Last week I did the bmw “pull ahead” and turned my lease in early (2 pmts left) and I leased a new 340i.
I handed 2 keys to my old car to the salesman , emptied out my car and signed all the new lease paperwork.
No one said anything to me about a lease end inspection or damages for wear and tear etc.
My question is: Can they surprise me with a bill for wear and tear in the future ? Or them saying nothing = I don’t owe anything ?
the short answer is “yes they can”. You do get a mailer 6 months and I believe 3 months prior to lease end with instructions on how to assess damage, do a pre-end inspection etc.
Lets say for example you turned the car in with 10k miles over the allowed miles, BMW isn’t just going to “eat” it and the dealer isn’t just going to pay $2k+ for the excess miles.
I’m not sure about your particular situation, if there was significant damage/over milage/bald tires etc. If there wasn’t you should prob be fine. If there was you will hear back and then it’s going to a finger pointing time, because the dealer will most likely not absorb any of it, and you will point your finger at them but at the end of the day you are liable. So then it becomes a dance with the dealership to see if they’re willing to help you out etc but at that point it’s an uphill battle because they already sold you the car.
Also on my last lease return (non BMW) they claimed after the fact that i only turned in 1 key instead of both keys and tried to charge me $350. The person who took the car in wasn’t the guy who usually does it and i knew there was going to be some issue so i actually had that guy hand write me on the paper that I gave him both keys because there was no mention of it anywhere on the paperwork. You gotta be careful with these things and just follow protocol. BMW goes out of their way to remind you as far as 6 mo ahead of time that your lease is coming to an and end sends you a whole package with a damage wheel that you can assess your own damage etc.
I hope you don’t have any security deposits with them either because they’ll just deduct it from the deposit and send you back the balance and good luck trying to fight that.
Also for those who don’t know, if you are significant under milage upon lease return, you actually get some money back. I got $200 back on my last BMW lease return. Didn’t even know about it and was a nice surprise. It goes my percentage, this chart was on the back of my lease return paperwork:
Thanks for that explanation.
My car was in excellent condition minus a 2 inch piece of damaged door trim in front passenger side where someone hit it with a hammer 
Tires were atleast 50% tread in my noob opinion
Other than that, maybe 1-2 small 1 inch or less scratch or scuff marks on bumper.
I put no security deposit
Maybe if they just send the car to auction you won’t hear back.
It’s absolutely not OK for them to put you in that situation. They benefited out of selling you the new car, let them deal with a piece of trim. 1-inch scuffs are within normal wear & tear and they can get that trim at cost.
Hmm my i3 was 13% under the allotted mileage and I didn’t get any credit…
@ssspinball
maybe they changed it since 2016 or maybe your i3 is treated differently, look at your lease return paperwork. It was on the back of mine. I posted the screen capture directly from my paperwork above.
I found out it’s a credit that only applies on a new BMW. I turned my car in without buying/leasing another so it doesn’t apply in my case. Oh well…
So at 25% under mileage (ie 9k on 36k miles) they give you 300 bucks ie 3 cents a mile. Lol. And they charge you 20 cents a mile if the reverse is true 
@vhooloo lol that’s true…didnt even bother doing the calculation on it.
For me personally, it was a nice “gesture” and came unexpected. I was going for another BMW anyway so I welcomed a free $200.
I haven’t seen other companies do it.
I’d gladly take it, but no one offered anything to me.
@mrkool44 Go to BMW USA.com and read the lease end process. BMW uses a plastic circle to gauge dents, if they fit inside that circle you’re good. It sounds like your scratches are small 1 inch so they fit. As far as tires you’re good there as well. It looks like you’ll be fine. You can also call BMW financial and ask them as well. They can send you a report as well.
I just processed a lease turn-in on my 2015 550i GT. It was eye-opening as I chose to do the inspection about 3 weeks before turn-in. As the guy was doing the walk-around with his iPad he stopped short at the bumper and said “I cannot continue”. He went on to say that he bumper was cracked and needed to be replaced along with the fog light.
I was informed that If I didn’t take care of it before turn in it would be around $2,000-$2,500 that BMW will charge to fix it. I called up insurance pronto and got it replaced. He also noted my front tires were below the 4/32 tread at 3/32. I went online bought some used tires - went to a local tire shop and mounted/balanced used RFTs for $15 a piece.
Turned in a few days before the maturity date and got all my MSDs back minus the disposition fee of $350.
@Phantomcypher were no aware of the damage prior to the inspection? Or were you trying to see if they’ll let it slide?
I saw some damage (caused by flying road debris on the 605…) I just wanted to see if they would’ve given me a reduced rate to fix it like $500 instead of having to go through insurance.
