[kimi_fan]

Yes, the nice thing about leasing is that the car isn't yours (see the garage pics to see why I'm driving a 335 and not the 330). My 330ci got hit a month before my lease end, some idiot in a truck ran a stop sign and took the front of the car off. Thank god I ordered the 335i a few weeks before that happened. I was without a car for only a few weeks.

GAP insurance is mandatory in Illinois...not sure about other states. I also think 60-62% residual on 36/36 lease is pretty close. I think that is about what I got on my 335i lease. The X5 may have been higher than that even.

I find it odd that BMW would give incentives for a 2 year over a 3 year lease...It could be the cars I look at but I always graph out the projected residuals of the car over 12, 24, 36+ months and see what make sense for that particular car. BMW does give incentives to move cars they make too many of or can't sell. Take for example a $64k X5 4.4i, that costs roughly $875/mo. for 36 mo./36k lease. The same lease terms on my 335i, which priced out at $54k came out to $822/mo. Taking the rough $22 per month per $1000 borrowed/leased the X5 should be over $900 per month, but it isn't due to the incentives (generally an inflated residual value).

As a side note I quit buying my cars about 10 years ago. I kept trading them in around the 3 year mark to get something new. And although I broke even on most of them I was paying more per month than a lease would cost. I know not owning the car bothers some people...for some it just makes sense.