VWFS - attitude at end of lease?

[anonymous-user]

Just had my Leon inspected - I was slightly worried about a couple of nasty stone chips where the top coat of paint had flaked away from the primer, but the guy who inspected it wasn't bothered about them, or about a single parking dent.
I did get charged £36 for a wheel scuff though which was annoying, considering the rest of the car was immaculate for 2 years old / 33K miles - the limit for a wheel scuff is 50mm and this was maybe 90mm long, right on the rim of the wheel, and barely visible at a meter away from the car. I could have contested it I suppose, but probably not worth the hassle - the rules say 50mm, it's longer, so doubt I'd win.
The whole process took about 20 minutes, the guy was pretty friendly - it's no skin off his nose if you contest the charges or not, so no point arguing with him.

[Blown2CV]

Spumfry said:

Just had my Leon inspected - I was slightly worried about a couple of nasty stone chips where the top coat of paint had flaked away from the primer, but the guy who inspected it wasn't bothered about them, or about a single parking dent.
I did get charged £36 for a wheel scuff though which was annoying, considering the rest of the car was immaculate for 2 years old / 33K miles - the limit for a wheel scuff is 50mm and this was maybe 90mm long, right on the rim of the wheel, and barely visible at a meter away from the car. I could have contested it I suppose, but probably not worth the hassle - the rules say 50mm, it's longer, so doubt I'd win.
The whole process took about 20 minutes, the guy was pretty friendly - it's no skin off his nose if you contest the charges or not, so no point arguing with him.

so you had

2 big stone chips where the paint had flaked
a car park ding
9cm scrape on a wheel

you get charged £36 and you're moaning and considered arguing with the guy?!

[va1o]

The £36 seems to be a flat rate for wheels. Even if it’s diamond cut and completely ruined that’s still all you pay. So it can be very cheap compared to what a refurb would cost, which generally will get done prior to resale if at a main dealer

[Blown2CV]

va1o said:

The £36 seems to be a flat rate for wheels. Even if it’s diamond cut and completely ruined that’s still all you pay. So it can be very cheap compared to what a refurb would cost, which generally will get done prior to resale if at a main dealer

and particularly it seems great value in total if you look at the damage list. Sounds like at least two panels and at least one being a respray. If metallic then you are blowing into neighbouring panels too, I'd be surprised if that came in under £700 unless done at a starse SMART repair shop and even then it would be a couple of hundred quid.

[anonymous-user]

Blown2CV said:

Spumfry said:

Just had my Leon inspected - I was slightly worried about a couple of nasty stone chips where the top coat of paint had flaked away from the primer, but the guy who inspected it wasn't bothered about them, or about a single parking dent.
I did get charged £36 for a wheel scuff though which was annoying, considering the rest of the car was immaculate for 2 years old / 33K miles - the limit for a wheel scuff is 50mm and this was maybe 90mm long, right on the rim of the wheel, and barely visible at a meter away from the car. I could have contested it I suppose, but probably not worth the hassle - the rules say 50mm, it's longer, so doubt I'd win.
The whole process took about 20 minutes, the guy was pretty friendly - it's no skin off his nose if you contest the charges or not, so no point arguing with him.

so you had

2 big stone chips where the paint had flaked
a car park ding
9cm scrape on a wheel

you get charged £36 and you're moaning and considered arguing with the guy?!

I think you've read what you wanted to read rather than what I actually wrote. I'm not moaning, I'm saying what happened - and where have I said I considered arguing with the guy?
Stone chips - I said nasty, not big, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they had been questioned, but they weren't. The parking ding - the ONLY parking ding - was small, and hard to spot, and I knew it wouldn't be charged for according to the BVRLA guidelines and sure enough, it wasn't.
Yes, I know £36 for a wheel scuff is way cheaper than getting the wheel refurbed myself.

If I wanted to moan about anything it would be that the car isn't considered as a whole - it is in VERY good condition for 33K mile daily driver - but according to the way the BVRLA guidleines and the inspection works, it could have had loads more stone chips, loads more parking dings, scrapes to the interior plastic, and 50mm scuffs on every wheel, and none of it would have been charged for.

Edited by Spumfry on Tuesday 27th February 23:17

[DMS1979]

What is the deal in regards to servicing?
Ours is on a two year lease and on long life servicing - currently the computer is showing that a service will be required after the end of the lease. I am assuming then that i dont need to service right as i am following the manufacturers guidelines??

[anonymous-user]

DMS1979 said:

What is the deal in regards to servicing?
Ours is on a two year lease and on long life servicing - currently the computer is showing that a service will be required after the end of the lease. I am assuming then that i dont need to service right as i am following the manufacturers guidelines??

