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Just a little economic note for everyone out there. I work in finance and have been looking at BMW FS compared to other auto makers. Going forward you will see increasing money factors across the board as a result of the credit crunch. Since BMW issues bonds and corporate paper for all of the leases and financing they do, they have a need for liquidity to repay these debts. Banks have been tightening liquidity and demanding higher spreads on bonds from corps like BMW. This has resulted in a "front loading" of liabilities, meaning the steady income stream from our payments will not offset the new financing they write because banks only extended short term paper instead of the previous 1-5 year instruments. So, to meet liquidity needs to pay off bondholders, BMW manufacturing will have to inject cash into the FS biz, which I see as a last resort, or pass along the increased cost of financing to customers. So if you are looking to buy with an attractive rate, I'd pull the trigger sooner than later. And if you do wait, I'd suggest going to a 3rd party bank, you will probably get a better rate. One interesting side note, of the cars BMW sells in Europe, 1/3 are bought outright, 1/3 are financed through BMW FS and the other 1/3 is financed from an outside bank. In the US, 80% of cars are financed. You think we might be living a little outside of our means here folks??
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