$11,990 lease credit and Cold performance question

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A_C

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The newest lease credit has me taking a look at a Cooper SE. I had one of the original 2014 i3s and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. We gave back the lease when we moved to the cold upper Midwest where it got only 40 miles range in the below zero winter. Two questions - has anyone recently leased and used the now larger credit? With $3500 drive off the payments are < $250.

Question 2 - what is the performance like in the extreme cold, like -10 F? I’m sure the range is lower, but will it go 70 miles on a charge when it’s that cold?
 
Car will do 70 miles in the cold. I'll cut power slightly especially at first until things get up to temp, not really an issue. It's especially fine if you can pre condition the car while still on the charger and get into an already warm car with 100% battery.
 
A_C said:
The newest lease credit has me taking a look at a Cooper SE. I had one of the original 2014 i3s and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. We gave back the lease when we moved to the cold upper Midwest where it got only 40 miles range in the below zero winter. Two questions - has anyone recently leased and used the now larger credit? With $3500 drive off the payments are < $250.

Question 2 - what is the performance like in the extreme cold, like -10 F? I’m sure the range is lower, but will it go 70 miles on a charge when it’s that cold?
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@Puppethead has a lot of experience charging and driving his SE in cold weather.

upload_2023-12-22_19-19-31.webp
 
A_C said:
Question 2 - what is the performance like in the extreme cold, like -10 F? I’m sure the range is lower, but will it go 70 miles on a charge when it’s that cold?
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The SE is amazing at extremely low temperatures, and without cabin heat I got almost 5 mi/kWh at -3 ºF. Cold-soaked batteries from extreme cold will slow down the battery charge speed, and the E-Power (left gauge) will drop quite a bit. I drove as low as 30% E-Power and didn't notice any driving issues other than limited acceleration.

I drive an 80-90 mile commute per day, even at temperatures in the -30 ºF to -20 ºF range. Doing some level 2 charging mid-day for about an hour keeps the batteries warm enough to get around and adds enough charge that I still make the commute with about 20% SoC remaining. It also seems the CATL batteries in the SE could be the top-performing cold weather batteries on the market.
 
Hello,
New member here with the same handle as on the north american motoring forum and just today drove home a brand new 2024 SE, melting silver- malt brown - iconic. Did the lease deal as it made sense even with a moderately high interest rate and lotsa fees (and taxes, and taxes, everything is taxed here in MA).

Others will have to comment about the cold weather range although my research said expect ~20% loss when around freezing or below. I do wonder if it's plugged in, does that help?

So when I went in to pay my deposit there was my car sitting in the showroom, oops no it was an almost identical demo with ~600miles , so I asked how much and was told $24k, ouch! That's a $14k drop over msrp. I guess they're not going to be able to sell slightly used ones for near msrp when the lease deal has dropped the value a lot. I'd looked at used ones while thinking about this and saw most 20-22 models around $24k, but like Tesla dropping the price on MY and M3, the '23-24 used ones look a bit silly priced higher than a new one when leased.

I don't get the rationale for this from MINI. I thought the F56 SE did well even with its range shortcomings, but they won't have an electric hardtop in North America for 3 years?

cheers
MacMini34
 
A_C said:
The newest lease credit has me taking a look at a Cooper SE. I had one of the original 2014 i3s and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. We gave back the lease when we moved to the cold upper Midwest where it got only 40 miles range in the below zero winter. Two questions - has anyone recently leased and used the now larger credit? With $3500 drive off the payments are < $250.

Question 2 - what is the performance like in the extreme cold, like -10 F? I’m sure the range is lower, but will it go 70 miles on a charge when it’s that cold?
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Agree about your statement of BMW i3 I drive 2014 I3 for 7 years and SE for 2 years excellent car but in NY I don’t experience extreme temperatures.
 
MacMini34 said:
I don't get the rationale for this from MINI. I thought the F56 SE did well even with its range shortcomings, but they won't have an electric hardtop in North America for 3 years?
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When MINI leases the car to you, the federal government pays them $7500. That allows them to offer a screaming deal and they apparently make more money that way, even if it undercuts what they can charge for a slightly used one.

