Has anyone taken advantage of the $0-down lease deal MINI is running on ALL4 CMs this month? It's almost too good to be true. Seems like a great deal but I'm buying a FWD. Why would they be incentifying ALL4s exclusively? Over-inventoried?

I can't see not getting the AWD option

I guess there are different ways to look at things, but to me a smaller down payment means more interest which I would not put under the "too good to be true" category. It's not free money.

Hey Panda,

I just picked up my ordered CMS FWD last Thursday and I ended up doing the Owner's Choice plan and put $0 down, 12K miles a year, a good residual to buy if I want at the end of 3 years. Pretty cool on an ordered car!

Very good point Fredo and very true. I thought the too good part was the lease payment is $379, which I thought was very reasonable for a 38 month lease for a $30K car.

Either way it is an incentive.

JasonTom, good to know! What type of monthly, if you don't mind me asking?

I have a friend that works in finance who has a long history of buying/leasing cars help my wife and I out when we were looking. He recommended that for a lease you don't actually want to put anything down, because most leases have provisions that will get you out of the lease if the car is stolen - but you won't get whatever you put down back. So any money you put down ahead of time is slightly more at risk than money you haven't paid yet.

Also, the monthly lease amounts that you see in the ads on the websites and such are pretty far away from what you'd actually pay. It'll be a very basic model, and it won't include all the taxes and dealer fees. We went into the dealer thinking we were going to be leasing and we ended up purchasing. Granted it's a 60-month purchase vs a three year lease, but the estimated monthly payments (putting $0 down on a lease and $5K down on the purchase) were about the same.

Obviously, there are a lot of variables involved. But figured it might be worth mentioning!

I went in and asked about the lease, but the salesman had not worked on one yet. We went though the numbers though, and I got him close to the $379 with $0 down for a similar car (with MSRP about $1000 higher). The reason this lease works is because of the:

Low money factor (I believe it's supposed to be .00140 but I was quoted .00135 or 3.24%)
57% residual for 10k miles
38 month lease (which lowers payment about $20 per month)

With all of that in mind, I found a 6-speed with $30k sticker and got a quote, with only a small amount of haggling, of $0 down and $396/month plus tax. Only out of pocket is fees of about $500 total (since mini pays $379 of first payment).

I'm debating it - this would be my first mini. I waited for the Countryman and then we decided on a Prius V, which I can't stand driving. I've given it almost a year and it's awful. Just trying to decide whether the All4 or the S Convertible is the right fit for me. I'll be curious to see, and will report back, if the dealer can run similar lease summers given that pricing is similar.

As a follow-up, went back to te dealer today and decided to do the Mini Select instead of the lease. There is also a promotion on Mini Select financing. While it's a little higher than the lease rate, it's only 3.49% for 60 months. The salesman figured it out and said that usually the Select rate is 1% higher than the normal financing rate. So with no money out of pocket, it's less than the lease price. Granted, it's 60 months, but much easier to get out of as compared to a lease.