoice waiting for me at New Country when I picked up my car. They had it parked on the skirt just outside the showroom, right next to a brand new z4 30i that was sporting a window hanger lease offer for significantly more than what I'm paying.

I feel like a kid in a candy store. Having put together my internet search skills, my air travel booking finesse, 14 years of ebay experience, 6 months (15 years ago) car selling experience and all the tricks learned on bimmerfest to get into my dream car on the cheap my first time leasing has got me sailing with happiness.

I have the bent rim. I'll get around to taking pictures of it, probably next week. I'm not sure that the bending will be localized enough to show up in a photo. The 326M certainly doesn't appear to have a cracking problem, based on the 10 seconds I spend looking at the wheel last night.

Definitely an awesome deal! You set the bar for domestic delivery!

Absolutely stunning, congrats! Can you do me a favor and let me know if the car was marked as a "demo" by the dealer? One way to check it would be if your warranty start or original in-service date on your lease is being shown as the date you got it or a date prior to that.

Originally Posted by fq

Absolutely stunning, congrats! Can you do me a favor and let me know if the car was marked as a "demo" by the dealer? One way to check it would be if your warranty start or original in-service date on your lease is being shown as the date you got it or a date prior to that.

I didn't know you can lease a demo with the same lease terms for a new one.

This is one of my other favorite colors! And it looks best as a 35is variant! Congrats!

Yes, absolutely, demos get leased with the exact same terms as new cars. The only difference is that residual amount is reduced by the number of miles on the odometer times usually 20 cents (but can be different for different vehicles -- I have done it several times). If DISPLAY's Z4 only had 40-50 miles on the odo, then the residual would only have been reduced by $10 from that of a "new" vehicle, translating into about 40 cents per month in the lease payment.

Originally Posted by dtc100

I didn't know you can lease a demo with the same lease terms for a new one.

OP: what will the car cost to purchase at the end of the lease?


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