superballs

hello. i have an 03 tl-s that i leased and the lease is up in april. im highly considering going into an 05 tl when the lease is up. i was corious how many of you where in the same, or silimar boat. as some of you might know, i had an extensive amount of mods done at one point, and im doing a great job of bringing it back to stock, but with the mods i had, its hard. there are a few things that are becoming a problem, and i dont know how "anal" the lease inspector will be. where any of you actually present when they inspected your last car? did you think they were less detailed or more detailed then you were expecting? what are some key points they seemed to focus on? as of now, my steering wheel controls dont work for the radio, and my engine cover is still painted.. will these cause major problems?

JayC

I don't know about your dealership in particular, but in talking with some of the people that I know here in NC that are involved in Acura dealerships (GM and sales manager), I was told that Honda financial is fairly lax about damage...So, depending on how obvious your "imperfections" are now, I think you may be okay...I think that they said that the damage (now they were talking exterior) was okay up to about $1500 total as long as each individual thing wasn't more than a couple hundred here and there. Maybe you could just let them know that the radio buttons aren't working right and they'll let it slide...or, you can just play dumb and have them find it on their own...Like I said, from the take that I got, it seemed like they were pretty easy compared to some companies on their lease returns...With that being said, I'm sure you could always get lucky or screwed depending on the dealer you return to...

midas69

Well my last car wasn't leased through Acura, but I suspect they are all similar. My inspection was a week ago on my Nissan. They use a 3rd party and I would guess all the companies do.

I was actually shocked at how superfiscial it all was. They started the car, but didn't drive it. They opened the hood, but didn't check any of the fluid levels. I had a burn mark on the headliner that she missed completely. She didn't listen to the radio to hear if I had blown out the speakers. The whole thing was very lame.

MR1

Not an Acura, Jeep GC. Ten minutes of start it up, check tire tread & body & interior & mileage. Entered into handheld computer and left, didn't really have a clue.

Aconcagua

I turned in a 2003 ABP TL-S that had a Comptech Icebox, exhausts, and a huge aftermarket stereo in it. I took extremely good care of the car, and the mileage was correct for the amount of time I had leased it for. Before I took it in, I spent an entire day detailing the car, from the wheelwhells to the engine bay itself. When it was done, it looked brand new. When I brought it down, I had absolutely no problem at all with the inspector, and this may have been helped by the fact that I made it very clear that I had no problem at all keeping the '03 another few years if they made the trade ( and their chance to turn a profit on reselling the '03 and my new '04) a chance to screw me out of a few hundred more dollars at the lease inspection.

If the car looks really good, and can be sold for more than the payoff quote next April if you wanted to buy it, they will not be too difficult. They walked around mine, got inside and checked everything, and opened the hood, trunk etc. If it is just the engine cover that is painted, you may want to remove it and try to powerwash it( steel wool..etc), and if the steering wheel was down due to an aftermarket radio and you now have the original, just bring this up to the guy since they can probably fix it before they sell it again for cheap money. If it is aftermarket still, it is better then the stock system anyways, so be sure to bring that up.

Remember too that you are already a proven loyal customer that pays your lease bill on time, and you now want to continue this business relationship. The salesman does too. The bottom line is that they can fix most problems on decent lease turn-ins for a lot less money than they will lose over the next few decades should you get pissed off at them and buy your next 7 cars from Lexus or Infiniti.

You will love the '05 when you get it.

Oswald Vater

Another thing you may want to do is have any dings fixed before you take it in. I didn't do that to mine and they charged me $400 to take them out. I know I could have done it cheaper myself by using paintless dent removal. My bad for being lazy. In your case, I don't think the engine cover will be a problem but they might get your for the wheel controls. Depends on the inspector and how picky he/she is.

superballs

i forgot to mention. the car is perfect inside and out. no dings, no scathces. no swirl marks. nothing on the seats or headliner.

DarkWraith33

I've had 3 vehicles through American Honda Finance that needed the end-od-lease inspection. Bear in mind the dealer does NOT do this inspection. It is someone that is contracted through American Honda Finance (at least here in PA.)

First car: Was snowing. Guy was there for 10 mins. Started car, but not moved. Looked at the panels and tires. I owe: $0 at end of lease.

2nd car: Was nice out. Looked over car a little better. Found a couple dings here/there, but they were under the $ needed to hit me for them (Damage waivers on leased cars are great) Let tires JUST slide by... I owe: $0

3rd car: Had huge hole in bumper where someone backed into me. Had scrapes all down driver side (again, some drunk whacked me). Also had a gouge under front bumper (that one was my fault) Again though, anything under $500 per incident per panel (up to 3 *I think it was*) was waived. Bumper was.... $507! Also needed 3 new tires. Total owed: $1000 or so. (Without waiver allowances $2k easy)

However, when I got my new Acura, as I was a loyal customer, the entire fee was waived AND they got me out of that lease 3 months early. Big props for Acura.

I give Honda/Acura an A+ when it comes to leasing vehicles. I've always paid within $10-20 a month of the "crazy deal" I heard someone get. They've been easy to work with and bent over backwards to get me in my TL. As for the inspection guys I've had... They've all looked at major damage closely, and have all been "fair." A big thing they look for is drilled holes in the interior to mount things. (They hate that!) Tires are another thing they check relentlessly. Also, if you had HIDs, they will make sure they are still HIDS upon turn-in.

In my opinion, the inspector would NOT have noticed new exhaust, an intake, a new sway bar... Nothing super internal like that.

My . Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Sopadepollo

It's been two weeks since I picked up my 05 TL Navi and couldn't be happier. I leased it for 36 mos.
This past weekend I received a package from Honda Financial and included was this plastic card. The card had two holes (one dime sized and the other 1 1/2" round) and a pretty good description on what is and is not a chargeable wear and tear. The holes were there to give you an idea on how big a scrath or glass crack is or is not acceptable. It described how they go about charging for paint scrathes, interior, mechanical, tires and a whole bunch of other acceptable wear and tear items.
I have to tell you that in all my previouse lease deal, I have never been treated so well by a leasing company. My car isn't due for another 35 1/2 months and I know right NOW where I stand. A+++++ for Acura and Honda financial.

VTEC=happiness

Superballs....good thread as I had the same questions and have hesitated to fix my car up any more than I have to date....guess there isn't much to worry about.

consultauto

Off lease inspectors are usually looking for excessive wear and tear, they understand that they are looking at a used car but they will charge for broken and missing items, minor dings and scratches are noted but usually waived, worn tires under 4/32nds of thread are chargeable items, as far as aftermarket items are concerned try to make it as stock as possible. Non factory components such as wheels,exhaust etc. may be charged back to you.

Twenties

Your experiences with Acura sound good.
When i turned in my BMW i got hit with $2500 in lease fees.

$1000 for over mileage ($.20/mi) i expected.
Then $350 disposition fee, i assume Acura charged all of you that?
Then $150 since the service light was on.
Then $500 for a long scratch UNDERNEATH the front of the car.
Then $500 for 2 tires that had even tread & looked good but were 1/32 under BMW's spec (although it was more than the legal/safety spec min.)
Would have charged additional $150 if i didn't return the other master key.

Good thing is they overlooked all the dings on the rear bumper and doors.
Interior was excellent so they couldn't say anything about that.
The car had one mechanical problem but they didn't notice.

When you add up the $2500 it means i really had to pay $70 more a month than my lease payment.

tkx

All of these really are up to the dealer and the used car manager/Lease manager. Once you bring the vehicle in, the Lease Manager will try and resell you a new Acura because it means repeat business for them. They will go through the same steps as if you owned the vehicle... they get the used car manager to inspect the vehicle and give an appraisal. The dealerships know EXACTLY how much is owing on your vehicle. Very VERY seldom do they give you top value in the black book.

If I were you, I would get the trade-in value done without telling them that you are leasing the vehicle.. Once you have real numbers you can then negotiate a little more. If they realize that you are leasing and want to get into a new vehicle, then they have the upper hand.

The dealership has the power to give you whatever they want for the vehicle. Once the vehicle is bought back, Acura gets their money, and then the dealership sells the lease-back.

Go through the process as if you are buying a new car from scratch. Do not tell them you have a trade-in, as that is when they can start playing games with money. Get the best number possible for the vehicle and then tell them that you have a car to trade.. once they do that, then you have a number (it may not be the best TRADE-IN value, but you probably would have gotten more of a discount off the MSRP price....

Although you do not own the vehicle, you have a buyout for your lease... so you can own the vehicle if you wanted. Now you can tell them that you your car is a lease and that you want to work the difference into the payments...

ie.
1. Look at new car, test drive, etc, etc, etc
2. Negotiate on price of the vehicle from MSRP
3. AFTER you have BEST price tell them that you have a trade to deal with
4. Get car appraised and ask them, after they apraise it, if it is the ATV (actual trading value), this may not be the $15,000 that you wanted for you car, but may be around $12000 or so.. this is not the dealership trying to rip you off... it REALLY should be the ACTUAL worth of your vehicle...this also means that you trade-in value SHOULD NOT change depending on which vehicle you are going to buy. If they can play with those numbers, then you haven't gotten the best deal on your car because they still have room to play with.
5. Work out your payments on the lease (you probably will have a negative equity in the vehicle so you will have to add that to the payment).

I guess my point is... do not let them take control of the sale that fast. That is the #1 rule in sales..... keep control of the sale. If they can control you in that, then they might be able to charge you an extra $500 here for a little ding, or a light going off, etc... but if they gave you an appraisal value before knowing it was a lease-return....you are good to go.

They will probably take the VIN, but that is only to reference the vehicle in their black books.... very VERY seldome will they pull it up on the screen and be like "...this is a leased vehicle", in which case you can turn it right around and say that you are going to buy it out and sell it to a friend, or if the appraisal is close enough, you will trade it in.

superballs

wow! like always, amazing advice from everyone. thanks for the write up, tkx. i can definitly use that and see it helping a great deal. the man thing im scared of, is them noticing one thing, and then being more detailed from there. ie, noticing that the steering wheel controls dont work, using 1% of common sense realize that i had an aftermarket radio, then they might notice i lost my stock sub, haha. and then they might realize that i have a whole a small whole in the trunk. etc. but thanks again. im gonna go try to fix some things.

tkx

All dealerships take into account that the vehicle WILL need some reconditioning... never have I seen a car some in and sold the way it was taken in. They usually get new rubbers, a good cleaning, and anything else that they need. Be not afraid though, because they will still make their money.. HUGE margin in used vehicles... they may not make the $4,000-$6,000 that they will mark it up, but to even make $1500 - $2500 is still money in their pockets.

Dealerships make money.... that is why they are there... involved with business are costs for underevaluating... don't worry, they will check it out and appraise it at that time.

04acura tl

when you trade in your lease its just like trading in your own car there are no lease charges. They want you to buy a new car from them. You may even get a few bucks out of it. Go a few months before your lease is up