Leasing a car in 2021, a story

[Dave350]

Just for viewing pleasure really as to the reality of leasing a car in the current environment.

Dec 2020 - Land a new job, leaving the company I work for in Mar 2020 where I will hand back my ECOS Mercedes which I previously changed every few months, from C43's, to GLC hybrids, to GLE300d's, for £100-200 a month. Oh I will miss that.

Jan 2021 - Decide to order new A3 for partner, I'll have her A class for 12 months and hopefully some better deals come up - Due Apr 2021.
Feb 2021 - Confirmed Apr 21, now due Oct 21. - Cancel order free of charge
Feb 2021 - Ordered X4 for me, due Aug 21.
May 2021 - Now due next year, cancelled order
May 2021 - Ordered an X5, due Aug-Sep 21. Steal of a deal at the time, hence going a bit bigger, plan of being sensible clearly out the window now

Aug 2021 - Due in a weeks time, called me up and told me they'd been giving me the order details for the wrong car, mine was cancelled by them 2 months ago in error, will order me a new one, now due in November. They have said they will give me a courtesy 5 series until it arrives, (BMW dealership to the lease company to me). BMW are paying c.£70 a day for this / £2k per month according to the Enterprise guy, I'd imagine they have a better rate than that, but still, bet they are paying a fair bit on it)

Sep 2021 - Mid Nov now slipped to Mid Jan, can keep the courtesy car until then. (My deal is currently £200 more per month than I've signed up to, so I won't be cancelling that to say the least)

So in summary, I've somehow ended up with a 5 series, for free, from Sep - Mid Jan. Not complaining, but amusing each time another update comes.

[Jefferson Steelflex]

Had very similar with our X3 last year, got delayed by nearly 12 months due to Covid, parts shortage and then a stop-sale issue, so we had a 330d Gran Coupe for nearly 4 months, which was costing BMW same amount as your example.

Enjoy the free motoring, but there was an element of getting pissed off at the end when we just weren't getting close to seeing the car we'd ordered. We were close to cancelling, because the comms were so bad.

[Dave350]

Update - they've agreed to swap the Enterprise rental courtesy with one of their own due to it being another 4 months minimum.

Now getting a brand new fully spec'd 530E. Comfort, Tech, Pro Pack, soft close doors, upgraded leather, B&W sound, TV, rear seat entertainment. Quite happy about this update to be honest. They can take another year to deliver my X5 if I have this for free.

[Dave350]

Jefferson Steelflex said:

Had very similar with our X3 last year, got delayed by nearly 12 months due to Covid, parts shortage and then a stop-sale issue, so we had a 330d Gran Coupe for nearly 4 months, which was costing BMW same amount as your example.

Enjoy the free motoring, but there was an element of getting pissed off at the end when we just weren't getting close to seeing the car we'd ordered. We were close to cancelling, because the comms were so bad.

I can relate to that, the lack of availability elsewhere, lack of deals and just having the same problems again rules out the idea of cancelling, the current deals being so much higher than I've managed.

Not only that, the accountant in me enjoys the free car too much to complain.