Quote:
Originally Posted by forza1976
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Yes GAP is included, but GAP only covers the gap between what is owned on the contract and what you get from insurance (assuming the car is a total loss or stolen).
Let’s take my 330e lease for example which I put nothing down. Currently the residual is about $35,000. I have around $5,000 remaining to pay. So the total remaining is around $40,000. If I look on Autotrader, 330e’s in similar condition to mine are listed for around $30,000. I’d say it’s safe to assume the insurance company would give me a market value of less than what I own, let’s say for example $25,000. So now there is a gap of $15,000. GAP will kick in and cover it. If I had made a down payment of say $5000, then the GAP would only be $10,000* but I still don’t get any of my down payment back. I just paid the depreciation early.
It’s not a down payment, it’s a prepayment.
*This is simplified. The down payment would apply across the 36 payments so at this point I’d still owe around $4500 but my payment would have been $139 less over the lease term.