Lease a cooper se

I am curious what the lease deal looks like. I purchased mine in December, also in SoCal. The lease wasn’t really an option with no incentives and ability through BMW financial. I was able to get a discount off sticker though.

 

Is MINI USA passing on the tax credit, or keeping it for themselves?

 

They should be passing on the value of the tax credit as a reduction of the total lease like they did for the BMW i3. I think they got cold feet from the i3 residuals when 2014 models were going for 15k used pre-pandemic.

The lowest I've heard was $150/mo lease for the i3 back in the day.

 

It appears to me that MINI may be just pocketing the $7500. There's certainly no evidence on their website that they are using it to reduce the cost of leasing an SE.

 

But you don't get the tax credit, the dealer (leasing company) does. They can choose to use that money to reduce the cost of the lease, or not, but I am not aware of any other mechanism by which they could pass it on to you.

 

You are correct that, under the IRA, the North American sourcing requirements don't apply to leases. However, the tax credit goes to the company leasing the vehicle to you. If they choose, they can then reduce the cost of the lease, thus remaining competitive while protecting their bottom line.

However, I don't see any indication on MINI USA's website that they are doing this. The estimated payment for leasing an SE is based on the MSRP just like an S, and the payment is about the same.

Obviously this is just a generic calculator, and things could be different when you attempt to strike a deal in person. The important point is that you realize that you don't get to claim a $7500 credit on your personal taxes.

 

My SE is leased but I’m in Canada

 

And just like that, the situation has changed:

https://www.miniusa.com/tools/shopping/electric-lease.html

 

Lease a 2024 MINI Electric Hardtop for $369/month for 36 months which includes a $7,500 lease credit, $3,999 due at signing. Hurry in, offer ends July 31, 2023.

The photo shows Power Spoke rims. Does that mean this lease is for an Iconic SE?

Finally offering leases on the SE is one way MINI dealers can have MINI Electrics to sell after Oxford stops making them and before BMW figures out how to sell the J01 in the US

 

That lease is a terrible proposition. If the money factor is ($369*36) / ($24,268+14,792)*36 or 0.009447 then the APR (money factor * 2400) is 22.67%.

Add in the $3,630 ($3,999 less $369) then the APR balloons to 28.87%.

 

If the residual in three years is just 15K, then it’s not a terrible deal because it would make most of that interest back by buying out the lease and reselling at market.

 

Well if you are just looking at the base model, you will be paying before taxes $369 * 36 + 3,999 or $17,283 of total lease payments. From the adjusted capitalized cost to residual, it is only $9,476 ($24,268 to $14,792 in 36 months) so the interest works out to $7,807 ($17,283 - $9,476). So you will have to resell the MINI privately for $22,599 to roughly break even.

 

Buy back on my car is 14500$ CDN