Lease car return inspection

[heathy73]

Hi all,
My VW Golf GTD is due back to the lease company in March and after being hit with a £700.00 bill on my last lease return (Merc C Class) I want to make sure there is not a repeat!
I have found a company called Inspectanycar.com that claim to assist with the return of a leased car by performing a detailed inspection 6 weeks before it is due back and I'm guessing they will tell me everything that needs to be done, which sounds great as I would rather be in control than the lease company.
Before I book my inspection has anyone on here used them before and if so was it worthwhile?
I just want to avoid a big bill after the car has gone back!
Thanks

[PenelopaPitstop]

Which company is the owner? Charges will depend on it. If it's VWFS, they have really low fees and it's not worth fixing damage.

[Nickp82]

Assuming this thread is not the covert advert it may be, paying £99 to have someone look at your car seems mental to me.

Anyone with a ruler and access to Google (to search for the BVRLA guidelines) can work out whether a scratch is likely to be chargeable on vehicle handback or not.

[heathy73]

The car is leased through my VW dealership on a personal lease over 2 years. When my C Class went back I knew it had damage to the wheels, a few minor dents and chips but I didn't think it was £700 worth of damage, they though it was despite me fighting it (they had a video of the car to defend themselves) All I am trying to do is find a way to avoid this happening again but I am not 100% sure what is classed as fair wear and tear so looking for someone to advise me, which is why i'm asking if anyone has used this service before and it was worthwhile.

[Douglas Quaid]

Let’s say you give this company £99 to look at your car, they say ‘looks alright mate’, you then return it and get a £700 bill again, will they give you the £700 or even the £99 back? If not then don’t use them.

[Jim AK]

As Nickp82 said.

Google BVRLA guidelines, buy a ruler & Robert will be one of your parents brother!!

Failing that call your Lease/PCP company & they will email you the guidelines.

[jimi]

Take it to a dealer and ask for a pre maturity inspection.

[heathy73]

I think that's the risk I take as they won't be coughing up if I do get charged by VW. I'm purely going on the fact that they specialise in lease returns and will tell me what needs to be done instead of me assuming I have it covered which is which is what happened on the C Class return. If I know that something needs attention I can solve this myself as it is too late if the car has gone and I have to eat the charge.

[cootuk]

Download the guidelines. If not sure then get the vehicle inspected a week before handover so if something is found you have a chance to fix it, or find out their charge for not fixing the damage.

[PenelopaPitstop]

Is there any damage at all? What are you afraid of?

[stewjohnst]

Spend £5 on a jet wash by your local shut down petrol station and then walk around squatting and eyeing up your doors/shut lines, etc.

If you spot anything - work out the odds of the inspector spotting it too.

If you think the repair will be spotted and it’s significant, pay for a chips away style repair.

My wife chuffed the wing of her Fiat 500 on a stack of breeze blocks in the courtyard, £200 of Smart repair probably saved us twice that in grumpy lease company fees as it was all ok when they inspected.

As someone else said if it is VWFS, the prices they charge for damage are very minimal anyway so unless you’ve folded a wheel under - Back to the future style - You’re as well to put £200 away as insurance and take it on the chin.

VW spotted a nick in the front bumper I hadn’t seen and a small ‘cold repair’ needed on the rear door wing/shut where we’d dented the opening with a car seat. Total fees - £92.

[heathy73]

Sounds like it is worth taking a gamble if VW are more understanding, I have a few minor scuffs to the wheels and a few pin dents, stone chips etc, but nothing major. My worry was that it is similar to C Class and they decided it wasn't fair wear and tear so billed me heavily, hence I want to avoid this!

[Camelot1971]

Hmm, smells of SPAM in here.....

[MorganP104]

A friend of mine recently handed her 64-plate leased Scirocco back, at the same time as picking up a new 67-plate Audi A3 (also leased).

She was really worried that a number of scratches and scrapes would be picked up by the guy receiving/inspecting the car. Apparently, he gave it a cursory glance during the walkaround, noted it was under the maximum permissible mileage for the lease term, and signed it off as "good condition - no charges".

The front bumper was scuffed, the passenger door had a 4-inch crease dent in it, 3 out of 4 alloys were kerbed, and the rear bumper had a scrape in the middle, under the numberplate. None of this damage was hard to spot - it was all 100% plain as day.

Despite that, no issues whatsoever upon handing back.

OP - If it were me, I'd give it a wash, hand it back, and keep my fingers crossed.

[anonymous-user]

BMW hand back (BCA) are cheaper than getting things fixed yourself.
Price list is published & straightforward.
http://m.bmw.co.uk/finance/existing-customers/retu...

EG £26 for a trashed alloy

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 5th January 21:59

[Starfighter]

Lex screwed me ove on my last return. The guy called to collect it and did the walk around about 4 hours after a full valet in and out. He pronounced the car to be OK and took it away. 3 weeks later I get hit with £400 for damage. Their T&C state the inspection at the pick up is just the overview and the do a detailed inspection at their depot. The car in question was in the auction about 2 days after pick up.

[spookly]

I've yet to have a charge on returning a lease car.
Got very lucky with the return of an E-class as I had insisted on an inspection before collection, but BCA collected without inspecting it at all. As soon as I told MBFS about that, they agreed to drop all the charges (£1350).

Currently have a Golf R which will return later this year. With all the current minor dings and scrapes it would be cheaper to pay the VWFS fees rather than fix it. As an exmaple, VWFS charge far less for a scrape on a diamond cut alloy than it would cost to get it refurbished/recut.

[bad company]

Starfighter said:

Lex screwed me ove on my last return. The guy called to collect it and did the walk around about 4 hours after a full valet in and out. He pronounced the car to be OK and took it away. 3 weeks later I get hit with £400 for damage. Their T&C state the inspection at the pick up is just the overview and the do a detailed inspection at their depot. The car in question was in the auction about 2 days after pick up.

I’ve never heard of anything like that. I’ve returned 3 lease cars to BMW and only once had a minor issue. The guy insisted he could see a dent, I certainly couldn’t see it.

Anyway once the car is collected and signed off OK you should immediately cancel the finance company direct debit, otherwise they could just take what they think their owed.

[jwo]

Yep BMW are fine - they even wavered the £180 contribution the BCA inspector put on the form for the car windscreen (which i signed for as could really say the chip wasn't there - i had mistakenly thought wouldn't have meant new windscreen but when explained to me it did actually).

The BVLRA (think that's correct) guidelines should be used by all the majors and they are very fair; as other had said, check out the charges that BMW VWFS etc charge for fixes - you'll be pleasantly surprised...

[Blue Oval84]

Camelot1971 said:

Hmm, smells of SPAM in here.....

OP has studiously ignored every suggestion to just google the lease return guidelines which would actually give him some answers about what is and isn't acceptable. I think you could be right.