Wife’s car - Advice needed

[djhiram]

So as the title of the thread reads, my wife’s lease with BMW is up in August and we are currently negotiating the terms for a new lease. She is currently driving a 2015 X1 in Mineral White with Terra (brown) interior. When we leased this car back in 2015, she did alot more driving. Despite this she is still 12k miles under the 36k allotment. The car is in fine shape other than for a small scratch on the front bumper. I believe the wife had given 2k down and is paying $492 per moth plus $20-$25 for tire replacement insurance (Which thankfully she had. We’ve ended up replacing 3 tires along the way)

Anyhow we came to the dealer today and began the enjoyable negotiating process. I am a personal banker with a major US bank and have a good understanding of the structuring of an auto loan which gives me better negotiating power, but I just don’t know how a lease is structured and what are the factors that influence the bottom line monthly payment. I was hoping the resident car sales folks could help with a crash course on leases and what are some tips that could help me better negotiate.

The way I see it, they tell you all about brand loyalty - this is our 4th BMW lease, incentives, cash rewards bla, bla, bla but it just doesn’t translate into the bottom line - dollars and cents. I am very frustrated because I know they are sticking it to us, just not sure where. Our monthly payment keeps rising and the sticker price is relatively close to the x1 we currently have. Any help is appreciated.

We just find it a bit hard to justify such a large monthly payment for a 2nd vehicle which is not really being used on a daily basis but more for leisure and emergencies.

Thank you all as always.