Hammer Time: Sell, Lease, Rent, or Kill? – 1989 BMW 750il

This vehicle was worth over $80,000 back in the good old days of Bush the Elder. Now? Not so much. The Bimmer pictured here has no check engine light.. The transmission shifts perfectly. It has 104k original miles with no accident history, and a raft of parts have recently been put into this vehicle by the prior owner. Someone loved this car and sold their first born in the process to keep it up.

However, it will still need about $500 to $700 for the suspension system to be perfected. The airbag light is on. The driver’s seat has some wear (see pictures), and the gas consumption of an old V12 is somewhere between a Countach and a Valdez. Today’s question for the Best and Brightest… which one of the four options would maximize my return? A cash deal? Finance? Rental? Wholesale?

I can sell it for cash on Autotrader, Craigslist, Ebay, the local paper, and at least a dozen other sites for car buyers. Even an enthusiast site may be worth the while given the near immaculate condition of the exterior. If I did this I would be looking to have an asking price around the $4,000 range. But if I put it on Ebay, it will go for no reserve. I’ve found that reserves tend to depress final bid prices by about 10% to 20%. The October/mid-November period tends to be a very slow period in the car businesses. No taxes. No ‘spending’ holidays. No bonuses. So my selling price would likely end up in the low to mid 3’s.

Then there’s the finance route. People pay big money for the big names. Lexus, Mercedes & BMW are as prestigious as they get and folks often pay big money to drive a car with one of those name. This particular one being a low mileage BMW flagship… it could be worth a pretty penny.

We have a very low mileage 1992 SC400 financed at over eight grand at the moment and a 1993 Lexus firmly in the sixes, a $5,000 to $6,000 finance deal is definitely attainable.

If I go in this direction, I have to figure out whether I want to make it a finance or a ‘rent to own’ deal. The later requires no down payment, but a traditionally riskier customer. The finance route would potentially yield $1000 down and $60 a week for 24 months. Would this BMW be a low maintenance ride for my paycheck to paycheck customers? If not, would I be willing to put the repair bills at the back of the loan at no interest? The return is likely exceptional. But I have to make sure that the revenues outweigh the expenses and risk.

I bought this one on the cheap. $1,000 from a new car dealership in town. The auction tacked on a $120 buy fee and I had it transported to the lot for $50. If I ‘wholesale’ it, I would want at least two grand and my net profit would probably be around $600. Not a lot of money. But you can make a surprisingly good living by finding four to five ‘flips’ a week. You also have no stress and no collateral issues. Once it’s sold… it’s gone. I can just as easily make this one a flip and move on to the next deal.

So which one should I do? Sell for cash, finance it, rent to own, or wholesale?