[Michael Schott]

Originally Posted by jmg

This is what everyone is talking about specifically when "buying more miles". The price is usually discounted. I heard that the price has changed, and it looks like they haven't updated the site yet to reflect the new overage miles.

Overage miles are 20 cents, you can buy them up to one day ahead of lease end at 18 cents. At one time this was 16 cents.

[Mr D]

The question I have -

Say you are 10k miles over. That's $2000 or $1800 in overage charges.

Now -

In theory - if the dealer waives the $2000/$1800 - would you have still gotten that $2000/$1800 deducted through negotiation had you paid your mileage or not gone over?

Do you have more bargaining power if you owe mileage fees or if you are completely at a $0.00 balance?

[Fourthirtyfiveeye]

When I used to lease, I would negotiate a 17,500 mile/year lease, which was the most that I could ever get. Even then, I would occasionally rent cars for a week or two, especially if it was going to be an intensive driving week or two, just to keep the miles down.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Mr D

The question I have -

Say you are 10k miles over. That's $2000 or $1800 in overage charges.

Now -

In theory - if the dealer waives the $2000/$1800 - would you have still gotten that $2000/$1800 deducted through negotiation had you paid your mileage or not gone over?

Do you have more bargaining power if you owe mileage fees or if you are completely at a $0.00 balance?

If you are a decent negotiator, yes, you could have gotten that taken off the selling price.

The key to negotiating is that you control what's on the table. If you buy your miles before your lease ends and turn the car in with zero owed, it's the same thing as coming in with no miles over and they cannot use that as a bargaining chip since you already paid for it.

[Mr D]

Originally Posted by jmg

If you are a decent negotiator, yes, you could have gotten that taken off the selling price.

The key to negotiating is that you control what's on the table. If you buy your miles before your lease ends and turn the car in with zero owed, it's the same thing as coming in with no miles over and they cannot use that as a bargaining chip since you already paid for it.

Nor can you though.

From a dealers perspective - is it the same waiving/paying for someone's overage as simply deducting from MSRP?

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by Mr D

The question I have -

Say you are 10k miles over. That's $2000 or $1800 in overage charges.

Now -

In theory - if the dealer waives the $2000/$1800 - would you have still gotten that $2000/$1800 deducted through negotiation had you paid your mileage or not gone over?

Do you have more bargaining power if you owe mileage fees or if you are completely at a $0.00 balance?

E.g. if the best negotiated deal on a new car is invoice minus incentive, $1800 of over-mileage will be added back to the deal, for invoice + $1800 minus incentives.

I.e., if invoice minus incentive is dealer's lowest offer, the dealer will not eat $1800 to sell the new car at a loss.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Mr D

Nor can you though.

From a dealers perspective - is it the same waiving/paying for someone's overage as simply deducting from MSRP?

Sure you can, if you want to. Bring the fact that you already paid $X for mileage and see if that will help in getting the price down. Fact is, there is a number that is the absolute lowest they will sell for. How close you get to that number is up to your skills.

From the dealers perspective paying for your overage is the same thing as deducting from the MSRP for someone that doesn't have overages.

Just get this embedded in your head: you are going to pay for that overage no matter what. You only THINK they are paying for it by lowering the price. The next guy in the door can get that very same discount. Don't fool yourself.

[bri1042]

This is certainly one of the hard parts of leasing. Depending on how many miles over you are, you could certainly end up losing money vs. having just leased at a higher mileage. I ran the Estimate a Payment function off of BMW's site with the 3 common lease mileages.

One, I'm astounded how much this lease example is! How bad are residuals right now!?!

Two, even at these prices, an extra 2000 miles a year is only $540 over the 36 payments (9 cents a mile). An extra 5000 miles a year is 11.28 cents a mile. Either way, the higher-mileage leases will always save you money if you can't stay within the 10k miles on the cheap lease.

I don't know that you are going to find yourself an easy way out of going over your lease miles if you've gone too far over.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Mr D

In theory - if the dealer waives the $2000/$1800 - would you have still gotten that $2000/$1800 deducted through negotiation had you paid your mileage or not gone over?

Yes, in theory. It means they have $1,800 profit built into the deal that is in play either way.

Originally Posted by Mr D

Do you have more bargaining power if you owe mileage fees or if you are completely at a $0.00 balance?

I don't think it matters either way as long as the customer (you) understands the fee cannot be waived and somebody, either you or the dealer, is going to have to pay it.

[DS_BMW]

Originally Posted by bri1042

This is certainly one of the hard parts of leasing. Depending on how many miles over you are, you could certainly end up losing money vs. having just leased at a higher mileage. I ran the Estimate a Payment function off of BMW's site with the 3 common lease mileages.

One, I'm astounded how much this lease example is! How bad are residuals right now!?!

Two, even at these prices, an extra 2000 miles a year is only $540 over the 36 payments (9 cents a mile). An extra 5000 miles a year is 11.28 cents a mile. Either way, the higher-mileage leases will always save you money if you can't stay within the 10k miles on the cheap lease.

I don't know that you are going to find yourself an easy way out of going over your lease miles if you've gone too far over.

Thanks for the info. I know if I get back into a BMW lease. I will do 15k.

[riskmaker76]

Had the same issue many years ago on my x5. I was 15k miles over. My sales person (now a very good personal friend) convinced the used car manager to buy out the lease. Of course the stipulation was I had to lease or buy another BMW. All mileage gonE.

This is the only way to avoid paying over mileage. Dealers can't do anything else except for rolling in mileage into the next purchase. There is no negotiating as the contract is between you and the leasing company not the dealership. Buyout is the only way.. No different then is you purchased it.

[vitriol]

Originally Posted by mikelebron

Had the same issue many years ago on my x5. I was 15k miles over. My sales person (now a very good personal friend) convinced the used car manager to buy out the lease. Of course the stipulation was I had to lease or buy another BMW. All mileage gonE.

This is the only way to avoid paying over mileage. Dealers can't do anything else except for rolling in mileage into the next purchase. There is no negotiating as the contract is between you and the leasing company not the dealership. Buyout is the only way.. No different then is you purchased it.

In my experience, this is the best option to deal with excess miles. To the OP, I would start talking to your dealer early... you want to strike a deal with the smallest amount of excess miles, so the earlier the better. I was able to get our of my lease at 32 months with 500 or so excess miles, and the dealer simply bought my car from BMWFS so the excess miles were a non-issue (obviously I had to get into another lease, which is what I wanted to do anyway). If I'd waited for my lease to mature, I would have been over by 2,000 miles, and while the dealer still would likely have bought my old car to avoid the excess mileage penalty, the value would have been diminished and thus my new lease deal not quite as good.

Anyway, just start talking to your dealer. They want to get you into a new lease.

[MomoM3]

I think you're fine if you get into another BMW. I've been over at lease-end a few times and BMW Financial Services (not the dealer) has either waived the charges or offered to discount the charges by 50%. Once I was under mileage and BMWFS gave me a credit.

I wouldn't bring your lease overage concerns to the table early-on. That's something you bring up after you've made your deal.

[hoyasaxa]

I've had prior leases end over miles but the vehicle sells for over residual at auction. In that case, I'm not sure you pay the overage.

Now, with BMW, the leases are subsidized through artificially high residuals so this may not actually occur in practice. OP's best way out is if he can sell the car for his residual. Otherwise, if the car is worth less, he's going to pay one way or another.

If you like the car, you could also just convert to a buy.