[CityLife]

Originally Posted by Ramos

In most cases, when you lease a car, you're not paying MSRP. My negotiated price on my M235 was $47 on a $51k MSRP car.

That "discount" from MSRP acts as a cap cost reduction and translates into big payment savings. The flip side is that it makes zero sense buying out the car at the end of the lease since the residual % you would be paying is a % of the higher MSRP number. Buying out the car would negate the initial savings from MSRP.

On the M2, since no one is getting anything under MSRP anyway, buying out the car at the end of the lease might make sense. So leasing at these horrible residuals might still be ok if in fact you end up buying the car at lease end.

The obvious downside is having an M4 or higher lease payment. But as others have said you will have equity after 3 years.

This