BMW introduced 0.9% financing for almost every single car on their lineup (No M3). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that leasing has suddenly become very unprofitable for manufacturers in the past few months. Manufacturers have begun introducing attractive financing terms to entice consumers to purchase instead of lease. Makes sense, 0.9% interest is much better than the 3.9% being charged to lease a 3-series. The question is, do you really want to OWN a BMW? Being a former BMW driver, I can say that I will always consider leasing a BMW, but NEVER want to own one. Owning a BMW is far too expensive, even for the “Ultimate Driving Machine”. If leasing becomes even less attractive in the forseeable future? I think I will be scratching BMWs off my “wanted” list.
Here is a complete list of BMWs that qualify for for 0.9% financing for up 60 months. Offer ends Sept. 2nd 2008.
G,
This is not looking good. They have been the posterchild for car leasing. We always new BMW’s residuals were inflated. But if you can’t lease a BMW then what can you lease?
Tell me about it, B! I read somewhere that leasing accounted for about 66% of BMW’s US sales. Now sure how accurate that is, but like you said, BMW is the poster child of leasing. I don’t think BMW really inflates their residuals as bad as some other companies. Historically, BMW holds better value than most cars. Still, with BMW cutting back a bit, I’m starting to feel that the future if leasing cars cheaply could come to an end. Still, BMW’s lease terms are still fairly attractive, so seem to be “okay” for the moment.
Did BMW make leasing less attractive or did it just add below market financing to help sell 2008 models at the end of the model year? This seems pretty normal for this time of year, especially in a weak sales period.
dclaywer: I’m assuming that August rates improved. Based on a quote one of my readers got, the MF for the 335i is .00165, with a residual of 58% for the 36mo/12k term. It’s supposed to be .00190 for the 335i and .00165 for the 328i. You are right about it being fairly common to drop the financing for 08 models since the 09 models are just around the corner…however, I can’t help buy wonder since BMW sales were slow last month.