nipseyrussell

Hi, does anyone know acura policy/practice on worn tires when returning a car at lease end? At least one tire is pretty worn on wife's car, but lease ends in November. If you think Acura will charge me for this, i assume it will be at an outrageous tire price, no? If I have to replace, any idea what i can get away with to make this as inexpensive as possible? (eg cheaper tire brand? used?)
thanks for any help

dallison

check craigslist for a used set. They will most likely charge you for a matching set of tires.

miner

You are generally allowed $1500 of wear & tear before you get charrged - check with your lease holder for details. When I returned my wife's '04 RSX-S I had reeplaced the worn tires because I thought I would get charged an outrageous price, too. When the inspector came to look at the car he told I did not need to do that since a $1500 allowance for wear and tear was allowed.

Simba91102

Good thought (Craigslist), but the TSX tire size (215/50x17) is not a particularly common size (very uncommon actually). I've been looking for a used set for along time with no success.

VQPower37

get some cheap chinese tires off of ebay, its better then them charging you for a set of matching oem tires

PhiDelt

Ling Longs hahaha

Simba91102

Ya, I may be looking in the wrong place, but I haven't seen any decent deals on ebay in some time. I have found some really good deals there on tires over the years, but have noticed that lately (the last couple of years actually), there seems to be a dearth of private sellers and the dealers (even guys working out of their garage and calling themselves dealers perhaps) have more or less taken over and they all seem to want top dollar (including for shipping. I have an account with FedEx and have shipped allot of tires with them and it's no where near as expensive as some make it out to be). Just as an example, I've been trying to find 1 OE Michelin to complete a set that I'd like to put on my 05 to sell it. One will pop up every now and then, but there's no way I'm paying $40 or $50 bucks or more for a used tire with 5/32" or 6/32" of tread on it.

So..... sorry for the minor tread highjack, but I can relate a little to this guy's dilemma. Back more on point, I'd say for one thing, read your lease documents. Years ago (before I knew better), I leased a few Audi's and it was spelled out in the fine print of the lease agreement how how much tread had to be on the tires when the car was returned. If there is in fact a dollar amount that is allowed for wear and tear, then that may cover it if the rest of the car is in good shape.

nipseyrussell

thanks guys, i'll look at my lease when i get home.

what about the question about replacing with low cost tires? lets say i have to replace...will they care about brand?

FYI, i leased a saab once and they totally tried to hose me upon return charging me for a bunch of BS (eg body damage that didnt exist, not returning key fobs i returned, etc).....however one thing was i had replaced the tires with cheapest equivalents i could find and they didnt mention it.
That experience with Saab really left a bad taste in my mouth....anyone know if Acura tends to be more reasonable about these things?

Also, ling longs?? thats a cheap tire? are you just making a joke or...??

DynamicJ32

Ling Long really is the name, lol. It is a pretty cheap tire as well.

PhiDelt

Ling Longs come in 215/50/17 for like 65 bucks a tire....

dallison

when dropping off the car take pics to prove condition. I would have the person receiving the car write that they received all keys and remotes and condition of the car.

Simba91102

I haven't checked, but I doubt that's shipped.

miner

If lease is through Acura you will need to make an appt for an inspector to come look at the car about 1 month prior to lease termination - this will give you time to repair any damge they write-up or be charged for it.

VQPower37

doubtful they will care about the brand, they will just wanna make sure good amount of tread is remaining

nipseyrussell

for closure:
just had the inspection, and the rear tires passed, but the fronts had 1/32 and 3/32, so they obviously didn't. IN any event, i found the lease agreement it does have the $500/$1500 exemption, so the inspector said i should be fine as my total "damages" were $650 (tires were $160x2!)

thanks to those who responded!

dallison

suite, at least you didn't have to spend any more $$

miner

The site just saved you a few dollars - now go out to your nearest Cabaret and celebrate.

VQPower37

or use that money on mods for ur next whip

nipseyrussell

well, thanks, guys, but its hard to think of this as money saved when i paid for a hell of a lot more miles than i used ....especially because the reason i underused the miles was because i had a bad commute, but then moved and made it WORSE, meaning i had to give the TSX to my wife to drive....and i loved that car!

i couldn't wait for the new acura stationwagon (just had a second kid last week)....nor could i justify the expense over the VW Jetta Sportwagen, so perhaps i do need to "mod that whip" to compensate for the emasculation of driving a "family car"!

RkFast

Funny you should say "waiting for the wagon." I told my local Acura service rep yesterday that if Acura wants to actually SELL CARS they kinda have to put them in showrooms!

Simba91102

Not!! I've always been a huge wagon fan, and fortunately, there have been many over the years that performed as well or better than their sedan counterparts. I spent my formative years (many years ago) reading about a long series of highly modded station wagons built by Car and Driver magazine that were functional and just plain hauled ass. Since I grew up with those in my blood, I've always had a soft spot for performance wagons (my last was an 02 Audi S4 Avant that was very fast). I'm pretty sure that a 2.0T Jetta wagon with a few performance extras will walk (or even run) away from any 4 cylinder TSX, sedan or wagon. Although I might be inclined to go for the diesel (due to my 90%+ highway)(and 236 pounds of torque baby!!). Good choice.

nipseyrussell

thanks. i did get the tdi diesel, that kind of fuel economy is just too hard to walk away from (40+ mpg is just ... WTF?). as i am on paternity leave/vacation, i havent yet gotten it on the highway for my usual 50 mile, one-way, highway commute, so i need to see how the acceleration is at top speed, but the low end torque has served me ok for the short town driving thus far. may have to chip this thing and see what that can do. that and some racing pedals and chrome exhaust tips will at least make it feel cooler and faster!

nipseyrussell

yeah, wife's been talking about that for a while....and they've been advertising it for a while, but where was it when i had a baby at 3.22 am????? ok, i didnt "have" the baby, but i was there

miner

that's called moral support.