BMW Financial Services- Options for getting out of your lease

[TurboMark]

I work for BMW Financial Services and one of the most often asked questions I get is "How can I get out of my lease?" This is a fairly straight forward question however the answers can vary and there are a number of options available. I figured I would put a sort of a guide out there to give everyone the basic options.

First things first, when you sign a lease contract you are expected to fulfill the contract in one of two ways, either by making all the payments on the lease or by buying the vehicle from us for the payoff price. Here are the four ways that you can do this and get out early.


1. Pay the remaining payments: This option may make sense for some of us, while it might be completely useless for others. It may make sense when you are trying to get out of your 335I lease to get into a new M3 if you have maybe 2-3 payments left, however if you have 15 payments remaining you would still need to make all 15 remaining payments in full prior to turning in the car.

2. Selling the vehicle: This is as easy as it sounds, you may buy, sell, or trade the vehicle at any point in the lease. As long as we get the payoff we request for the vehicle we will send the title to you and you are free to do with the car what you will. You may sell the vehicle to a 3rd party private person, 3rd party dealership, or a BMW dealership. You may also trade the car into a dealership. If you are selling to a private party though, note we will not send the title on the vehicle until the payoff is in our hands. Any arrangements made for transfer of money between you and the buyer is outside of our control so be careful with this. A third party may not refinance a current lease with BMW financial, however they may often be able to finance through their own bank, credit union, etc.

3. Lease assumption: A BMW lease may be taken over by a third party at any time in the lease up til the final six months of your lease. There is a $450 fee and that person would have to submit a credit application with us and be approved. The process will take approximately three weeks. Once the process is completed though you will be completely removed from the account and will have no further liability with us.

4. Sale of Liability: This is an often undiscussed option because for many people it seems like it may be a riskier proposal. The basis is that it works much the same as doing a voluntary repossession, however no harm will be done to your credit. Basically once the process is initiated through us you will be responsible for paying the $350 disposition fee and dropping the car off at your dealership. The dealer will bring the car to auction and sell it at auction, whatever the difference is between the prices of the vehicle at auction and your current payoff price is what you would owe back to us. The nice thing about this is no matter how little the car is sold for at auction the maximum that you would owe back to us is the amount of the remaining payments on the vehicle, and the possibility exists that you may get away with paying less if nothing at all.

[shahils12]

good info, thanks

[TWilli7523]

I have an M5 on 24 month lease with 3 months remaining. A friend has a M3 with 15 months remaining. I want his M3 and he wants my M5. Will BMWFA make any exceptions to let him assume my lease, even though I have only three months left (not 6). Thanks, Tim.

[ParisSF]

any experiences from people who tried option 4 (sale of liability) ?

[Bimmer Nerd]

Originally Posted by ParisSF

any experiences from people who tried option 4 (sale of liability) ?

yea i wanna hear about this too.

[ORIGIN M.]

Originally Posted by TurboMark

I work for BMW Financial Services and one of the most often asked questions I get is "How can I get out of my lease?" This is a fairly straight forward question however the answers can vary and there are a number of options available. I figured I would put a sort of a guide out there to give everyone the basic options.

First things first, when you sign a lease contract you are expected to fulfill the contract in one of two ways, either by making all the payments on the lease or by buying the vehicle from us for the payoff price. Here are the four ways that you can do this and get out early.


1. Pay the remaining payments: This option may make sense for some of us, while it might be completely useless for others. It may make sense when you are trying to get out of your 335I lease to get into a new M3 if you have maybe 2-3 payments left, however if you have 15 payments remaining you would still need to make all 15 remaining payments in full prior to turning in the car.

2. Selling the vehicle: This is as easy as it sounds, you may buy, sell, or trade the vehicle at any point in the lease. As long as we get the payoff we request for the vehicle we will send the title to you and you are free to do with the car what you will. You may sell the vehicle to a 3rd party private person, 3rd party dealership, or a BMW dealership. You may also trade the car into a dealership. If you are selling to a private party though, note we will not send the title on the vehicle until the payoff is in our hands. Any arrangements made for transfer of money between you and the buyer is outside of our control so be careful with this. A third party may not refinance a current lease with BMW financial, however they may often be able to finance through their own bank, credit union, etc.

3. Lease assumption: A BMW lease may be taken over by a third party at any time in the lease up til the final six months of your lease. There is a $450 fee and that person would have to submit a credit application with us and be approved. The process will take approximately three weeks. Once the process is completed though you will be completely removed from the account and will have no further liability with us.

4. Sale of Liability: This is an often undiscussed option because for many people it seems like it may be a riskier proposal. The basis is that it works much the same as doing a voluntary repossession, however no harm will be done to your credit. Basically once the process is initiated through us you will be responsible for paying the $350 disposition fee and dropping the car off at your dealership. The dealer will bring the car to auction and sell it at auction, whatever the difference is between the prices of the vehicle at auction and your current payoff price is what you would owe back to us. The nice thing about this is no matter how little the car is sold for at auction the maximum that you would owe back to us is the amount of the remaining payments on the vehicle, and the possibility exists that you may get away with paying less if nothing at all.

