Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason340Msport
Technically you can still lease one with 5000+ more miles on it but doesnt make any sense as you lose any lease credits and residual drops 7% and 9% depending on mileage.
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I can confirm that. I've just spent the last two weeks of my time chasing down potential lease deals on loaners/demos within a 500 mile radius of Atlanta. Residual on a loaner/demo under 5k miles is the same as a new model, minus $0.25 per mile on the car...and you still get the lease credits/rebates. Between 5000 and 7500 miles, it drops 7% (as well as minus $0.25/mile), and you lose all rebates as Jason stated. Over 7500 miles and you're now at -9% (minus $0.25/mile). So yeah, anything over 5k miles is rather pointless...you could likely be getting a brand new one at the same price, or better.
Some dealers simply explained to me how badly 5k+ miles would affect the lease numbers, while others said they absolutely "can't do it". Similarly, I had some dealers willing to do a dealer-to-dealer transfer on a loaner car I found in another state, while others said their policies don't allow them to transfer a loaner/demo.
As far as discounts go, I agree that you should be aiming for ~20% off MSRP on a loaner, before rebates. Example I've seen plenty of: ~$52k MSRP loaners that have been marked down to ~$42k. Then with various rebates you could easily be at $40k final price. With the residual being close to original, that can make for a very nice lease deal. That is, if the a-hole dealers don't attempt to pad the deal with extra profit by inflating the money factor, which many of them do. I've walked away from 3 deals in the last week because after I wore them down on the sales price, the finance managers insisted they were not making any money on the deal unless they jack up the MF. Base MF for BMW Financial is .00145 this month, yet I've had several dealers claim they "simply can't go below .00185". That's when I laugh at them and tell them to find some other idiot to sign up for a 4.4% APR. Sadly I'm sure they have no problem doing so.
The rub with the loaners/demos obviously is the way most of them are equipped. Most loaners tend to be super basic, and tend to only come in certain color combos (exterior: lots of white and silver, fewer black, even fewer gray and blue. interior: lots of beige and cognac). Executive demos can be much better equipped and have better styling/colors, but there are far fewer exec demos out there than loaners. If you have a very specific set of feature packages that you want, combined with a very specific set of colors and trim finishes, it can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.