I never mentioned CPO.... my 07 was and is under factory warranty with clear car fax. As I mentioned before, I used Manheim for my search.....

Good luck......:thumbup:

Thanks for the illustration. I do understand the risks at buying at auction. and some of the points you mentioned make sense. If this is BMW NA lease returns/financial auction their rep is on the line. I believe some or these cars will go back to BMW dealers around the country and they will be CPOd. I will tell you guys that there are not that many out there in my neck of the woods and if they are they are ranging (as some of you guys mentioned) in the $40k+ range for sure.

I bought mine at BMW of Beverly Hills--I've noticed they've had quite a few black '08 4.8s come off of lease there over the past few months. Keep checking their site-- I know a few weeks ago they had 2.

General question about buying out a lease. In terms of negotiating the price, can you basically assume that you take the residual value and add $2000-3000 for CPO and that's your sale price?

Are there other factors involved? Is it possible to negotiate the residual down? In other words, is the salesman's hands tied or is this essentially no different than negotiating the sales price on any vehicle on the lot?

My experience has been that BMW lease arrangement sets a high residual value for their cars (this allows them to provide a *reasonable* lease option while having a large MSRP). From a few cases that I have seen and my own experience, after 3 year lease is over, the buyout price set at the lease inception (for an average lease, 12k miles per year) is larger than the current market value of the car. In my wife's 328i case, I could buy a similar 328i with CPO from a dealer for less money than my own car's buyout price.

When you return the car to a dealer, that dealer has an option to buy that car from BMW for whatever price it is that BMW is offering it to the dealer (which is normally lower than your buyback price, and BMW did not offer anything lower than the buyback price directly to me, for example, even though I contacted them and asked them about it.) So the dealer ends up buying the car from BMW for less than your buyback price, and they could turn around and sell it back to you at a small profit, but still lower than your original buyback price.

My buyback price for 3 series was sightly over $24k, and I worked with the local dealer and bought it back from the dealer for $21.5k. Note that in this scenario, you will end up paying for any extra mileage that you may have used over your lease term, since the mileage of the car is worked into the price that BMW will offer to the dealer. In my case, however, I was still 20% below the negotiated mileage allowance and still my final price ended up being less than the buyback price on my lease agreement.

You can buy an extended warranty when you get your car and it is still under original warranty. I would not do a 'cpo', as in give the car back to the dealer, let them CPO the car which means they may have to change tires/brakes/etc. - extra cost that will be transferred to you - and buy it back as a CPO. I would think you would be better off buying back the car on its own, and getting a BMW (or third party) extended warranty afterward.

My 08 4.8 (21k) comes off lease on the 22nd of April... Little to no flex on the price, my salesman (who is also a friend) can basically throw in CPO and that's about it...service prices (even with an indy) and gas consumption are probably going to make me walk away...when you do the math, it rarely makes sense to lease then buy unless you can negotiate the price way down, or cpo finance rates are VERY attractive...

Re-leasing not an option either....from $1,050/m for 3/36 to $850/m 3/30 just is too much for what will end up being a 6 year old car....

off to the next one!

Thanks for all of the info. Very much appreciated. I may actually consider doing the CPO route if they replace the tires. I plan on getting non-RFTs anyway.

I was told this week that the CPO does not include tires - unless they are going to put the car on their lot, then the cost of the tires is reflected in the asking price.

I've been back and forth on my decision (buy my car vs. lease another one) and ultimately, I've decided that if I can just pay for the car (either outright or with just a small loan), I have the opportunity to just shut down what is now a $850 / month payment. Yes, I'm out $40 or $42K, but I'm out of debt too.

New would be nice, but the LCI just doesn't push me to justify continuing on with a new lease. I'd rather wait for the new one.

Just to clarify.

Dealers cannot CPO a car for you- they can only CPO a car they own. So technically they are responsible for all costs to bring a car up to CPO standards. These standards are >50% on pads and >50% on tire tread depth.

So if they are CPOing it for they will want $$$ for the CPO fee from BMW and any costs for tires, brakes.

If it is a lease buyout, to BMWNA the dealer buys the car, CPOs it, then sells it to you.

Anyway, if you need tires, go to Americas Tire, Discount, Tirerack, etc and save half! Before you turn it in to them for the CPO