Official BMW ActiveE thread

[TonyWilliams]

Drive off, at least at our dealer in the east bay was over $5k with all the fees and first month’s payment, monthly payment with tax was about $545 per month. Insurance on this car will probably be pretty expensive as well. Nice ride for 2 years, but is it worth it for what averages $730 per month plus insurance….just to hand it back, that’s going to be up each individual, but I'm likely to pass.

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.

My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

 

[sparky]

Drive off, at least at our dealer in the east bay was over $5k with all the fees and first month’s payment, monthly payment with tax was about $545 per month. Insurance on this car will probably be pretty expensive as well. Nice ride for 2 years, but is it worth it for what averages $730 per month plus insurance….just to hand it back, that’s going to be up each individual, but I'm likely to pass.

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.
My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

Yeah, shop around. My dealer quoted me just south of a $3k drive-off. I think it was $2850 and that assumes their finance people don't play money factor games. If I drove 20k mi/yr, this EV, with unlimited mileage would be hard to pass up. Since I don't, I'm being more cautious. Isn't it great that there's getting to be more options though?

 

[Ready2plugin]

Drive off, at least at our dealer in the east bay was over $5k with all the fees and first month’s payment, monthly payment with tax was about $545 per month. Insurance on this car will probably be pretty expensive as well. Nice ride for 2 years, but is it worth it for what averages $730 per month plus insurance….just to hand it back, that’s going to be up each individual, but I'm likely to pass.

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.
My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

Yeah, shop around. My dealer quoted me just south of a $3k drive-off. I think it was $2850 and that assumes their finance people don't play money factor games. If I drove 20k mi/yr, this EV, with unlimited mileage would be hard to pass up. Since I don't, I'm being more cautious. Isn't it great that there's getting to be more options though?

Yes, I would probably be still toying with the idea if the drive off was under $3k. East Bay BMW was suppose to call me back today. I asked about the price of a single payment lease to try to see what the money factor was. As for the unlimited miles, I don't think that would help. I only put about 11k on my LEAF in the first year, I don't see that changing much with the ActiveE.

 

[Valdemar]

Yeah, shop around. My dealer quoted me just south of a $3k drive-off. I think it was $2850 and that assumes their finance people don't play money factor games. If I drove 20k mi/yr, this EV, with unlimited mileage would be hard to pass up. Since I don't, I'm being more cautious. Isn't it great that there's getting to be more options though?

Is that with the advertised $499/mo + tax payment? I find it hard to believe as it would be pretty much dead-on per BMW's ad which doesn't include tax, title, license and registration not to mention other BS fees like the "doc fee" dealers typically want.

 

[ss0808]

Drive off, at least at our dealer in the east bay was over $5k with all the fees and first month’s payment, monthly payment with tax was about $545 per month. Insurance on this car will probably be pretty expensive as well. Nice ride for 2 years, but is it worth it for what averages $730 per month plus insurance….just to hand it back, that’s going to be up each individual, but I'm likely to pass.

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.

My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

$5000 drive off sounds high. Dealer has to honor the bmw national ad, but there are ways they can add profit. they can increase the acquisition fee, doc fee, and maco fee. They can also increase the money factor.

residual value: 84% (incredible!), base money factor: .0021.

I did not pay a cap cost reduction (the advertised $2250). If your car gets totalled, you lose that money.

For me @ Long Beach BMW.
total driveoff: $1150.

I also got a owner loyalty rebate of $1000 (I ordered car before 1/3/2012)

mos payment: 556
mos payment + tax: $600

spx power xpress: ~$1000
installation: $720

 

[evnow]

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.

My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

That is weird - IIRC, there wasn't any difference in what dealers charged for Mini-E. Also, Mini-E had insurance included in the monthly payment. Does A-E also do that ?

At $499 - it is about $100 more than Leaf. Given the unlimited miles, this is ideal for anyone who drives a lot (like those with 80 miles a day commute or the 140 mile a day someone drives Leaf here). Ofcourse, A-E is only available in a couple of states.

 

[Valdemar]

residual value: 84% (incredible!), base money factor: .0021.

I did not pay a cap cost reduction (the advertised $2250). If your car gets totalled, you lose that money.

For me @ Long Beach BMW.
total driveoff: $1150.

I also got a owner loyalty rebate of $1000 (I ordered car before 1/3/2012)

Did you get the above drive-off figure after applying the loyalty rebate or the rebate was a separate deal effectively leaving you with a $150 drive-off?

 

[Valdemar]

At $499 - it is about $100 more than Leaf.

