I’ve never had a leased car, but the wifes accord lease is up in Feb. She’s got dings and scratches all over the place on it (mainly from working at target and it being in the parking lot all of the time). It only has one “dent” as in, a 1 sq. foot area that is dented in on the rear quarter. Other than that it is knicks and what not. How bad are the fees on this? Is it a better call to take it into the bodyshop and get everything fixed? Should I just fix the dent ?
It also needs two tires, but I know that they charge you OEM price so I will buy some cheapo rubber before turning it in.
I have to wonder about how honest they are in those pre-inspections though. When you take it in for a pre-inspection you’re telling them you’re aware of the damage and think you might be responsible for it.
When I turned in my leased Ranger that morning I hit it with some of that color match wax to mask most of the small scratches. They gave me the sign off sheet saying the I had zero damage so I was all set. Chances are they washed it later and found more scratches because the dye came off but it was too late then since they signed off.
They will usually send you a turn in packet with a kind of “scratch reference card”, which is the size of the credit card, and has some marks and holes on it. Basically they will say you are allowed so many blemishes that can be no bigger or longer than the wholecard, so many that can break the paint but be no bigger than x" diameter, etc.
They will usually call you to set up a pre-inspection as other said, if they tell you there is damage you can have it fixed in time for turn in, or just choose to pay the damages.
You will receive a turn in packet. It will show the amount of scratches/dings/damage you are allowed.
It will have a template that you can put up to the body/glass/seats to see if the damage fits in there. If the dent is larger than a golf ball though chances are you will need to get it fixed.
when I had my lease, they actually allowed a certain amount of dents/scratches. I think the first 7 were covered and they even helped take them out for free --but only up to 7.
Since you can turn it in at any dealer, go to one and have em check it out, if they say fix this and that before turning in. Fix it as cheap as possible and turn in to the dealer you really are going to and make it look flawless?
I turned in a lease earlier this year. It was to GM…don’t know if other companies are stricter or more lax but…
I had a few scuff and little dings and whatnot. I took some rubbing compound to the stuff from parking lots (rear bumper kind of stuff) to get the majority of stuff gone. I also turned it in needing tires, it had 2 OEMs and 2 snows lol. I didn’t incur any charges somehow. But that was back in April so things could be a bit different now
get a pre inspection to see what u need to get fixed then get it fixed (NOT BY THE DEALER) we have done this to many high end cars and end up saving the person leasing major $$
