kmp647 said:
they have yet to post or advertise any Lease offers at all. seems somewhat normal with a new product. But BMW should announce a public lease offer by at least the end of the year or when cars are available at the dealerships. August? December? I think it will be different from the Leaf rollout as it is nationwide.
once stores have a couple I3's in stock in non ev adoption areas the offers will be posted on BMW's website it will not be easy as the schemes they have designed are complicated with the balloons and all what they will need at some point is a straight advertised lease offer just as all BMW's have, and I guess it will only include the $4875 lease credit instead of the full $7,500 .......
The OwnersChoice with Flex really isn't a complicated scheme. It's not complicated at all actually and I think any half-way intelligent person can easily understand it if they took a look at what it is. (and I'm not saying you or anyone else here isn't half-way intelligent!)
It's a purchase that allows you to return the car if you want at the end of the term or buy it. This allows a couple things:
1) You only have to finance a portion of the value of the car like you do with a lease (say 36 months of use) so your monthly payments are lower like a lease.
2) Since it's a purchase you get to claim the full $7,500 tax credit on your taxes.
3) To further lower your payments, BMW FS will allow you to take a capitol cost reduction up to $7,500. If you choose to do so, you owe that money to BMW FS and can pay it back whenever you want, like when you get the money back after doing your taxes, or you can wait till the end of the term and pay it then (they refer to it as a balloon payment and I think that adds to the confusion).
So lets say you use OC w/ Flex and take the full $7,500 cap cost reduction. Your 36 months are up now and your options are:
a) Return the car and pay only the $7,500 (if you didn't do so already when you got it back from your taxes)
b) Keep the car and pay the residual value plus the $7,500. (This is no different than if you decided to buy your car outright once your lease was up.)
Yes, the easiest way to eliminate the need for this whole thing is for BMW to simply give the full $7,500 federal Tax credit to the customer on a lease, but that isn't happening because they swear they don't get it. I'm not arguing if they do or don't or what because I really don't care how they came to the conclusion that they can't give the full tax credit, I'm just trying to explain OC w/Flex.
So this really is the next best thing because it allows you to get the full tax credit (provided you earned enough money to pay $7,500 in taxes) and have the option to lease or buy the car and also get the $7,500 capitol cost reduction to lower your monthly payments.