2012 Leaf SL is advertized at $420/mo on 12k annual miles lease with a comparable drive-off, so even less than that. I think AE is priced more or less appropriately in the current EV market, which doesn't mean it is not expensive.

 

[Leland]

BMW of Riverside quoted us $3650 drive off and $538 a month with tax.

 

[Valdemar]

My preliminary numbers are $2,233 drive-off $685/mo tax incl. with 0 cap-cost reduction from Bob Smith BMW in Calabasas. I feel there is about 1.5k worth of negotiations built-in into these figures, however they will likely just say take it or leave it if I were to try to ask for a better deal.

 

[Clippy]

BMW of Riverside quoted us $3650 drive off and $538 a month with tax.

Within spitting distance of mine and the BMW ad.

Mine was $3501 drive off (Includes $2250 cap reduction, DMV, 1st month+tax, tire tax and tax on cap reduction).

Monthly is $499.22+$38.69 tax.

Since I ain't a movie star or some such, I guess I'll pay it.

 

[KeiJidosha]

$5000 drive off is a ripoff. The official number from BMW is $2250, $499 month... plus California use tax of about $32.

My dealer, San Diego BMW, jacked it up to $3500 drive off....

That is weird - IIRC, there wasn't any difference in what dealers charged for Mini-E. Also, Mini-E had insurance included in the monthly payment. Does A-E also do that ?

At $499 - it is about $100 more than Leaf. Given the unlimited miles, this is ideal for anyone who drives a lot (like those with 80 miles a day commute or the 140 mile a day someone drives Leaf here). Ofcourse, A-E is only available in a couple of states.

Correct. ActiveE is ~$600/mo without the $2,250 lease buy down (not drive off). Insurance is not included for the AE. Tires, wheels and excess wear also excluded. It is a more expensive car. But still attractive for high mileage drivers.

 

[mdh]

i am wondering... is aggressive regen good or bad? I test drove the Tesla a while ago and its regen was fairly aggressive like the ActiveE. The Leaf has fairly tame regen. Just wondering.

 

[gbarry42]

Regen appears to recover all that energy that was used to get the car going, but unfortunately that's not the case. You get about 25% of the energy back after all is said and done. So regen is harmful if it fools you into using it excessively. I don't know if that's what you were asking about. The only other drawback I can think of is that if done without brake lights, you could have unexpected guests in your trunk...

 

[Valdemar]

Stop lights turn on during aggresive regen on AE, at least according to the dealer I went to, so there should be no extra risk whe using regen for braking.

 

[mdh]

Regen appears to recover all that energy that was used to get the car going, but unfortunately that's not the case. You get about 25% of the energy back after all is said and done. So regen is harmful if it fools you into using it excessively. I don't know if that's what you were asking about. The only other drawback I can think of is that if done without brake lights, you could have unexpected guests in your trunk...

I am just wondering about leaf regen efficiency vs. ActiveE? Totally different style, etc.

Thanks!

 

[Valdemar]

I am just wondering about leaf regen efficiency vs. ActiveE? Totally different style, etc.

Thanks!

There are too many unknowns and differences between 2 cars to make any sort of efficiency statement at this point. However given all things being equal I would think the AE-style regen would be marginally more efficient than the Leaf's just because you have finer control over regen vs. braking, at least in theory. On Leaf i only have a vague idea when pressing the brake pedal actually engages the brakes taking energy away from regen. In practice, however, the calibration of Leaf's system may prove to be more efficient on average as it takes out any guess work.

 

[Boomer23]

As I may have mentioned before, I'm going to be really curious to see actual mi/kWh figures for the A-E once it gets into users hands, especially someone like Tony's hands. Weighing some 700 pounds more than the LEAF, if it does wind up equaling or beating the LEAF's efficiency as the EPA sticker states, there is some really impressive technology there. I'm guessing that the stronger regen is going to help the A-E, but I'm going to be very surprised if this translates into better overall efficiency in the real world.

 

[Herm]

Weighing some 700 pounds more than the LEAF, if it does wind up equaling or beating the LEAF's efficiency as the EPA sticker states

In real life the differences will be very subtle.. everyone is using similar tech for the motors, inverters, batteries, and tires..

 

[lukati]

Weighing some 700 pounds more than the LEAF, if it does wind up equaling or beating the LEAF's efficiency as the EPA sticker states

In real life the differences will be very subtle.. everyone is using similar tech for the motors, inverters, batteries, and tires..

The laws of physics apply. A heavier car has higher kinetic energy and since only a portion of that energy is recuperated during regeneration, all other things being equal, a heavier car will have lower efficiency.