VWFS - attitude at end of lease?

[Lotobear]

What can I expect when my VRS230 comes off lease in a couple of months.

I just booked it in for some paint repairs but three of the wheels are lightly kerbed and I'm going to leave them - are they generally fair or do they rape the living st out of you?

[Clyde_05]

I think it's £36 per wheel, but double check your contract that should have the charges outlined.

[Stu-nph26]

I wondering the same my car goes back next month and it needs a wheel refurbing as well as a scratch (some tt keyed it) on the near side wing and door. Not sure if its worth getting repaired before or not

[DickiePhitt]

I got a booklet from VWFS which outlined, in some detail, what was deemed fair wear and tear. I don't have access to it at present but I recall it allowed a certain amount of wheel damage. I'll look it out when I get home next week, unless someone else elaborates in the meantime.

[Gmlgml]

They will allow a scuff up to 50mm long on the RIM of the wheel. Anywhere else is chargeable. I got caught out a few years ago because the scuff was on the wheel spoke, albeit only about 20mm up from the wheel edge. Even though it was shorter than 50mm I got stung for it.

[Spidersleg]

With scratches etc, if the inspector deems it needs painting, they can also charge for blending in on another panel. Of course you can dispute any inspection findings. I'd say they are very fair in my experience.

[Gareth1974]

Stu-nph26 said:

I wondering the same my car goes back next month and it needs a wheel refurbing as well as a scratch (some tt keyed it) on the near side wing and door. Not sure if its worth getting repaired before or not

Be careful with getting repairs done, if they’re not happy with the quality of the repair you may have to pay twice. Their rates for the damage are quite possibly lower than the cost of repair anyway.

[Stu-nph26]

Can you find out how much they charge anywhere? What should I be looking at roughly for 2 pannels any ideas?

[PenelopaPitstop]

From Cupra Thread https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Prices are as follows:
Dents not requiring repainting £36
Body panel damage requiring repaint £110
Spare key replacement £132
Alloy wheel damage (per wheel) £36
Full valet £27 - £60
Tyre damage £50 - £300
Incomplete or missing service history £400
Windscreen damage £65
Lost sat nav disc £300
Bumper damage £138

Edited by PenelopaPitstop on Thursday 25th January 21:31

[Stu-nph26]

PenelopaPitstop said:

From Cupra Thread https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Prices are as follows:
Dents not requiring repainting £36
Body panel damage requiring repaint £110
Spare key replacement £132
Alloy wheel damage (per wheel) £36
Full valet £27 - £60
Tyre damage £50 - £300
Incomplete or missing service history £400
Windscreen damage £65
Lost sat nav disc £300
Bumper damage £138

Edited by PenelopaPitstop on Thursday 25th January 21:31

Thanks for this its very helpful. That is actually quite reasonable at least 2 panels will need painting, 1 wheel the rest should be fine. I might ring VW tomorrow and get a price to spray the scratch and see if its cheaper than £220

[Ross_T_Boss]

I recently returned a Golf R, used as my wife's school and shopping hack most of the time, I had to pay £9.60 when it went back for a missing light in the bottom of a door.

I expected to pay for 4x alloys as they were quite bad (i.e. about 1/4 of the rim on both wheels kerb offside, and a few good 2-3" marks on each wheel on the other side) and thought the few parking dings leaving a few nice vertical lines, one thru the paint, would have me left with a bill but the assessor wasn't fussed - said it would probably polish out, if not, what do you expect on a family-used Golf after 2 years.

So, in my experience, they are very lenient even against the guide lines. It may have helped that the car had just been serviced, was 8k under miles and had 7mm tread on tyres. How my wife went thru the OEM set in 10k miles I'll never know ;-)

[s3 akr]

We had a Lapiz Blue Golf R from Dec 2014 to Dec 2016. I had Chipsaway repair a scuff on the rear arch/bumper that had broken the paint, had 2 wheels refurbed as the kerb had lept out and caught the spokes and the rim (according to swmbo) - twice. Also replaced the screen with an Autoglass standard fit one. A small shopping trolley ding on the door was left. The inspection was done in less than 5 mins and nothing was looked at closely. Seemed to be more interested on the locking wheel nut being there than anything else! I also believe that the prices quoted on the repairs that VW carry out are only guideline prices - worth double checking. We've recently leased an S3 (not as good a drive as the Golf R but nicer to travel in and the deal was much better than another R) so I'm happy to go with VWFS again after the previous experience.

[Sheepshanks]

s3 akr said:

I also believe that the prices quoted on the repairs that VW carry out are only guideline prices - worth double checking.

Do they actually repair the cars? When we leased at work it was called a dilapidation charge and it was supposed to reflect how much the value was reduced by. That's always made sense to me as the price indicated by VW FS are often said to be less than repairs would cost. Even if they did repair them and did the work in-house so could do it cheaper, you'd expect them to add a profit margin / admin charge.

[PenelopaPitstop]

Most cars go straight to auction. If dealers buy it, then they will repair some small stuff if required.

[va1o]

They go to an internal dealers only auction initially then if unsold a public vwfs bca auction. Generally nothing is repaired before disposal, if it’s a total dog it will go to a vwfs “less than perfect” auction

Edited by va1o on Sunday 28th January 10:09

[fourstardan]

I VT'd last year on an A4....absolute killer, i had repairs done, they said not satisfactory and I had to contest for a good few months, luckily they hadn't responded to my challenges within the relevant consumer timings so I managed to get the charges dropped.

Had I known how good price wise BCA were i'd not had bothered.

It's purely a cost to reduce starting price at auction, the dealer who will buy it will take the hit OR just use his halfords touch up kits on it.

[Blown2CV]

i wouldn't bother having the repairs done unless you have costed out the potential fines and it looks a lot

[gregd]

My R is due to go back in March. A few dings and scuffs but nothing too bad. Amazingly it's still on the original tyres after 21K miles though. I had them checked just before Christmas and they were still legal by a couple of mm but it may be that I need to swap them. Anyone know what the cheapest acceptable brand is (standard Cadiz alloys)? Again I'm not sure if this works out cheaper for me to swap them or leave it to VWFS (would assume the former with tyres and VW!)?

[Blown2CV]

Generally, the requirements for tyre replacement under a lease are at a point well before the legal limit. Check your paperwork.

[FWIW]

Blown2CV said:

Generally, the requirements for tyre replacement under a lease are at a point well before the legal limit. Check your paperwork.

Don't listen to ^this.

The tyres just need to pass an MOT. Uneven wear due to over or under inflation may also cause you problems.

WRT damage, in my experience it's not worth getting repairs done as the charges for this are usually reasonable.