I am due to return my 2017 Q5 lease in a few weeks and had my inspection back in mid January with no issues or any extra costs. A few days later my nanny nicked my garage going in causing some minor damage. I called Audi financial services and they had told me since the damage was not there when I had the car inspected it that I can still return the car with no extra cost. I reiterated that it was probably $600-800 worth of damage and offered to show them pictures. They held firm, even after checking with a supervisor and said I can just return the car as is with no cost to me.
Is this true? Has anyone had any experience with turning in a damaged car after a clean inspection? I have attached a pic for reference
I’d personally assume they’d charge you, but I could be very wrong lol
You might want to try using some elbow grease to get that white paint transfer off… Assuming the vast majority of the white marks is paint transfer from your garage (and didn’t go through the paint), that dent should be able to be popped right out by a good PDR guy…
Get them to send out an email saying you had this convo and the details of it saying you won’t be charged. Also if they can note that on your account, it’ll help too
I agree. They will charge you. Years ago I turned in a BMW that was over miles by about 5,000. Turned it in. Got a zero due letter from BmWFS. Two weeks later they received the car from the dealer and sent second letter with amount due. They had the right to recover even with the mistaken letter. You agree in your contract to cover the damage. An email from Audi doesn’t change that. They ended up discounting the charge but I still paid.
Yea i dont believe this. I had a similar situation with my BMW, did the pre-return inspection a month or two before turning in and the car was fine. Then 2 weeks later i got some deep scratches on the hood from falling ice. They do another inspection when you return the car and they will note the damage and charge for it
you could risk it. but check against the lease turn in guide, once you do your best to clean it up. or have it inspected again, and you will know if cheaper to have fixed yourself, or turn it back.
My experience with this sort of thing was some years ago (10?), was subaru which had rear quarter crease (from uhaul backing into it, but pretty minor really). had fixed “on the cheap” before inspection, looked really good. but the inspector happened to catch the light just right and noticed it. the turn in charge was basically half what I had paid to get it done myself.
Good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any scratches that broke the paint. PDR cost will depend on your market. Larger metro areas seem to have more options/competitive pricing.
I’d venture to guess around $250-$400 for that. Depends on where you go – If you let the dealership’s PDR guy that comes around once every week or two do it, it might cost more since the dealership will probably take a cut… If you happen to be in the DC metro, my body shop’s PDR guy did a good job at taking out around 8 dings on the trunk lid + 1 in my fender for around $300 IIRC. Definitely do a Yelp search and send pics for quotes - If you’re in a larger market, shouldn’t be too hard to get quotes through text.
Turned in a MB that the dealer put wrong tires on (Weren’t run flat even after I told them to) but I called MBFS and they noted that on the account. Turned it in, got a letter for a charge of new tires and I told them to look at the notes and forwarded the email I got which stated I wouldn’t be charged for those. They sent a check in 2 days. It just depends I guess.
$300 for all that ding removal? That’s a great deal
I just got a ding on the body line of my car door and the cheapest I could find was around $200!!!
At that price forget it, I’ll just bring it back after lease is up with the ding there.
It’s highly dependent on the size of dents on lease returns. Most captives will sent you a kit or printout to measure dings and dents. If they are bigger, you get charged. If not, you don’t. The OP’s dent size is 100% chargeable.
Yup - was definitely a good deal, especially since I negotiated off ~$1k off the purchase price of that car when I bought it (It was a lease return CPO that they parked under an acorn tree, and Lexus CPO checklist says they were supposed to take out the dings)
Also, probably cheaper since the 8 dings were all on one panel and all were easily accessible with nothing behind the ding they had to maneuver around - I know the body shop didn’t make any money on the PDR (They just outsourced it while waiting for parts for my car to be repaired)
Most banks will give you credit for wear and tear if you stay with them for the next lease. Since the OP did not specify, we have to assume he’s not leasing another Audi.
I grew up there, but been out here in DC for most of my adult life