We’ll tell you how! All you need is a basic understanding and a healthy skepticism toward experts. Welcome to the Return of the Month.

So, here’s how you can earn that money: First, return a BMW 316d Touring estate after three years. An expert then checks out the car and assesses serious reductions in value. They’re often hard for the untrained eye to see, but with the appropriate technology they can be found: paint damage or repairs that have not been carried out “professionally,” that is, not using the more expensive replacement parts from the manufacturer. This whole process is carried out by an expert, so the layman naturally thinks the costs are etched in stone. As a matter of fact, an expert from ARI called the leasing company and pointed out that the reductions in value they had calculated were—at least based on her assessment—clearly too high. After the call, they agreed on net costs of € 2,613 instead of € 8,092, thus saving € 5,000 with one call.

Our tip: Financing options in which only the actual sales value counts, and not a checklist of set reductions, are always available. One such option is described in more detail here.