[verbs]

Originally Posted by J1n

For me I only drive occasionally for work mainly for personal use so buying it made sense.

How many miles/kilometers a year?

[dmontic71]

I love the lease vs. buy discussion. In my opinion, if you like to get a new car every 3-4 years, and you don't care about making mods- lease the car. BMW lets you buy extra miles at 20% off (.16 per mile), which is a great deal! If you buy the car and drive it more than you planned to, you are simply depreciating your future trade in more....

[40oz.]

335I MSPORT
Premium
Cold Weather
Tech Package

Purchased through military sales

[shoptb]

I've always purchased before, but as is evidenced by the release of the new Professional Navi, cars get outdated even faster now due to the heavy amount of integrated technology. Leasing seems like a smart choice (at least while BMW retains good residuals and discounts on MF for additional security deposits). Plus one never has to worry about maintenance or out-of-warranty situations. Just my $.02.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by T_Bone

As mentioned, there's no right or wrong answer--depends on what you want and your financial situation. That said, I'm most intetested in the least amount of money being spent in the long run, so I buy. In terms of monthly cost, I paid less than $300 per month (including all fees and taxes) for my recently traded in E46 330i, when I take my purchase price, subtract my trade in price, and divide by months owned. I wouldn't have been able to touch that with a lease!

That's true. If you want the best "value", then full long term ownership will maximize the money per mile equation.

But for me, if I were going to do long term ownership, I'd look into a vehicle with better long term reliability, along with lower costs to repair.
I do consider BMW to be more reliable than many others do. The bigger issue with BMW, MB, Audi is not so much that they will break down more often, it's that the cost to do repairs is a good bit higher.
It's not like an 8yr old Nissan won't need some work, but the cost to fix a problem is much less, then there's the lesser chance that something expensive will need fixing.
But if you get a good one that's reliable, long term ownership has it's benefits.

As I said, I lease for the sole reason that I want and like to drive a new automobile every 3yrs. That will likely change at some point in the future.
Leasing allows you to drive a new car every few years, but you also have constant payments. As long as BMW has great leasing and great residuals, along with the included maintenance, that makes them on of the best lease-able brands out there, mainly the 1 and 3 series.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by ando

I buy / finance my cars at a credit union at very low interest rates, no cash down and long amortization to keep my payments low and to maximize my flexibility as I like to switch cars every 2 years. For example my 2011 X3 3.5 has a monthly payment of $685 with 3.5 percent interest for 6 year term. I will trade this for my ordered 2013 328i. From my perspective leasing is restrictive and the payments are similar. Everyone's situation is unique.

What works for you is what is best.

If you don't mind sharing, what was the MSRP of the X3?
How much did you purchase it for?
How much was the actual loan amount?
What about sales tax, did you roll it into the loan, or pay up front?

How much is the dealer giving you in trade?

Once I get that, I'll look into a loan at my credit union.
They will do 6yrs at about 3.5%
I did the numbers for my 135i 3yrs ago, and leasing ended up better.
But, numbers change.

[J1n]

Originally Posted by verbs

How many miles/kilometers a year?

Like 10kms

[svache]

Bought my 328i cash.. our X5 was leased and my wife's M3 before that was bought as well, it was financed at first but it was paid off in 2 months.

During the lease of my X5, I never worried about the mileage. After 3 years, when I turned it in, there was still about 2000 miles left that I could drive. Leasing, buying, financing, you always lose money xD

[dmontic71]

I respect everyone's opinion, but I really don't think this is a case of "do whatever you are more comfortable with". There are clear cut situations where buying or leasing are better options. If you want to modify the car, drive 50k miles per year, keep the car for 10 years, pay cash, etc- then buying is clearly a great option. If you drive 12-15k miles, and want a new car every 3 years, a well negotiated lease payment is simply less per month than a 36 month finance payment. If you finance for 60 months, while only intending to keep the car 36 months, you take on all of the liability that the car will be worth less than you owe when you trade it in. If you get in to an accident, you have to disclose at trade in, if we find out next year that F30s catch on fire spontaneously, its hits your trade in value.

The lease on the other hand has gap insurance, a fixed cost, and you simply pay for what you use and give them back the keys at the end. Again respectfully, not sure how this is subjective unless you want to modify the car, drive an insane amount of miles, or keep it for a long time (unless there is some business/tax reason, or your credit worthiness affects the lease rates, etc)....

[Mako]

my wife in I have only leased 2 of our last 6 cars because in IL we get taxed on the full MSRP with leases. so for a $50K car this is about $2,000 more than states that are only taxed on lease payments. The only reason we even leased those 2 cars is that they were great deals, one was a Z4 and the other was a Audi A4 (including tax, down payment, and everything else we paid for less than 50% of the cars over the 3 years). If I was interested in a car like a 2012 Z4 right now, even with the extra tax of course I would lease it, the rates are insane! but on something like a X3 the lease rates are pretty horrible and its better to buy in my state, even if you are only keeping it for 3 years!

Having said that, my wife did wreck her Audi to the point where it was probably within $1k-$2k of being considered totaled (and she was pregant when she did that), because it was a lease and the dealerships body shop repaired it, we just gave them the keys at the end and bought our next car. I am sure they had to send that car to auction and probably got a lot less than it should have been worth.

[tony20009]

When it comes to car purchases, I try to get what I want as cheaply as I can. For that reason, I buy my cars, I don't carry a note on them, and I keep them for at least 10 years. It's by far cheaper than leasing, no matter what repairs one may have to pay for. (Even if you carry a note, if you can keep your car 10+ years, it's still cheaper. 5+ years of no car payment is still cheaper than even paying $10K to fix something.)

I don't care about having a new car all the time. I care about having a functioning means of transportation that I also enjoy driving.

Right now, along with my e92, I have a '10 5er that was the replacement for my '86 S Class, which I kept as a starter car for my boys to learn to drive on. I also have a '01 Range Rover but it only has 9.5K miles on it, so I doubt I'll ever replace it. Odds are the F3x series will come and go before I get a new 3er to replace my E92.

Were I the type who wants a late model car all the time, I'd lease, for that is far cheaper than buying a new car every two or three years.

[_Vida_]

Still awaiting delivery...paying cash

2012 335
Sportline
Premium
Premium Sound
Adaptive Suspension
Variable Steering
Manual Trans

I plan on keeping this car 10 years