YouTuber Modifies Financed BMW M4, Now BMW Wants Its Money Back

[flatdarkmars]

For some definition of "afford" perhaps.

I would say if you can pay for something without compromising your ability to pay for essentials like food and shelter, then you can "afford" it. By this standard, many people in developed economies can afford a new car every 3 years. However, apart from automotive enthusiasts, most people probably have other things that are higher priorities to them.

 

[Danoff]

I would say if you can pay for something without compromising your ability to pay for essentials like food and shelter, then you can "afford" it. By this standard, many people in developed economies can afford a new car every 3 years. However, apart from automotive enthusiasts, most people probably have other things that are higher priorities to them.

I would say that unless you're on track for a realistic end-of-career savings date (like for example, you'll be unable to work past age 70), and also have at least 6 months to a year (depending on your career) of bill savings, and also have a realistic emergency fund for unexpected expenses (which will depend greatly on which country you're in, and what you own or rely on), that you cannot afford what you're currently paying.

Being literally able to spend the money is not the same as being able to "afford" something. If you're irresponsibly at risk you cannot afford what you're doing.

 

[flatdarkmars]

you're on track for a realistic end-of-career savings date (like for example, you'll be unable to work past age 70), and also have at least 6 months to a year (depending on your career) of bill savings, and also have a realistic emergency fund for unexpected expenses

I agree, but you can meet all those stipulations and still be able to afford the $300-$500 a month to lease a nice car while living on a typical middle income in most parts of the US. I assume the same is probably true in most of Europe and other developed countries, although I may be partially wrong, as I know some countries increase the total cost of car ownership by a large amount through taxes.

 

[Danoff]

I agree, but you can meet all those stipulations and still be able to afford the $300-$500 a month to lease a nice car while living on a typical middle income in most parts of the US, Europe, or other developed countries.

I think in order for that to be the case it needs to be an extremely high priority. That's why I said that it's mostly a rich people game. You can make it work in a way that is actually responsibly affording it, to the exclusion of a lot of other little luxuries. The vast majority of people won't start to play that game until they're quite well off.

Another reason that it's mostly a rich people game is that having a new car is generally a show of status rather than driven by any kind of need. Of course some people just really fear mechanical bills, to the extent that they're willing to pay a lot more to never have them. It's certainly not a game that's particularly conducive to enthusiasts, who generally like to at least customize their tires (or wear out said tires). To need a car every 3 years, but a car which you will not wear the tires out on, and which you will not exceed the mileage on, you're probably thinking about how the car reflects on your personal wealth and status, and how that influences the people around you - which is a rich people keeping up with the joneses game.

I've heard another off-the-wall reason for it (told to me by a multi-millionaire "named" partner of a lawfirm (named meaning the title of the lawfirm had his name in it)), which is that he needed a new car regularly because he didn't want the cops to know that his car wasn't brand new. And he needed that because he never put his license plates on. This was in LA, he'd run around with dealer tags on all the time, and since his car was always new, he never got pulled over for it.

...and of course he did that because he wanted to run red lights and not get a red light camera ticket.

 

[TexRex]

 

[Andre75]

Well, he is at least owning his mistake (unlike the car).

Priceless.

 

[Petroperu]

This is why I'm waiting until I pay off my lease before I start modding, just have this month and July. Although there aren't a lot of options for a Focus SE sedan...

I didn't lease my SI but even while financing it, I don't plan to modify it at all until the warranty with the dealership is done or if something breaks from use.
Still, I wouldn't modify my car if I plan to keep its value.
A lot of people don't understand that adding mods don't increase the value of your car.
If anything, they actually lower it.

 

[GTvsForza]

I didn't lease my SI but even while financing it, I don't plan to modify it at all until the warranty with the dealership is done or if something breaks from use.
Still, I wouldn't modify my car if I plan to keep its value.
A lot of people don't understand that adding mods don't increase the value of your car.
If anything, they actually lower it.

I wouldn't touch the engine or other performance parts, I just want my car to stand out a bit more. Maybe LED lights and I'm thinking of getting a black Ford badge. My car is silver (Ingot Silver to be more precise), and black would be a good contrast.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

How dumb can some people be? It pretty much says it word-for-word in BMW's finance contracts that you can't modify the car!

 

[samdu]

Okay, then I guess it's clear to British English-speaking audiences. In US common usage the word "finance" is equally applicable to loans for purchase or leases, and is more often used in reference to a loan. But from context it is apparent enough that the article is discussing what we would call a lease.

Two countries separated by a common language.

 

[Dan Stanford]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

YouTuber Modifies Financed BMW M4, Now BMW Wants Its Money Back

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on June 4th, 2019 in the Car Culture category.

I have been watching Ricky for a couple years he is a great guy and just wanted content for the channel. The car isnt lease hire its standard bmw finance and he can afford the repayments, he even has spare money over as he is doing a project car. He just didn't read the fine print as most people do this and dont have any problems whether it be just bmw that do this or he may have just been picked on as he is in the public eye i myself and many friends have modified financed cars in the past no problems.

 

[Corsa]

"Hey Bavaria, I took your overpriced M4 doubled the horsepower, added a Armytrix exhaust and various expensive carbon fiber bits"

So instead of making a big deal of this, BMW should of quietly repossessed the vehicle due to contract violation and shipped it modded to one of it's dealers.

With a 5-8K premium over it's MSRP as it's essentially an M5 killer.

 

[phillgt2002]

I've been watching this channel for the past few months and unsubscribed after seeing his video complaining about the matter.

