Not crazy about the range on the Mini, however it could be a good around town car. I would prefer to lease it, however they only offer options for buying it. Considering paying cash to avoid the large monthly payments when you finance it. Anyone crunched the numbers? To get the current 4k manf rebate you have to use BMW/MINI Financial Services. There is also an additional 4k state refund you can claim here in Colorado, then the standard 7.5k federal tax credit which we can take advantage of. What if we took advantage of all of these in the first year and a half, then paid it off? Does anyone know what kind of penalty their financing setups charge for early payoff? Thanks!
With all those incentives, this car is going to be almost free! If you're able to pay cash, then couldn't you simply use a larger down payment to avoid large monthly payments? Are you being quoted the 1.9% interest rate? I assume you can ask BMW/MINI Financial Services about the penalty for early payoff, if there is one.
From what I can tell, leasing is an option--there just aren't any special offers for leasing an SE right now. Is your dealership telling you that you can't lease it? Or are you commenting on the lack of special offers for leasing? Keep in mind that manufacturer incentives may change each month, so the options may be different by the time you take delivery. I have not seen that kind of rebate available for the SE (at least not in my zip code). Can you share a link to that rebate? My state (Kansas) does not offer any EV incentives, so I can only get the federal tax credit. <sigh> $7.5k sounds like great savings, but that's a maximum credit you can apply to your federal income tax bill. So if you only owe $2k on your federal income tax, that bill becomes $0 and you don't get the balance. This may seem obvious to most people, but most articles and videos that talk about EV incentives make it sound like you can just deduct $7.5k from the selling price. Once I did a little more research to understand how it actually works, that reset my expectations and I took note that I should touch base with my tax preparer to see what I must do to ensure maximum benefit. I'm curious about this as well, because I'm also considering that approach. Paying off a loan early should not be a problem, but double-checking the fine print and conditions for incentives is always a good idea.
They flat out said they would not lease it. Finance or cash only. They were calling the state rebate a "manf rebate". Not true, they just handle the paperwork. Yeah, if you don't owe a decent amount on taxes, the federal "credit" isn't a credit! I think there are penalties as they are missing out on all that interest if you pay it off early. Didn't get into it with the salesman, but from what I read online, it sounds like BMW does have early payoff penalties.
I don't make enough to owe a lot of taxes, but I do have IRAs. I converted enough IRAs to Roth IRAs to create a taxable event that let me take the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit. It doesn't actually reduce the price of the car, but it eliminates the taxes I would have paid when I ultimately withdraw that money. Those taxes could have exceeded $7,500 if the stock market gets back on track. Also, unlike regular IRAs, Roth IRAs are not subject to Required Minimum Distributions where the government forces you to withdraw IRA money to get you to pay the taxes.
I reached out to my dealership and they confirmed "MINI USA (this is all dealers) doesn't have any leasing programs on the Electric MINI right now". They also noted that may change by the time I take delivery. I guess the "do you plan to lease or finance?" question when I first contacted my dealership was a boilerplate question. There was no real discussion of payment options when I placed my order since the delivery is so far out, so I'm glad you raised my awareness. Ah, okay. Drat. Smart move!
