BMW Lease Turn in - what happened?

Ask the Hackrs
25

My recent experience with BMW came with an lease return due to a recall (Airbag).
The X5 I had could not be resold, purchased at the end of lease due to the recall.

BMW and BMWFS bent over backwards and took the car in as is without an inspection, charged zero for the lease return; then put me into a 528i for a ridiculous discount and 0% APR.

Got a letter from BMWFS with an apology about the recall causing an issue at lease end with a check for $200 due to under miles.

I guess that was an exception to normal lease return…

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26

May I ask who does the pre-inspection? Any BMW dealer or someone 3rd party?

27

85% of the time BMW. other 15% is third partied if there are damages that exceed the normal wear and tear.

Edit: By “damages that exceed normal wear and tear” I mean a customer came in with what seemed to be like someone chopped his trunk with an axe… obviously that isn’t a normal 3 inch normal key scratch and appraising the damages are much more complicated.

28

This post is so loaded, I don’t even know where to begin. :joy:

29

BMW dealer does the pre-inspection, they can also do the final inspection as you wish or a 3rd party.

My recent experience with BMW dealer’s pre-inspection and final inspection were very pleasant on my 2016 X4. I had the pre-inspection done in the morning, all four tires needed to replaced as expected or BMW charges 300 each and an overdue maintenance, the inspector told me that any ran flat tires matching the size and over 4/32 were good and that was what i did, and they don’t have to be the same brands. 75 bucks each for used ones. Also squeezed in a maintenance appointment on the same day and all wrapped up around 4 PM and got the final inspection from the same inspector. Since I had the pre-inspection done, the final inspection only took like 5 mins, signed paperwork, drove it to the sale department and turned it in.

I have not received the final bill from BMW financial service yet, it should just be the disposition fee of 395 or some.

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30

I returned my 2015 328i today and the entire process was awful and took four days. My car was 1,430 miles under the allotted 10k miles/year for 37.5 months (I extended the lease).

I had initially made an appointment to return my car at the nearby Beverly Hills dealership this past Saturday. I forgot there was a pre-inspection and didn’t realize that that’s what the rep was doing until he whipped out a tire depth gauge to measure my tire tread and said that all four tires had to be replaced because the tread was too low on the outer edges ($300 each), as well as pointing out four 1" scratches and a 2" scratch where the paint chipped off on all of them ($300), and a foot long scratch on the bottom edge of the rear passenger trim ($400). I was unenthused to say the least and told him I wanted the car inspected and returned at a different dealership and left. I was not given any sort of report.

The next day I went to the dealership that the car was leased from. Initially, I had chosen not to go to this dealership because it was far from my home, but I thought they would be less anal about all this supposed “excess wear and tear.” When they tried to do the pre-inspection, they said they couldn’t because in their computer system, Beverly Hills had already completed it. They said they could do an unofficial pre-inspection to let me know if I needed to fix anything before turning the car in. Guy measures the tire depth, walks around the car…and says I need to replace the two rear tires because of low tread and also the two passenger rims because of excess curb rash. Okay, I thought, this isn’t great but still better than what Beverly Hills was saying I had to fix.

I ask for a report of this second pre-inspection, but the dealership said they couldn’t give me one since Beverly Hills had done the official one. I then made a final inspection appointment with the same inspector for four days later. I receive a confirmation email from this dealership stating that I had an upcoming “Final Lease Return Inspection” appointment.

I immediately replace my two rear run-flat tires with used ones ($250), repair the rims ($180), and go the extra mile and have the two scratch areas fixed as well ($350). I figured I’d rather be safe than sorry and didn’t want BMWFS surprising me with a bill later down the road. I go to my lease return inspection a day early and the original inspector’s manager helps me. He tells me something that surprises me: their dealership doesn’t do final lease return inspections.

Only BMWFS is responsible for final lease return inspections, which they hire a third party to do, he claimed. He then offered to walk around my car to see if they can take it (which made no sense, since the car came from his dealership, so he has to take it back?) and to notate any damage. I told him I had already done a pre-inspection at their dealership, but sure, knock yourself out. So him and another man walked around and around my car. They point out a 2" door ding and a couple of paint chips smaller than two push pins. They said those were noticeable but not to worry because the third party that BMWFS hires won’t “inspect your car with microscopes or anything.”

So later on in the day, I called BMWFS to explain the lease return process to me since I was getting differing information from too many people. BMWFS said the dealerships are certified to do final lease return inspections, FINAL meaning it’s the last inspection report that BMWFS uses to charge you for any excess wear and tear on your car. Also, you have to be present during this final inspection and sign off on it. It was interesting to me that all three inspectors claimed that BMWFS hires a third party to inspect the car AFTER the final inspection and can bill you for any damage they see fit.

So I called the shady dealership back and asked the manager why he didn’t do the final inspection. He said he didn’t realize he was authorized to do that but if BMWFS gives him the green light to do the inspection, he’d be more than happy to. Of course he was going to report the door ding and paint chips. I asked why this was necessary since it wasn’t excessive wear and tear and he said it was his job to report any and all damage he sees on the car and that he couldn’t “lie on the report” for me “even if he wanted to.” Wow. He also said if he doesn’t report all the damage to the car and BMWFS sees it later, then they’re going to send the dealership the bill. Also, just because he reports damage, it doesn’t necessarily mean BMWFS will bill me for it? Are any of these statements true?