I didn't unsubscribe due to this, but mainly because of his driving on public roads at ridiculous speed and not giving a damn.

He was there when he signed the paperwork for the lease, so why is he moaning when BMW wants their money back after he went and got bigger turbos, ethanol injection, intake mods, ECU programming and exhaust?

Even the Belgian man at Pure Turbos told him that there could possibly be issues with this warranty if he were to go along with the mods and Ricky did it anyways.

 

[eiriksmil]

This guy is dumb for modifying a leased vehicle.

The dumb part wasn't modding a leased car, but posting it all over the internet. Of course big turbos etc is taking things a bit far but coils, bolt ons etc. is no problem as long as you actually don't show up at the dealership with a modded car but take the mods off before services and end of lease. And don't crash.

Avoid tune but that applies to all new cars under warranty and not just leased ones.

 

[Dan Stanford]

The dumb part wasn't modding a leased car, but posting it all over the internet. Of course big turbos etc is taking things a bit far but coils, bolt ons etc. is no problem as long as you actually don't show up at the dealership with a modded car but take the mods off before services and end of lease. And don't crash.

Avoid tune but that applies to all new cars under warranty and not just leased ones.

The car isnt on lease hire its on standard pcp finance he has mentioned it several times in his videos

 

[McLaren]

Edit* Revised. Ignore previous.

The car isnt on lease hire its on standard pcp finance he has mentioned it several times in his videos

If a PCP works the way I've interpreted it:

PCP you pay a deposit, then however many monthly payments, and then there is a final payment at the end to settle the balance. The final payment at the end is equal to the GFV (guaranteed final value) which is essentially what they predicted the car would be worth at the end of the agreement.

In a PCP you're buying the car. As such the entire value of the car is financed. If you then don't buy it after three years, the dealer gives you a set trade-in value up front.

It's more expensive than a lease because you pay interest on the whole purchase, however, you have more rights with it. After you pay off 1/3rd or so you legally own the car (and can't have it repossessed), I believe, and after you've paid off half you can back out free of charge as long as the car is in good condition (see VT). Furthermore, you know exactly how much the car will cost you to buy at the end of the PCP. You can also pay a PCP off early, and the interest will go down upon doing so, similar to paying off a mortgage early.

Yeah, that sounds a lot like leasing because there's a set term limit he has to reach before the car can be considered his with a final payment due for the remaining balance.

Judging by his YouTube, he's only had the car 6 months, which means, I'm assuming he's paid 3,660GBP so far, with his 3,000 down; he's less than 10,000GBP into a 68,000GBP car. If there is a 1/3rd clause, he's nowhere near close to being considered the owner.

This definitely makes his payments/interest rate for such a car far more believable b/c it's more in line with how much you'd pay to lease one with the difference being that one pays considerably less at the end of a lease and will walk away where as this guy looks like he has a choice to either make the final balance, or trade-in since he will be considered the owner at the end of his term.

Either way, this guy doesn't have much of a case as there's no lesson he can teach here other than read your contracts. I mean, if this dude even thought the car should be costing him thousands/month to own & the deal looked too good to be true, it more than likely was.

 

[Famine]

The car isnt lease hire its standard bmw finance

I had to put a note about leasing in, because "car finance" seems to be a bit of a mutable term in the USA rather than the very specific UK car finance product. They appear to understand "car finance" as a bank loan for a car, while their "leasing" is what we'd understand as the typical car finance product.

BMW Financial Services - which I do note throughout the article - offers PCP, Hire Purchase and Contract Hire, but as I don't know which it is (I suspected PCP, because that's pretty normal, and the mechanism I refer to in the first three paragraphs are all with PCP in mind) I couldn't include that information. And you'll note I'm fair to him and his situation throughout, especially in the last paragraph which I've reiterated in this thread.

 

[JC_Dude]

"Hey Bavaria, I took your overpriced M4 doubled the horsepower, added a Armytrix exhaust and various expensive carbon fiber bits"

So instead of making a big deal of this, BMW should of quietly repossessed the vehicle due to contract violation and shipped it modded to one of it's dealers.

With a 5-8K premium over it's MSRP as it's essentially an M5 killer.

There are still people out there who think mods increase the car’s value?

 

[Corsa]

It's all subject to opinion and the old saying it's only worth what someone's willing to pay.
Plenty of people of there with more money than sense, or sports car enthusiast that will pay for power.

My opinion is this particular car is pushing over 700hp after the mods so yes it's worth more.

I installed a 9" lift and 37" tires on my Ram and would ask a premium over similiar year/mileage trucks if I sold.

Certain mods pay you just have to wait for that guy that can't live without it.

 

[Tornado]

There are still people out there who think mods increase the car’s value?

Why shouldn't they? This isn't a Grand Am with glasspacks and stripes on it. Not everyone who buys used cars operates on the Jalopnik mentality that if a car has been deviated from stock in any way that you are buying into an unfinished basket case project car.


You'll never get out what you put into it, but we're talking about cars that have a depreciation curve of a quarter pipe anyway. You only need to find the total bro who sees "700 hp" on the dealer site for a price that's only a little more a month than an equivalent the stock one and you have a sale.

 

[ZedNinetySix]

It is absolutely common sense to not modify a car you borrow, and will owe back to a company at some point.

I have no clue why there is pitty for this man.

Well, we sure know who that darwin award is going to...

 

[Moglet]

An update on this if anyone is curious - He has paid off the finance and is keeping the car: