I signed a lease today for a car today that was listed with attractive selling price. When I looked at the car it looked fine for the most part but I noticed a few long scratches (not deep) on the rear bumper near the trunk. It looks like wear from people not being careful about loading/unloading stuff from the trunk. The scratches are about half the length of the bumper.
I pointed this out to the dealer and they said they can write up a sheet where we can indicate the scratches were there before it was leased to me.
I was fine with this since it’s just a leased car, but on the contract they wrote “as-is cosmetically” so am worried if I will have trouble on lease return.
Now I’m thinking if it was listed with an attractive price because there could be something else wrong with it that I didn’t notice or if I’ll be charged for the scratches on return.
Has anyone else ever seen “as-is cosmetically” written on a lease agreement?
I didn’t pick up the car yet, but already signed and left a deposit.
You needed “we owe” form from them. I had similar issue. Picked up my car then brought it back 2 weeks later and the dealer fixed and repainted the bumper.
They gave me a form similar to something that they use at a car rental place where you mark areas with damage and the type of damange (scratches, dents, etc). Is that the “we own” form you are referring to?
Sorry, made a typo - it’s “we owe”, not “own”.
You haven’t picked the car yet, so insist on that. They will need to be responsible for repair. What if you decide to return to a different dealer? But maybe whatever they give you also works, others may tell you.
Have same issue with one of my recent lease, front bumper scratches, wheel scratches and dent on the rear bumper. Took the photo at the time of picking up the car, and dealership left a note on their system, wont charge me when return
Btw, they even only gave me one key… telling me to order one and get the programming by myself LMAO
They will give you a receipt if you don’t want them to repair it.
I leased a loaner before and had the same problem, didn’t notices the scratches until the next day, since I took the delivery at night so it’s hard to do inspection. I called them right away and drove it to them. They wrote something about not going to charge me at the end of the lease, I was ok with it and drove away. The next day I found more scratches from the door edge, it appears people weren’t careful enough and hit the wall when they open the door. Dealer offer me to repaint the 2 doors and rear bumper(it was light scratches from people pulling out their luggage), also gave me a loaner during the repair time which was 3 weeks.
You guys are brave in just accepting a note from the dealer stating the damage was already there when leased. IMO, that note has no bearing during lease inspection time and the owner (bank) can charge you for any excessive damage above their turn-in guideline.
as-is implies that you are liable for the condition in which they gave it to you. If this is accompanied by a description of said condition, then I think you should be able to show this to the lease end inspector.
However, turning in a leased vehicle via lease end inspection is usually a worst case scenario. Buying out the lease to keep it, buying it out to immediately sell it or trading the lease (if it’s a good deal) can all be better options then returning the car. You may even add to the scratches or damage it worse during your ownership…
If the scratches are not deep, why not just have a PDR or detailer look at it. Maybe $100 fix.