Buyers of used SEs (and other used EVs) are eligible for up to a $4000 tax credit, as long as it is acquired from a dealer and is sold for under $25k. That too may be a factor driving down the price of pre-owned vehicles, but only to where they are under that threshold.

P.S. Congratulations on your new car!
 
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Thanks, enjoying getting to know it, named him Eddie the EV.

Yes, I knew the Federal Credit was part of it. The incentive jumped from $9900 early in the month to $11900 so MINI is tossing in $4400 of their own money and they weren't giving anything off a cash deal as far as I could see, maybe only what one could get through a standard sort of negotiation.

But they're not moving that fast. The dealer I got mine at has sold 2/18 over the 2-3 weeks with mine being the second one. Maybe post Jan 2 the incentive will go even higher!

The MA used car incentives don't seem to apply to 2024 models. I hadn't looked into the Federal ones.

cheers
MacMini34
 
12k from BMW, 4K from Colorado. 43% residual. Not sure how many years it is for. Bottom line, 37k car with a 43% residual is 16k. 37k for car less 16k from BMW and CO is 21k for the car with a 16k residual. So 5k to drive it however many years the lease is. Or just buy it for 21k after a month.

Colorado also has a cash for clunkers deal if your income is low enough. Friend is looking at a Tesla to put in his kids name with the clunker money from the Jetta his kid.....
 
Hey Tommm,

Well, not quite 21k. There's the $925 lease acquisition fee, which incurs sales tax here in MA, there's's the dealer fee, which incurs sales tax here in MA, any capital cost reduction you put in incurs sales tax here in MA. At least the tags, reg and inspection fees didn't incur tax here in MA! All my taxes and fees added up to just over $2k.

The interest adds quite a bit to the deal. Not sure if you can buy the lease out immediately and not pay all the interest - someone else may know.
Anyway, I'm happy with my choice. The only other contender was a Bolt.

cheers
MacMini34
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but the lease interest is part of the agreement. Early payout means more present value dollar for BMW (MINI) Financial Services, and puts you into a worse situation. I'm all for the multiple security deposit (MSD) to reduce your money factor but personally not a fan of early lease payouts. Early payouts for financing...have at it!

If you have the money for a lump sum payment, you'd be better of investing it and using the after-tax earnings to make the lease payments.
 
Today I logged into my MINI account and realized I could set up my lease payment to be automatic, wow, modern tech, ehh?

Anyway they had a current buyout amount that was only valid until the end of the month and without checking the actual numbers looked pretty much like the residual, the remaining depreciation to be paid off and their greedy little $300 fee, so in theory I could buy out now and save all that interest I'd pay over the next 3 years. But, someone else won the Powerball on Monday so that isn't going to happen.

I'll have to check and see what happens to the buyout once my January payment posts - presumably it will drop a bit since a little more depreciation is paid off. Maybe it goes away. So in theory I could turn a $38k ($40.7K with taxes etc) original price into a ~$25k outright purchase by buying out the lease right now.

My dealer seems to have moved about half their inventory now and have 4 more in transit.

cheers
MacMini34
 
A_C said:
I ended up pulling the trigger on an Enigmatic black with tan interior on the last day of the $11.9k credit. Plus I got another $1,500 off and they threw in shipping. The lease credit is now back to $9,900. View attachment 22088
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Nice! I got $1200 off and suspected more could be available, but I'm not a great negotiator. Normally I avoid black; attracts summer heat, harder to clean, etc, but the Enigmatic is just that with a hint of blue in it. Would love to hear how you find it in different light - there was one available at my dealer, but being in busy Boston they don't keep all stock onsite so I never saw it in person.

Still enjoying the new car smell and the zippiness. Do wish it had power seats but knew MINI skimped on this at the outset.

cheers
MacMini34
 
MacMini34 said:
Do wish it had power seats
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The SE's already heavy enough w/o the extra electric motors. I love it taking less than a second to reposition the seat (backward--no height, angle, thigh-support, or lumbar adjustments) after my wife relinquishes our SE. How long would it take to get into the rear seats if the front seats were powered? In only a few years the (much heavier) J01 will be here with power seats.
 
I personally find most power seats to be so slow at adjusting that I prefer manual seats. They only need to be adjusted at most once per drive, so it's not a big inconvenience.
 
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