More on #4 please.

Can a lease be extended? I have an x3 lease up in Nov, and there is nothing out that I would like to replace it with. So i don't know what to do. Thanks!

[happyparrot]

Question about option #4:

If I have $5,000 in security deposits and opt for the $4 option, and the disparity between what I owe and what the car sells for is less than 5k, do I get the difference back?

If not, what happens to the security deposits when I utilize option #4?

I realize this is an old thread, but any input would be appreciated.

[eaglesfan83]

Another option for those in the military. I am almost certain that if you have deployment orders that can allow you to turn the vehicle back in and break the contract with no penatly minues the disposition fee.

[Add1ct]

I want to know about lease extension as well. I may want to extend my 24 month lease to 36 months if I can

[Nawaaz]

Kinda' a funny question, but I was wondering if BMW financial can change the interest rate upon request. For example, I signed up for 2.9% financing for my '09 M3.....And now it's .9%.

Can I change?

[Add1ct]

Originally Posted by Nawaaz

Kinda' a funny question, but I was wondering if BMW financial can change the interest rate upon request. For example, I signed up for 2.9% financing for my '09 M3.....And now it's .9%.

Can I change?

I'd like to know the same for my lease as money factors have gone down, I bet the answer is no tho

[Nawaaz]

Originally Posted by Add1ct

I'd like to know the same for my lease as money factors have gone down, I bet the answer is no tho

Yeah, I bet the answer is no too. SH$T! hahahaha oh well!

[Add1ct]

yea it's too bad, I just got an email from a local dealer's sales dept, they are giving M3s away now

[dexter]

Originally Posted by Add1ct

yea it's too bad, I just got an email from a local dealer's sales dept, they are giving M3s away now

how low were they going?

[Add1ct]

Originally Posted by longbeachbmw

We are having a 2009 M3 SELL-A-THON this month in the internet department, and we are looking to clear out our 2009 inventory to make way for the 2010's!

What can we offer you?

Take $3,000 off any M3 in stock - coupe, sedan, or convertible!

Also - on any 2009 M3 in stock - we can offer you 0.9% financing for up to 60 months on a traditional or BMW Select loan!

Sample Deal:

Brand new 2009 M3 Coupe
Alpine White on Black Leather
Carbon Fiber Roof
Carbon Fiber Trim
M-DCT
19" Wheels
BMW Assist w/ Bluetooth
iPod/USB Adapter
$759 per month - $5,000 down!!!
On a 60 month BMW Select loan with top tier credit.

The deals are to be had this month at Long Beach BMW in the Internet Sales Department!

We have 5 M3 Coupes - all with carbon fiber roof's. We have 1 M3 Sedan left with the M-DCT. We have 1 M3 Convertible left loaded to them brim - with M-DCT.

You can see we are running low - so call us before they are gone!

Not looking for an M3? Call us for all of our other great specials this month!

If they're offering 3k off sticker from the get go, my bet is they'll take your offer of double that discount, either way discounts on M3s are rare in my experience, I can forward you the email if you like

[scollins]

Originally Posted by Nawaaz

Kinda' a funny question, but I was wondering if BMW financial can change the interest rate upon request. For example, I signed up for 2.9% financing for my '09 M3.....And now it's .9%.

Can I change?

And why would they want to do that? I'm guessing you'd be pretty pissed and say "Hey, we signed a contract!!" if they came to you and said "The rate is now 5.9%, so we are raising your interest rate to that." They aren't in the business of making friends, but making money. So what incentive do they have to lower your interest rate?

[tsnany115]

laser liposuction before and after pictures cost find pictures of a laser liposuction from before and after the treatment laser liposuction before and after pictures cost

Thanks for sharing infor here

[ianbiz]

Good info!!
I like how some BMW employees are on here, talking to enthusiasts. Makes me almost feel like they care.

[ianbiz]

btw, lets say I lease a car and the allowed mileage limit is 10,000 miles a year. And somehow I managed to do 18,000 miles. Is there anyway to turn in my car early, or have the penalty voided if I lease/buy another BMW?

I'm currently on my 3rd BMW and I'm only 21, but I'm getting sick of paying the "to own rate" when I tend to keep the car for about a year or so before trading in or selling, so I'm thinking about leasing my next one.

[Add1ct]

I know you can buy miles if you use more than the lease allows, .16 per mile charge

[dexter]

Originally Posted by Add1ct

If they're offering 3k off sticker from the get go, my bet is they'll take your offer of double that discount, either way discounts on M3s are rare in my experience, I can forward you the email if you like

that would be awesome! was this a post on e90? or was this in your email? thanks for the help

[Add1ct]

I got an email from long beach bmw, I posted it above and I can forward it to you if you like