Owner's Choice Financing Not Allowed

[vmSeattle]

I'm expecting to pick up my i3 in a few days time and have been going back and forth with my dealer. Just got news that the dealer will not offer Owner's Choice or Owners Choice w/Flex financing. They will only offer straight financing. I'm pretty sure it's not because of my credit (which is actually pretty good). I'm already pre-approved with them and with my local credit union. Is anyone else having any problems with dealers not wanting to offer Owner's Choice financing? Is BMW NA only making this available in select markets?

BTW, if anyone is interested, I got 2.24% financing at 60mo from 1st Tech Fed Credit union. I am applying now at Alliant Credit Union, because I see that they are offering 1.74% financing @ 60 months.

 

[Mike74jcw]

I am not sure why they wouldn't offer it as it is fully available in your area. There are 4 states not offering it: NC, PA, IL, and NH I believe.

 

[vmSeattle]

I am located in WA

 

[Sjt2]

vmSeattle. Did you try DCU? They are offering the lowest rate so far I have seen.
https://www.dcu.org/loans/auto-loans.html#rates

It says 1.24% but will knock off another .5% if you have relationship checking for a total of 0.99%. For relationship checking, you need to have a direct deposit though. I use $250 per pay check direct deposit and you can get the best rate.

It is indeed surprising that they are not doing owners choice mostly to encourage leasing. This is brand new in the market. I wouldn't bet $40K on a non proven car. Hope that helps.

I'm expecting to pick up my i3 in a few days time and have been going back and forth with my dealer. Just got news that the dealer will not offer Owner's Choice or Owners Choice w/Flex financing. They will only offer straight financing. I'm pretty sure it's not because of my credit (which is actually pretty good). I'm already pre-approved with them and with my local credit union. Is anyone else having any problems with dealers not wanting to offer Owner's Choice financing? Is BMW NA only making this available in select markets?

BTW, if anyone is interested, I got 2.24% financing at 60mo from 1st Tech Fed Credit union. I am applying now at Alliant Credit Union, because I see that they are offering 1.74% financing @ 60 months.

 

[bkkanu]

I had similar experience in CA. Where dealer would rather lease me a car then Owner's Choice. So I simply ran the numbers online and worked out payment based on lease vs owner's choice. Knowing what it should be upfront helped when I started my paperwork for the finance. At this point, I ask theme to run the lease vs owner's choice numbers for me at 10K, 12K and 15K annual miles. It became very apparent that if you have cash upfront then owner's choice is better then lease. I had to show them the BMW USA finance web site to convince that owner's choice is available for i3 and BMW promise the balloon payment would be same as the returned car value (providing you met the condition of the car). They still did not have Owner's choice with flex where you pay $7500 at the end along with returning the car. Since it would only mean that I would be paying interest on this money for next three year it didn't make sense to me. Yes I know $7500 at 3% vs market can get me double but I see it as one less hook that I have to worry about. I also called their US finance office and I was told to discuss the finance option with my local dealer (such a great help ). Since the person didn't understand the details of owner's choice with flex he gave me a run around. Finally I spoke to his supervisor and it was not any better. Bottom line BMW is trying to mimic the Tesla financing model but they have not provided proper training to the local dealership or their finance.

 

[stumbledotcom]

I suspect it's more your dealer than BMW NA. I had no issues using the Owner's Choice with Flex option even though I was my dealer's first i3 customer. The finance people were very diligent about getting the details correct, even referred to the i3 finance "school" they had attended.

 

[tiburonh]

I had similar experience in CA. Where dealer would rather lease me a car then Owner's Choice. So I simply ran the numbers online and worked out payment based on lease vs owner's choice. Knowing what it should be upfront helped when I started my paperwork for the finance. At this point, I ask theme to run the lease vs owner's choice numbers for me at 10K, 12K and 15K annual miles. It became very apparent that if you have cash upfront then owner's choice is better then lease. I had to show them the BMW USA finance web site to convince that owner's choice is available for i3 and BMW promise the balloon payment would be same as the returned car value (providing you met the condition of the car). They still did not have Owner's choice with flex where you pay $7500 at the end along with returning the car. Since it would only mean that I would be paying interest on this money for next three year it didn't make sense to me. Yes I know $7500 at 3% vs market can get me double but I see it as one less hook that I have to worry about. I also called their US finance office and I was told to discuss the finance option with my local dealer (such a great help ). Since the person didn't understand the details of owner's choice with flex he gave me a run around. Finally I spoke to his supervisor and it was not any better. Bottom line BMW is trying to mimic the Tesla financing model but they have not provided proper training to the local dealership or their finance.

Well, this is unfortunate. Would you please let me and other fellow Northern Californians know what dealer you were trying to work with when you encountered this problem? Thanks.