Hi all. Tomorrow morning (Saturday) I'm returning a leased Civic after fulfilling the terms of the lease. I will have to pay a $250 "lease termination" fee (sucks, but it's in the contract.) I will also have to pay for excess mileage. I can't really gripe about those two charges as I knew them up-front.

What I'm wondering -- are there any other tricks or pitfalls I need to watch out for when returning the car? Do they have other ways of sqeezing money out of me that I need to watch out for? The big one on my mind is I have to pay for damage beyond "normal wear and tear." So who decides what's "normal"? There are a few dings and scrapes, but nothing you wouldn't see after a few years of apartment living. A small (1-inch) inkstain on the drivers seat. Missing trim strip over one of the wheel wells. To me, these are "normal" and damned if I'm gonna pay for 'em. There are no major mechanical problems or collision damage.

Finally, what are my rights if there is a dispute? I don't want to refuse to pay and have to keep the car while the dispute is resolved since I have insurance costs plus registration is coming up soon which I would then have to pay that too. If there is a dispute can I turn in the car while it is adjudicated? This needs to be based on California law unless there are federal industry standards.

My lease is through Bank of the West. They told me to take it to some auto auctioner for turn-in. So now I'm not dealing with Honda, I'm not dealing with Bank of the West, I'm not even dealing with the reseller acting on behalf of Bank of the West, I'm acting for an agent of the reseller who is an agent of the lessor. I'm sure they're gonna try to pull some crap on me. What is the standard bag of "dirty tricks" that I should watch out for? Thanks!

You will need to get a letter of confirmation stating the dealer is now responsible for the registration and has received the car. Also you need to send the DMV a letter stating you are no longer responsible for the car from whatever said date. This is to prevent getting tickets on your name even though the car is no longer with you.

I'm not sure what your legal rights and obligations are, but I will share my leasing experiences with you.
Each of the 4 leases I have ended included a final inspection 2-3 weeks before the termination date. I was then given a list of what needed to be corrected in order to avoid excess wear and damage charges. In the past that has included replacing the tires and fixing a creack in the windshield. I then had the option of fixing these things myself or paying their penalty charges and letting them fix it.
I've never been in your situation where I didn't know ahead of time what the final charges would be.
Have you tried calling your leasing company a negotiating the final buyout?
I just exited a lease on an Audi A4 in order to get the RX-8. A month before the end of the term I placed a call to the leasing company and they reduced the residual buyout by $2000 just by me asking. I think they probably still got more money then they would have by using an auction house.
If you have excess mileage and wear and tear, you my just want to see if you can buy it out yourself. It can't hurt to ask, you may be surprised by the price they give you.

Thanks, Driver8. A "pre-inspection" sounds like a great idea but the option was never presented to me. Makes me wonder.

As far as buy-out, we did get into that. I computed how much they would have to reduce the residual for me to buy the car, then turn around and sell it at fair market value realizing this would also get me out of the excess mileage charges. The answer was, they would have had to come down by $2000 so I made them that offer, and they declined. All in all, just turning the lease in is my least expensive option (btw, I tried for six weeks to sell the car at low bluebook and got zero takers. I think the market is pretty soft on used Civics with 80,000 miles on them. For about $2500 more you can get a brand new Civic as they are heavily discounted right now. I really got stuck on this one.)

Anyone else know what my rights are if any kind of dispute emerges?

Originally posted by 8_wannabe

What I'm wondering -- are there any other tricks or pitfalls I need to watch out for when returning the car?

Wannabe, do this first:

BREEAAAAATH...

okay? feeling better?? hehe j/k

serious bro, don't worry about it, it is VERY atypical for a leasing company to be unreasonable, or screw a customer.. If they did, people would not continue leasing their cars.... It's harmful fo business to do that.. It's been my experience and everyone I know who have leased, that they are VERY lenient.

First you want to determine how much "damage credit" they give you for normal wear and tear.. Typically it's $1000-1500. Mine was $1500 for my Audi TT. That's ALOT of credit, IMO.

In my own estimate I got back from my leasing company (Chase Manhatten), I got the following estimates:

Disposition Fee: 300
Excess mileage: 215 (.15/mile)
Body Repair: 0
Base Rent Remaining: -18.16 (credit)
Tax on:
Mileage/Body Repair/Disp.Fee/Base Rent: 0
Late Charges: 0
Personal Property Tax*/Parking Tickets: 0
Minus Security Deposit: 0
TOTAL DUE: 535.94


Now the thing you are interested in,
Condition Report:

Damage Area: Front Bumper
Damage Desc: Chipped
Repair Amt: $20 (paint chip)
My desc: It was a deep dime-sized gash into the bumper that I filled in with lots of layers of touchup paint.. practically used half the bottle. Looked BAD, I was afraid they'd charge me for a whole new bumper, since there was lots of minor scratches and small pits all over the front.... There was also a crack at the bottom that also happened when I hit that 'thing' on the road that caused the former gash. I also filled that in with touchup paint.. Anyway, they just calculated the one chip, I'm not sure which, but just one chip for $20 bucks.. whew).

Damage Area: Left Rear Wheel
Damage Desc: Scraped
Repair Amt: $100
(I honestly thought my bumper looked worst out of all the damage, and my wheel edges was scraped moderately but not the face, you couldn't tell unless you looked)

Damage Area: Right Front Wheel
Damage Desc: Scraped
Repair Amt: $100
(This wheel was in very good condition, the edges were not scraped, but there was a 2" black mark which I could not clean off on the face. I guess it embedded itself into the clearcoat. The metal was not damaged I think).