Also they wanted $300 PER tire to replace the worn ones. So basically they want me to buy new tires for a car I’m turning in under miles…
Yea no thanks…
I called BMWFS a few days ago.
They said there were $0 charges due for lease end.
So, looks like dealer just put the car in as no damages
Do not trust them. I would never lease from BMW again. I helped my daughter take her leased 328i back at the end of the lease term. Now that she is married and has a child they wanted something bigger and could not afford the BMW SUV so went another route. As soon as BMW found out that she was not getting a new one the cash register came out. There was a small (less than 2 inch) surface scratch on the rear bumper which she could and should have buffed out. BMW tacked on $900 saying they needed to repaint both bumpers so that they would match. They claimed that one tire was below spec which was hard to believe as they only had 19,000 miles on them but BMW hit her up for 4 new run flats so they would all match ( another $800). And of course the turn in fee of $350 since she was not getting another BMW. When it was all said and done they hit her for over $2,800. What a complete rip off. I am sure if she were getting another BMW this would not have happened, but as far as I am concerned good riddance BMW
If you go to BMW’s website they have a circular card that if the scratch is inside the circle you don’t pay. I had a few scratches on my X5 at turn in and one tire had extra wear on the inside tread, but not the outside one. I didn’t get charged for anything and got my MSD’s back. It was a great experience quick and easy. They new I wasn’t getting another X5 either.
There is a lot of wrong information in your post.
The lease end inspector doesn’t know whether or not you’re getting a new car so the idea that he hit your harder because he knew you were leaving is completely wrong. That guy has a check list and is instructed to go through the check list and mark down issues, that’s it. He’s not there to make a judgement call based on whether or not you stay in the BMW family.
BMW urges you to do a pre-inspection PRIOR to turn in. The whole point is so that you know what to expect and what it will cost so that you can go and fix yourself cheaper. Less than 2-inch scratch doesn’t even get charged. See here:
As for tires, runflat tires don’t last long. I’ve run them down in less than 19k miles. Driving style, tire brand, road surface etc all play a role. It is totally not out of the ordinary for a car with almost 20k miles to fall below 4/32 tread level. That’s part of driving a “sporty” car.
As for them trying to hit you up for 4 tires instead of one, that makes zero sense unless they were all bad. They’re not requiring you to have matching tread levels, they just want the same brand/size tire as the other ones and they all need to be above 4/32" tread level. So if you had 3 good dunlop runflat tires that meets the minimum tread level and have no other damage such as bulging etc and only 1 was bad then they would charge you for 1 dunlop runflat that matches the other three and that satisfies their inspector.
$350 disposition fee they charge according to your contract if you don’t lease another car so that’s no surprise. Nor do i think $350 is a hefty fee. Benz is $595, even Buick charges a lot more.
It sounds to me you underestimated the condition of the car/tires and failed to do a pre-inspection and are sour after the fact when all of it was within your control. They start sending you information about lease end 6 months prior to the end of lease term along with a whole kit that includes an inspection wheel so you can assess some of the damage yourself. Doesn’t sound like you paid much attention.
Ive leased many cars from BMW and i find them rather lenient when it comes to wear and tear damage.
I would have to disagree with you on this post 305Hackr.
[For Ref: I have leased 3 BMWs, leased 2 Infinitis, also purchased 2-3 other car brands in the past 10-15 years]
First, we can all pretend that the lease end inspector is “objective” and only going through his checklist.
But, who does that inspector report to? Who has authority to override the inspector?
The dealership GM, is my bet.
Let’s be realistic for a minute here. In my previous 2 BMW lease turn-ins, there was heavy negotiation - the dealer was willing to nickel and dime me for even a few hundred bucks. So, I wouldn’t put it past them to “charge” me lease end fees if I was NOT going to Lease another car from them.
Both lease turns ins, I had scratches/some dings/scuffs and even a big chunk missing from my door panel on my last lease turn in. They came back with $0 damages both times, I was a bit surprised.
What is the 1st question they ask you when you call to return the lease: “are you going to lease another car from us?”
I think there’s a reason they want to know that first, before they discuss your lease turn in.
Second, they never showed me the lease end damage report until AFTER it was clear I was leasing another BMW, both times. Surprise, I owe $0 !
It wasn’t like, hey here’s the lease end damages you owe. And, btw, do you want to get another car from us?
If you have purchased/lease enough cars in your lifetime, you know GMs at Dealerships have a lot of room to juggle the numbers. I think it’s a bit naive to believe that the lease end report has 0 correlation to whether you’re going to spend more money there.
Does this apply to ALL dealers? Probably not. I’m sure there’s “by the book” dealers out there.
But, if I was a betting man, I would bet a majority would function this way.
