Should I repair a lease car now, or wait until nearer the return date?

JohnSantina · 5 October 2015 at 10:44AM

Hi guys,

I've been a lurker for a while as 99% of questions I have seem to be answered on one sub-forum or other on this site! I've decided to finally test your grey matter!

Sorry if this has been asked before, or if I'm putting it into the wrong section.

I have a leased car through work - having only had old bangers before this, I haven't worried about scratches before.

I got the car last November and it took about 3 months for someone to key/scratch it down both passenger side doors. The starting point of the scratch is deeper down to the white (primer?) but the rest could potentially be t-cut out. I have been quoted £200 for a respray to one door then the other door being t-cut.

My question is, I have 3 more years on my lease and this is bound to happen again. Am I best to pay to have this fixed now, or should I wait until nearer the return date?

Will waiting until nearer the return date result in me having to respray the WHOLE car, as the black paint may have been bleached a bit by the sun, resulting in the door being slightly off?

Any help/guidance would be much appreciated

John

neilmcl · 5 October 2015 at 10:56AM

Any "repair" that will entail spraying just one door panel and t-cutting the rest for £200 doesn't sound like a professional job that'll fool the inspection when you hand the car back. The door panel would need to be sprayed and blended in with the other panels which will cost more than £200.

Personally I'd try and polish out as much of the scratch as you can and touch up where necessary or get a smart repair done with the anticipation that you may need to budget for a decent repair prior to handing it back.

If you live in an area where you anticipate this happening on a regular basis then why on earth did you get a new car, albeit lease one.

WellKnownSid · 5 October 2015 at 11:08AM

neilmcl wrote: »

Any "repair" that will entail spraying just one door panel and t-cutting the rest for £200 doesn't sound like a professional job that'll fool the inspection when you hand the car back. The door panel would need to be sprayed and blended in with the other panels which will cost more than £200.

They'll pop an ultrasonic paint thickness tester onto the panels and find all the hidden repairs.

Next time: get a white car!

Hintza · 5 October 2015 at 11:18AM

OP personally I would wait until near the end of the lease (unless it was really unsightly) you could total it next week and then you would have wasted your money.

JohnSantina · 5 October 2015 at 11:44AM

I recently moved to a much nicer area, so do not anticipate this re-occuring outside my house. However parking in the occasional car park here and there means that it could happen again quite easily - especially in the minuscule parking spaces at our Ikea, for example!!

The guy who has quoted us £200 for the respray makes most of his money from a local leasing company, doing their repairs. My colleagues have had their cars sprayed by him, which may be why he is giving a decent discount.

Essentially the front door is deep so he said that would need to be resprayed. The other door is more of a scratch without pressure, so it hasn't gone down very deep - that's why he said only the front door would need respraying.

Next time I'll...either buy a car, or get the bus! lol

Would waiting until the time to return the car to have the door resprayed cause any issues? The scratch doesn't affect me at all, but I'd hate for the door to look weird which incurs more charges for me when returning.

Thank you for all for your replies.

neilmcl · 5 October 2015 at 11:48AM

The paint on a new car isn't going to "bleach" as you put it over the next few years, especially not in this country, so I wouldn't anticipate any colour issues if leaving a repair until later.

Might be worth getting some touch up from paints4u.com or a chipex kit to fill in the deep parts of the scratch, if only to protect it.

adibranch · 5 October 2015 at 12:14PM

neilmcl wrote: »

If you live in an area where you anticipate this happening on a regular basis then why on earth did you get a new car, albeit lease one.

The OP said it was a car provided by and leased through work...

dannyrst · 5 October 2015 at 12:51PM

adibranch wrote: »

The OP said it was a car provided by and leased through work...

No he didn't. He said he leased it through work. He never said it was provided by work.

The company I work for partner with a lease company. The payments come from gross payment but the lease is between employee and lease company.

Assuming it is a similar arrangement to above, he decided to lease it and therefore the question is valid.

JohnSantina · 5 October 2015 at 1:13PM

dannyrst wrote: »

No he didn't. He said he leased it through work. He never said it was provided by work.

The company I work for partner with a lease company. The payments come from gross payment but the lease is between employee and lease company.

Assuming it is a similar arrangement to above, he decided to lease it and therefore the question is valid.

It's not really that relevant, but...our company is not VAT registered, so my boss does the leased car as a part of my package at work.

Basically a company car, but my boss is technically personally responsible for it as opposed to the business (my car was falling apart near its MOT, it was wage review time, my boss offered it in lieu of a wage increase if you really want to know).

Regardless of my reason for getting a new car as opposed to second hand, I'm still really torn between getting this done now or waiting. Waiting until nearer the time to return the car would help but I don't want that to result in even worse problems.

dannyrst · 5 October 2015 at 1:19PM

JohnSantina wrote: »

It's not really that relevant, but...our company is not VAT registered, so my boss does the leased car as a part of my package at work.

Basically a company car, but my boss is technically personally responsible for it as opposed to the business (my car was falling apart near its MOT, it was wage review time, my boss offered it in lieu of a wage increase if you really want to know).

Regardless of my reason for getting a new car as opposed to second hand, I'm still really torn between getting this done now or waiting. Waiting until nearer the time to return the car would help but I don't want that to result in even worse problems.

If your boss is responsible for the car, I'd speak to him.

JohnSantina · 5 October 2015 at 1:25PM

He was the one who spoke to me actually lol. Legally he is responsible, but in reality, he has said that we are responsible from the cars so we need to maintain them and return them in good condition (there are a fair few of us who have the same deal with him).

I'd love to send the bill to him but he might send a P45 back! lol

Should I repair a lease car now, or wait until nearer the return date?

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