Damage Area: Right Rear Wheel
Damage Desc: Scraped
Repair Amt: $100
(This wheel was the most jacked up.. I hit the corner curb going pretty fast and gouched out alot of the edge.. I basically covered it up with touch up paint, looked pretty good.. But in the end they charged the same amount as the other wheels).

Damage Area: Left Door
Damage Desc: Dent
Repair Amt: $45
(This typical 1" long door ding from another car. It wasn't deep, but you can see it nonetheless.).

Less Deductable: $1500

TOTAL Wear & Tear, Paint & Part Charges: $0

Exclusions (You are liable for the following items): $0

Total Exclusions Labor, Paint & Part Charges: $0




There.. I hope that helps.

wannabe few years back my posp and I decided to leasea corolla when we returned it, we just had to fix a cracked windshield and they took the car back. they were very chill about it. I would def suggest trying to get final inspecition. It will save u $$$.

Also w/ the inspection they call out less damage. They will assume u will get it repaired yourself, so they cant pull extra cash out of you. even if you dont get it repaired you will save $$.. this is what the sales person told us, who we have gotten 3 toyotas through.


good luck and let us know what happens.

Squidward
Thanks for that information.

I got a gash on my rim :( I'm returning the 8 and was wondering how bad they would charge for this. They keep telling me it's the same as a lease end so this should cover it.

$100 makes sense to repair the rim, this is what I have been told by a couple of shops.

thank u for everyone's advice. I'll let you know how it goes in the morning. And i'll try to chill, k squiddy? :D

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
thank u for everyone's advice. I'll let you know how it goes in the morning. And i'll try to chill, k squiddy? :D

heh... good luck with everything.. let us know how things turn out. :cool:

with my leasing company, there was no option for a pre-inspection, so as to do some repairs yourself.. they just schedule to pick up the car and off it goes...

So I was a little worried there, but no worries anymore.

One other thing. I forgot to mention, before I returned it, my car had a 10-inch crack in the windshield running from the bottom of the driver side and toward the right. I was told by one person at chase that the glass had to be exact same type (tint, specs, etc)... That meant to me that I had to buy one from Audi, which would cost lots of $$$. But after talking to several leasees including my sister, who also had to replace her glass, that an aftermarket glass was okay.. I eventually made a big fuss about it and called the lease-return dept of Chase Auto Finance, who told me the following...

"All I see here is that as long as it's not plexiglass, it should be fine." HAHA... I told him I was getting SafeLite glass installed (a big aftermarket/OEM glass manufacturer).. It was cheap and I saved alot of money and worried for nothing. As long as it isn't plexiglass??. haha talk about lenient.

Doing my last-minute surfing before heading up to Oceanside to return the car. For those of you know know SD County Oceanside is a bit out of the way to most of us in the county, but it's the only return location they offer.

I just reread my lease and it says I have a $50 allowance on repairs. Anything over that I have to pay for. This compares to what you said is typically a $1000-1500 allowance. The reason i'm stressed out by this which apparently came thru loud and clear on my first email I'm on a current run of getting screwed by Big Companies right now. And I don't even count Mazda among them. I'm just getting sick and tired of it, and I have come to expect that given any vulnerability Big Business is gonna try and stick it to me. I'll fight back of course, but I hate having to go thru this with damn near every transaction of significance. plus it is not assured I will prevail.

This returned lease wasn't even my car, for heaven's sake. Yes, it was in my name but I leased it on behalf of my sis-in-law who had no credit at the time. I was being the good guy and helping her out when she had no way to get to work and hungry mouths to feed. It was a five year lease; I paid it and insurance and she paid me back each month. For 4.5 years. Then she stiffed me and walked out of the deal. So I paid for repairs, monthly payments, insurance, marketing costs (tried to sell it), now the return fees and more repairs and she has no intention of paying me back. That's gratitude for you! I'll be at least $3000 out of pocket and now taking her to small claims court. Nice family, huh? I'm just getting sick and tired of crap like this.

thats my long, sad story and now I gotta go drive the 8 and let all my worries melt away. :(

As sad as it sounds, I can understand your position. Sounds like you should be PO'd at family members, not neccessarily at car or finance companies.

Two things I've learned, never act as a co-signer and never believe her when she says she loves you becasue of who you are, not the money you have;-)

Originally posted by graphicguy
As sad as it sounds, I can understand your position. Sounds like you should be PO'd at family members, not neccessarily at car or finance companies.

Two things I've learned, never act as a co-signer and never believe her when she says she loves you becasue of who you are, not the money you have;-)

Good advice all round, tho my sis-in-law never quite said that. :D You can imagine the cozy family scene this Christmas after I'm done taking her to court.

Anyway, I turned in the car today. Here's what happened. $250 turn-in fee which was no surprise, $925 excess mileage (hers) which was no surprise. I think they were pretty fair documenting the cars condition, but their estimate to fix was high: $950 to replace the windshield due to crack and repair some dents and dings on right front & rear fender. I could prob get it fixed for half that but just don't want to mess wid it. I turned the car in and protested the charges meaning I won't pay that part until I negotiate with the bank. I'll prob ending paying the whole thing and tacking it onto my court claim with sis. I'd say the company treated me fairly enough and disregarded lots of minor chips all over the car (all body panels and bumpers.) Lesson learned: No more Mister Nice Guy. :mad: grrrr....