Anyway this entire ordeal has been shady, stressful, and exhausting. I feel like both dealerships were trying to pressure me into fixing things that didn’t necessarily need to be fixed because they knew I didn’t know any better. I definitely feel like I was taken advantage of and ripped off.

Thoughts, anyone??

31

I have to say that these are terrible experiences from some centers but also a few customers who don’t want to take responsibility for their vehicle.

Our center does both pre and final inspections.

They use all available tools from BMW to complete these inspections.

It’s pretty straight forward as well, measure the tires and scratches and dings. If there is significant damage it will go to a third party.

It’s unbelievable for some users here to think they are being taken for a ride for being charged for dents, dings, scratches and wear and tear that you are responible for.

BMWFS and dealerships contact you well in advance of your lease maturity and try to do these inspections so that this is not a surprise.

90% of the time customers ignore it and think “everything will be okay because I bought a car here once”

Bottom line, you are responsible for any and all damages once you sign that contract.

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32

Many months ahead of time with a nice brochure and everything. It’s all laid out.

Many people treat their car as a rental car (which it effectively is) and think “oh well, it’s not like i’m keeping it, i don’t have to take care of it” and just treat it like crap. I always ask the inspector the same question: What’s the worst you’ve ever seen? It usually results in a pretty amusing story

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33

After reading a number of similar posts, I like the lease companies that sent a third party inspector to your house better. Those seem more organized.

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34

This is generally true but certainly not always true. When economic incentives to find damage exist and the customer is generally powerless to fight an assessment, it is hard to believe that there is never any abuse. Add to that training failures and the variables present when you have a large number of people doing work in a decentralized way, there is bound to be some policy non compliance.

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35

What economic incentives would exist? If a dealer is doing the inspection, they have no financial interest in the car, and the current lessee is not required to use them as a repair facility, so them marking X,Y,and Z as excessive really does nothing to their bottom line.

For those that use 3rd party inspectors, again, what financial gain would they have by marking excessive wear, as they are not tied in to the captive?

36

I’ve seen plenty of threads like this. In addition, the ones that also make me shake my head are the ones that feel that the 1500 damage they incurred should be waived simply because they remained loyal to the brand. Then, they get pissed off because that’s not the case, when they, in fact, were the ones that failed to follow the contract and had excessive wear/damage.

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37

So what did you replace this car with?

38

Independent is a difficult to define term. In the legal field, I normally don’t consider someone independent if they are being paid by one party and making a ruling that involves two potentially adversarial parties. This is a big reason a consumer wants to be in small claims court court with a publicly funded judge versus arbitration where arbiter is being paid by the business. If a third party inspector kept giving the customer benefit of doubt, you think BMWFS would keep employing him?

Then there is the dealership example. If a dealership has a relationship with a customer, I would absolutely expect them to cut the customer a break on inspection if there is an expected quid pro quo of customer buying another vehicle from them. If you are on lease three or four, dealership is gonna want to keep you happy when making borderline call on tire wear or dents.

Then there is the simple variation amongst thousands of employees doing these inspections.

Now, I think customer is wrong 90% of time. I just don’t think that in a system with so much potential economic conflict and so many variables, customers aren’t sometimes screwed over or treated differently based on various circumstances.

39

A break would be nice, but I’m not sure why you would expect them to give the customer a break when the customer didn’t follow their contractual obligation. They are, in theory, “robbing” BMW in that regard.

If BMW wanted to give the customer a break, that’s a different story, as it’s their car. But for a dealership, who has no financial interest in the car, to offer to let damages slide, ultimately, that means BMW has to pay to have those repairs done (in theory) to remarket their car.

40

Had similar issue where my bmw center told me not to get pre inspection on lease return. They said; that would be handled by them as they are one of the authorized dealers to do it. Long story short they didn’t do it; sent it to auction. Car was damaged coming off truck; bmw wanted over 2k. I got them down to less than to maybe $200. BMW nickels and dimes for everything now. It’s not like they will fix these cars before auction. They are sold as is to other bmw dealers only.

41

Maybe I got lucky but my 2015 i3 return process was a breeze. I’m sure it helped that I picked up a new i3s the same day.
My salesman tracked down the inspector immediately upon my arrival so while I was signing the deal, inspection was being taken care of. Rear tires needed a replacement but for i3, it’s cheaper to return the car as is than trying to replace it. They charge $150 for a rear tire which is cheaper than tirerack or any other place I’ve checked.
Was more than 15% under on mileage so I had a nice $250 credit on my new i3 statement! nice!

This was Socal dealer in Santa Ana. They might not have the best deals but they literally have an army of staff so it’s worth going there.

42

BMWFS auctions are usually open meaning anyone with access to the auction can bid on the cars.

There are some closed sales but those are usually the “good” cars/you won’t find off-lease cars there and it’s dealer-only.

43

When I turned in my X5, the process couldn’t have been easier. They walked around the car, said looks good and we went inside and completed the paperwork. I think my local dealer wanted my car, Black with M package pretty loaded car. One rim had a little scratch and hood had typical tiny nicks, but that’s it. Previous X5 they took my offer of $2000 below buyout and they certified it w new tires and I bought it. 3 previous BMW’s a bought.

44

This sounds legit. I forgot their latest template but a number of lease return templates notate everything but then categorize them as “excess” or not. Only the excess ones are charged back to the customer.