Yes, just follow the manufacturer's guidelines and you'll be fine - if it's not due when the car goes back, that's the end of it.
Long life servicing is a godsend when you're leasing.

[Sheepshanks]

DMS1979 said:

What is the deal in regards to servicing?
Ours is on a two year lease and on long life servicing - currently the computer is showing that a service will be required after the end of the lease. I am assuming then that i dont need to service right as i am following the manufacturers guidelines??

They have a max interval of 2yrs. Has the car never been serviced while you've had it?

[DMS1979]

Sheepshanks said:

They have a max interval of 2yrs. Has the car never been serviced while you've had it?

this is what im worried about
No it hasnt it is set to long life from factory and currently it is showing that it isnt required until after the lease is up. of course this could change.
im not talking about a golf R or anything special just a skoda yeti

on a separate note do you get a chance to buy the car if you want to?

[Sheepshanks]

DMS1979 said:

this is what im worried about
No it hasnt it is set to long life from factory and currently it is showing that it isnt required until after the lease is up. of course this could change.
im not talking about a golf R or anything special just a skoda yeti

They all come set to long life and for private customers buying (or PCPing) they should be switched to fixed interval unless you ask them not to. On our VW they forgot so it was left on long life - 730 days to service when we picked it up.

DMS1979 said:

on a separate note do you get a chance to buy the car if you want to?

You can't buy it yourself but anyone else (ie wife/partner) can. There's a link on the VWFS website to get a price. I tried it on brothers car and it was too dear - basically forecourt retail - and the people on here who have the cheapy Alltrack deals are finding the same thing.

[essayer]

DMS1979 said:

this is what im worried about
No it hasnt it is set to long life from factory and currently it is showing that it isnt required until after the lease is up. of course this could change.
im not talking about a golf R or anything special just a skoda yeti

on a separate note do you get a chance to buy the car if you want to?

Longlife is ~20000 miles or two years isn't it?

[DMS1979]

i would agree but thats not what the car is telling me - hence me debating in my head

[cuprabob]

Longlife is variable based on driving style and journey type upto a maximum of 18,600 miles / 24months.

[Blown2CV]

so it has to be due a service within the 2 year lease term...

[PenelopaPitstop]

DMS1979 said:

What is the deal in regards to servicing?
Ours is on a two year lease and on long life servicing - currently the computer is showing that a service will be required after the end of the lease. I am assuming then that i dont need to service right as i am following the manufacturers guidelines??

I wouldn't worry about it. If the service is not due according to car computer, then you don't have to do anything.

DMS1979 said:

on a separate note do you get a chance to buy the car if you want to?

You can request purchase price in last 3 months of your contract.

Sheepshanks said:

You can't buy it yourself but anyone else (ie wife/partner) can. There's a link on the VWFS website to get a price. I tried it on brothers car and it was too dear - basically forecourt retail - and the people on here who have the cheapy Alltrack deals are finding the same thing.

I was able to buy myself, but didn't decide due to high price. If the price is too high just wait for the car to come back to the market, there's a chance it will be offered cheaper by whoever buys it. My ex-lease car came back to the market 6 weeks after return and was way cheaper than VWFS purchase price.

[Sheepshanks]

PenelopaPitstop said:

I was able to buy myself,

Maybe it depends on the lease but on contract hire they've always (well, for as long as I've been looking) said you can't buy it yourself. Near the bottom of this page: https://www.vwfinance.co.uk/en/privatecustomers/ho...

[Sheepshanks]

DMS1979 said:

i would agree but thats not what the car is telling me - hence me debating in my head

When is it saying it's due, and what age will the car be then?

[PenelopaPitstop]

Sheepshanks said:

Maybe it depends on the lease but on contract hire they've always (well, for as long as I've been looking) said you can't buy it yourself. Near the bottom of this page: https://www.vwfinance.co.uk/en/privatecustomers/ho...

I don't know what it depends on. I just checked previous contract and there's nothing about buying it at the end, standard hire agreement. Every time I called VWFS, I was transferred to Fleet Department, maybe it has something to do with it.

[Sheepshanks]

PenelopaPitstop said:

I don't know what it depends on. I just checked previous contract and there's nothing about buying it at the end, standard hire agreement. Every time I called VWFS, I was transferred to Fleet Department, maybe it has something to do with it.

If it was fleet, was it in a company name?

I forget the issue now - I think it's something to do with the VAT treatment of lease cars. But on a personal lease you pay the VAT anyway. Who knows - maybe it's VW wanting some break in the "ownership" chain for legal or warranty reasons?

[FWIW]

Spumfry said:

I think you've read what you wanted to read rather than what I actually wrote.

Don’t worry. He always does that.