I’m in the final process of locking down a lease. Dealership is 4hrs away from me which is the first time I’m traveling that far to close a lease so I want to ask the community here if there are best practices to consider as I’d like to avoid any potential issues (such as the dealer changing their terms last second).
I’m thinking of asking for terms to be printed and shared before I make this trip. Anything else I’m missing?
Thanks in advance!
Get everything in writing. See if they’ll e-contract you before you get there, so all you have to do is pick up the car and the keys.
Esign or I have also done a wet sign w notary next day fedex ahead of arrival. At very least copy of lease contract printed for review.
If it’s a CPO/loaner make sure to get pictures of each wheel for road rash/curbing
Thank you everyone for your feedback!
And check the windshield for chips, and tires for any bubbles / nails. My Macan loaner had a windshield chip and some curbrash + a bubble in the tire wall. Tire was replaced free.
Def get lease papers in advance printed before you go (if they won’t do e-sign or FedEx the papers to you for signature).
Called them and asked for econtract, they said it’s not a problem… so we’ll see. Thanks everyone for your help.
ABSOLUTELY get all paperwork sent to you well ahead of time. Don’t think of it, do it. And read it all. If you have any issues give yourself enough time to take care of those issues before you leave.
Confirm there is no damage. Even minor stuff like a scratch or whatever. Ask for a video walkthrough and pics. A brand new car with 20 miles on it could still have been scuffed up somewhere along the way.
This may seem like a duh thing, but double check that you and the dealer (sales rep) are talking about the same car. Check the VIN. I speak from experience. I once flew to L.A. to pick up a car. All is going great and I casually mention to the sales rep that I’ll be using this for ski trips. He says oh, it’s not AWD is that a good idea? To which I said, what do you mean, it is AWD. Well as it turns out there were two almost identical cars for sale. One was AWD one was RWD and you can figure out the rest. I don’t think it was malicious on the part of the dealer, dude was as perplexed as I was. They ended up giving me the AWD one for the price we agreed to on the slightly cheaper RWD. So it all worked out OK, but it might not have. Anyway, long story short, double check.