Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
if you've ever leased a car
so we leased our first car 3 years ago. until then i had always believed in buying cars. but with switching jobs, locations- suburbs to city and back over the last few years- we kept buying a car and selling it shortly after, which is never good money wise. so when i was preg with DD we had recently moved out of the city and to the suburbs and needed a family safe car as the only car we had at the time was our city car, now our beat up commuting car. we also werent sure how the baby stuff/ car seat dynamic would work, so we decided to lease a car and see if we liked it, before buying anything. fast forward to last month when our lease is nearly up, we go back to the dealer and trade in the car for a different model (now with 2nd child on the way, we decided an even roomier car was prob a good idea.) overall, we were happy with the last car but it made sense to upgrade along with the family size. we went to this dealer, because they seemed to give us the least hassle compared to others we spoke with last time. overall the experience was good.
so on saturday, we get a letter that says my car, has $2300 worth of damages when we turned it in. um what? when we were at the dealer, they looked at the car but decided not to buy it. i knew my tires needed to be replaced, but otherwise it was in good shape. it is kept in my garage most of the year and regularly maintained. so back to the letter. it alleges things like damage to quarter panels, doors. basically sounds like my car has been in a major accident. even a cracked windsheild- um yeah, i would have driven a car with a cracked windsheild with a child, sure! but the letter tells us that subaru is willing to forgive $1000 worth of damages. big deal! it's all bogus. i call the dealer, he tells me, its ridiculous, your car wasnt in that bad shape. but it's "out of his hands" have to deal with the finance company directly. i call them, they ask me if i have pictures of the car. which of course, i dont. why would i. they tell me my only course of action is to pay a 3rd party appraiser to go appraise the car and dispute it that way. and oh btw, a month has passed since we turned the car in. so for all i know, the car could be jacked up by now. and ps, the car has been relocated to south jersey. and, i only have 14 days to decide what to do before the bill is finalized.
so, bless you if you've read this. i am at the moment insanely pissed off. which is only a small percentage of what my husband is. im wondering if anyone else has ever dealt with similar bs or has some advice. im afraid im going to have to stop my husband from going back to the dealer and killing someone. help!
Re: if you've ever leased a car
When you turn in your lease they usually send someone out to access the damage of your vehicle, did someone do this or dis u just leave it with the dealership?
Was there any paperwork that you signed in regards to turning in your lease that says anything about the tires, extra miles, etc? Usually for the damage to "count" for them to charge you it has be a certain size (ie...Tears in apholstry they want smaller then a quarter, if larger they charge you) I had a small crack in my windshield on one of my cars and the man doing the inspection had a measuring scale to go by.
I would absolutely fight it -that is completely insane that they think they are going to get that money from you. I would spin it on them and ask them to show you pictures of the vehicle taken at their turn in inspection. Sometimes the inspector takes pictures. I'd also be pissed at the dealership for not backing you up, obviously they saw the vehicle with (if any) damage.
My friend leased a Subaru once and she mentioned having to pay a turn in fee at the end of her lease- not something she was aware of when she first leased it.
Im on my 4th leased car and have never been through anything like this. I'm sorry you are dealing with this it sucks. I would definitely find someone to hold accountable for this so you don't have to. It's not right.
I leased a Subrau, my 06 STI, but we SOLD it to a Carmax place before lease was up, so we never had to deal with that.
We have "traded in" past cars and never had a problem.. including our Cavalier for the STI when we did it, which has been in a major accident and high mileage and they still gave us 10K for it at Subaru.
I have dealt with shiity Subaru people, the people in Pleasantville suck @ss. As well as the people I dealt with down in VA Beach.
It sounds like a scam to me, since you can't prove it but if they assessed it at the dealership upon trade in I would have that person who assessed it on the phone TONIGHT or my butt would be down there in the morning.
Car Dealerships will do anything to shut irate customers up. My Pilot has been in 3 times for the overhead light not working. I have been a *** and finally forced them to replace the whole overhead. I paid for the warrantee for a reason which also forces them to give me a loaner car too.
ITA with Nikos!
When I leased my Jetta a month before I had to turn it in someone from VW came to my house and we did a "walk around" together. He checked the tires, the inside of the car, and the outside of the car and my servicing records. The only thing I was charged for were 2 new tires and over mileage. I had to sign the document the guy put together saying that I understood what I was being charged for (it was all legit). When I went to turn the car in someone came out with me and did another "walk around" and signed off on the car. That was all I heard from them...well other than the cost of the new tires and the over mileage charge. I'd fight it for sure, it sounds like they're trying to screw you. Not cool!
Ditto Nikos and LP, B is turning in a car next month and a third party is coming to the house to scope out the car.
we had an inspector come to our house before returning the leased car and dh received a very lengthy emailed report detailing the car as the inspector saw it, and then we signed off again on it at the dealership at the return after.
let's also say that there was a ginormous scratch on the roof from our kayak. we couldn't believe it was within permissible amounts because we were never charged for it although it was recorded.
my friend's dad's truck was inspected at a worksite he was monitoring and it was so muddy that the inspector didn't want to be there and didn't walk around the truck. he missed the entire banged up other side, and the dad was never charged for it either!
so, where was your inspector/report?
and i love the idea of asking them to provide photos of what they documented.
ugh, lesson learned! we had always thought if you went to the same dealer/ they would typically forgive most things. i understand being charged for the tires, they did need to be replaced but the rest is BS. my car was in good shape. i thought when we went to the dealer and they walked around the car and looked at it, they were doing the "inspection." apparently they were just deciding if they wanted to buy the car based on milage, add ons, etc. before we turn in this next car we will definitely have a 3rd party come do the inspection. and i can safely say, i have no plans on leasing again. as of right now, they are supposedly doing what Nikos suggested and gathering support for their claims. the dealer is supposedly calling on our behalf to help fight the charges, hopefully we will know more today. my husband and the dealer are both confident we wont have to pay the full amount, but who knows. the car is no longer in the area, its out in NJ at an auction, so they could beat it up to support their claims. what a mess. never again!
and thanks ladies for your input. boy do i feel like a dummie!
First off, that sucs big time. I have leased but I knew they would be charging me for any dings/scratches bugger than dime sized- they gave us a chart/measuring tool when i leased it. Its no help to you now but I had mine detailed and waxed/buffed so there werent any charges and I drove it & parked in the bronx 5x week.
I did take photos bc I am used to getting screwed over. I would hire the appraiser - they probably think your not going to go to jersey or hire an appraiser so youll pay and they see $. GL I would fight it if I were you
That is awful!
I'm on my 5th consectutive lease (Nissan) and have never had this happen. In fact, when I turned in my last car there was damage that was way outside of the allowed scope including door dents and dings, dented bumper AND needed tires and I never received a bill. The way they conducted the inspection was to have an in-house person to a walk around and write up a detailed report at the time of turn in that we signed and were given a copy. A 3rd party appraiser came in after the fact but, I always had the original document as back-up in case there was a dispute.
I realy hope this gets resolved for you!
Canon 50D, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, Speedlite 430EX II