I am about to order a Cooper S, and I was quoted $356 with $2435 down the MSRP is 22,050 the dealer "package" (free floormats and 2 "gifts" whoopdedoo!) puts it $595 above MSRP, Towne Mini has no wait list so that's a plus. Does this sound reasonable? The lease is 10K a year and the down pament is total cash due. TIA!

BTW, this car will be for summer use only so 10K is reasonable, I have my quattro for the winter.

 

well most of the time you can buy in extra miles. If you lease it you can just about cut your payments in half. The thing is you have the chouce of eather buying the car at the end of the lease or turning the car in to the dealer and walking away scott free. Or you can traid it in right before lease is up in a new and improved mini. I have leased 3 cars now and that is the only way I would go. Look at it this way too, By the time your lease is up, your warrenty (spell check) is up too, and by the looks of things the mini is not going to be a cheap car to work on.


happy mining

 

well most of the time you can buy in extra miles. If you lease it you can just about cut your payments in half. The thing is you have the chouce of eather buying the car at the end of the lease or turning the car in to the dealer and walking away scott free. Or you can traid it in right before lease is up in a new and improved mini. I have leased 3 cars now and that is the only way I would go. Look at it this way too, By the time your lease is up, your warrenty (spell check) is up too, and by the looks of things the mini is not going to be a cheap car to work on.


happy mining

 

I am aware of how leases work, my question is if this particular price is fair. BTW this is a 36 month lease.

 

Work a little more with the dealer because I got a better deal with 12k and 2000 down. I do not know how is your relationship with the dealer or your FICO score, but work it out for 10k you might be paying about 330's

 

Don't mean to hijack an MCS thread, but it seemed silly to start another lease topic ...

I was planning to lease my Cooper (I was raised in the car industry - I've had it drilled into my head since birth that you never buy a first model year), but the dealer's terms have come out noticeably higher than the estimated payments on miniusa.com. What concerns me more, however, is that I can't get anyone to tell me the interest rate they're quoting on or the residual value at the end of a 36-month, 12k/yr term. And maybe I'm being paranoid, but based on other owners' feedback on this dealer, I feel like I'm getting a substandard level of attention. Has anyone else felt like a second-class sale because you're going the lease route?

 

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I've leased 3 cars now and the last lease was on a 99 Miata (msrp 22500), I put no money down, no deposit or any cash at all and got 12k miles a year for 42 months for 315. Also consider this, buying a car with a MSRP of 22050, say 7% sales tax plus tag and title comes up to about 24500. Finance that at 7.5% for 72 months and your looking at 423 a month and your insurance is lower. So your lease is only saving about 80 a month, if thats a big deal then go for the lease but first check with local Credit unions and banks to see if they will offer a better lease deal than your getting through your dealer. All you need is the vehicle Vin# and the price and they'll be happy to help you out. Just so you know I'm not making this up I worked for GMAC for about 8 years so I do have some experience in this subject.
Hope this helps :smile:

 

Also consider this, buying a car with a MSRP of 22050, say 7% sales tax plus tag and title comes up to about 24500. Finance that at 7.5% for 72 months and your looking at 423 a month and your insurance is lower. So your lease is only saving about 80 a month,


72 months? I would never finance a car more than 48 months. Geez, between the many thousands in interest plus the fact that you'd be paying 423 a month during years 5 and 6 when there is no warranty, everything needs fixing and the car isn't worth half that payment at that point. IN the same manner, leasing doesn't make much sense for longer than 36 months. Especially on this car, maintenance would be too high. Just my 2 cents.
:smile:

 

>>I am about to order a Cooper S, and I was quoted $356 with $2435 down the MSRP is 22,050 the dealer "package" (free floormats and 2 "gifts" whoopdedoo!) puts it $595 above MSRP, Towne Mini has no wait list so that's a plus. Does this sound reasonable? The lease is 10K a year and the down pament is total cash due. TIA!
>>
>>BTW, this car will be for summer use only so 10K is reasonable, I have my quattro for the winter.


Sounds very expensive. According to miniusa.com, my MSRP is $24,800 and a 36 month lease with 15k miles/yr is only $316 a month. You don't have to go through the dealer. You can apply for credit online right through miniusa I believe. Try that. You should get a better deal. Also, try leasecompare.com. They'll give you 3 quotes with the miles, terms, due at signing, residual and money factor all upfront. No games or secrets.

BTW, I believe the dealer MUST show you the residual and money factor on the pricing sheet that you sign when you initiate the lease. This is the law!!! Sounds like they're trying to rip you off every which way.

I too plan on leasing my MINI S but mine won't be here until later this fall.

 

Focus on what the user was asking, Is he getting a good deal on the lease being offered. The answer is no! His dealer is asking him to put down 2400 on a lease. Never ever put money down on a lease. In my example, if he put that money down on the purchase his payment would only be 381.51.

 

One more thing...I have heard the MINIs have a very high residual - something in the order of 60% after 3 years. Most sports cars seem to have residuals less than 50%. So MINIs should definitely lease out better than many cars.

 

Well, I finally got a little more info, but I don't think it clarified things. I spec'd out a Cooper at MSRP $20,470. I was quoted a $12,896 residual after 36 months, and a .00340 (8.16%) money factor. And yet the monthly payment I was quoted was $372! Even with the ridiculous TN sales tax (just bumped up to 9.5%), this seems way too high. Am I missing something?

FWIW, my dealer said they go through BMW Financial Services, and that the info on miniusa is just a (seemingly unreliable) guideline.

 

>>Well, I finally got a little more info, but I don't think it clarified things. I spec'd out a Cooper at MSRP $20,470. I was quoted a $12,896 residual after 36 months, and a .00340 (8.16%) money factor. And yet the monthly payment I was quoted was $372! Even with the ridiculous TN sales tax (just bumped up to 9.5%), this seems way too high. Am I missing something?
>>


Go to leasecompare.com. I plugged in your numbers and got a money factor of 0.00283 and payments of $306 with $1,306 + tax & license due at signing. Add about another $850 for taxes in TN and you're talking $2100 due at signing (includes everything) with a payment of $306 a month for 15k miles a year

 

Has anyone here used leasecompare.com to actually finance their vehicles? The numbers do look much better, but I'm wondering how this will impact the process as a whole. If I tell the dealership I can get better lease rates elsewhere, are they likely to budge? If I do finance online, what should I look out for?

 

Has anyone used the "MINI Select" financeing/Balloon payment option?
I was curious what you thought of the deal you got?
SW

 

Can someone explain the Residual/Money Factor thing with leases. I have only ever bought used cars so I don't know much about leases.