BMW Lease End Inspection

Happy Friday!

Scheduled the 3rd party vehicle inspection for my BMW lease that comes to term in August.

Anything in particular I need to do beforehand to ensure it all goes smoothly without any issues?

Also, currently I’m roughly 6k under my mileage allowance for the term. Anything I can do to get money back or have my lease disposition fee dropped?

Thanks!

If you lease another BMW they will waive the disposition fee

Congratz on getting your pre-inspection.

  1. They show up, they take pics and give you a list of chargeable items. If that list contains things such as TIRES, then it will cost you. (Post here later for ways to get things done cheaper depending on the item)
  2. You can sell it to Carvana, Vroom, Algo, Another BMW dealership early (I can’t remember if BMW allows this) and see if you can make some $$$ early.
  3. If you are planning to get another BMW , then yes you can get some discounts, but you have to call BMW to see what they are (Don’t expect much).

Thanks for the reply’s.

I’d be shocked if issues with tires. They only have 16k on them.

Unfortunately, the RV on this vehicle is to high to make selling to any of those 3rd party places feasible.

Wanted to return to BMW and did all the things possible to make the most attractive lease, but at the end of the day I elected to jump on the Jeep 4xe band wagon.

  • Run flats don’t last as long as normals (Assuming they are run flats)
  • Bad Alignment
  • over / under inflation
  • Lack of rotation.
  • side wall dmg.

So many things can go wrong on a tire. Mileage is not an indicator of no charges.

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Well then, let’s hope nothing gone wrong!

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Me too, just too many posts here about Tire or Rim charges that I’m always amazed that people get pissed when they get charged for it.

I’m surprised to hear BMWFS is still doing 3rd party inspection. I thought they used to do that for all i3s but stopped doing that a few years ago.

16K should be ok even on run flat tires. Worst case scenario, you can purchase used tires online with just enough thread to past the inspection.

I’ve returned 3 BMWs and never get charged anything other than a lost key. The inspector just took the odometer reading and walking around the car for 2mins. I heard the 3rd party inspection tend to look a bit closer than those done at BMW dealerships.

For a few dollars at the auto parts store you can get a tread depth gauge that will tell you exactly where you are…then compare it to the lease end inspection guide that BMW has on the portal and what the specs must be. The guide will also list other things that they are looking for.

At one point some BMW leases had a $300 +/- credit back if you were a certain percentage under on miles, however it would be in your lease contract if that were the case.

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From what I deduced from all the ‘Inspected at the Dealer’ threads, the dealer is looking to see if he can buy your car. And bypass BMWFS. Not a true inspection.
If not, they get a true inspection and give it up for Auction.

With this lack of inventory, not sure, though OP saying there’s no equity in it might mean it will go to Auction.

That’s not true from my past experience. It could be a regional thing. I’m in CA and I never heard a BMW dealer would refuse your BMWFS lease return. It’s possible that dealer buys the car from BMWFS after the inspection but that shouldn’t be the concern for the leasee because that happens after the lease return.

Good idea. You can even do a penny test first. If you think it’s close, then buy a gauge for an accurate measurement.

https://www.tireamerica.com/resource/the-penny-tire-test

I know some companies even send you a cheap cardboard or laminated type In your “prep for lease end” packet. Got them for our prior suburbans and my just sold Subaru. That one was a plastic card. For tread depth as well as size of dings and dents.

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My link above goes right to the section in the BMW wiki on mileage refunds…

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During 2020 we had many, many reports of BMW and others NOT accepting returns, so it’s a fair question. Definitely not an issue now, but it was in the recent past.

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I would try to sell the lease to shift/driveway/vroom/Carvana and others instead of returning it to BMW.

You might get equity from it instead of paying disposition fee

I have to return a BMW lease this month and they told me I need to go to the BMW dealer for them to check it out. I went to the dealer and the used car manager spent less than a minute looking at it and said it was fine. How can I do a 3rd party inspection?

If they come up with any charges and you decide to fix them prior to returning the car, make sure you keep the receipts.

I had left on my winter tires for the 3rd party inspection, planning on changing them afterwards to the OEM summer runflats, which I did. I was subsequently charged 1600 for a set of 4 tires upon returning the car. I was told that the dealership does not do any sort of extra inspection. Fortunately, I was able to provide the receipt proving had 4 tires installed after the inspection and they refunded me.

Also, I was refunded $300 on my new car for being under mileage.

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Unfortunately, none of the various car buying companies come close to my buyout. Which is 40,991.85.



Pretty sure this has been discussed. Dealer can do a pre inspection before final, don’t necessarily need third party, but it is a dealer by dealer basis.

Pre inspection said my rear tires were 3.5mm, so I had to buy used ebay tires for the rear, like $80/per…bloody waste of money since the dealer ended up buying it out and having to put new tires on it anyways.