2 long scratches new car-lease finance

majorwally

My son has just bought a new car on one of those lease finance deals.
He paid £3000 deposit and it costs him £180 per month. Then after 2 years he either gives car back or settles loan.

Anyway, all was well until I noticed he had 2 large scratches on rear drivers side. He's obviously scraped along a bollard or something. They must be 8 inches long but not very wide.
He ain't too bothered but I am (I know, goes and scratches a new car and ain't bothered)

What is his best option now with these scratches?
Should he take it to the dealers and ask them to fix or get it done himself.
Not sure as don't know what the lease holds for him with regards to scratches etc?

forgotmyname

As long as the repair is upto standard. Some are fussier than others about paint repairs.

If its not visible by eye most will let it go. Although some use a small device to measure the paint thickness and claim the repair is substandard.

If you leave it they will add silly prices for the repair.

flashg67

perhaps wait until near the end of the lease, (presuming the base paint layer is intact and won't rust) - from the sounds of it, he may get more bumps and scrapes along the way, and will likely be cheaper to get all the repairs done at once.

Depending which company he has financed with, many use the BVRLA wear & tear guide - example here (I'm not affiliated with Knowles fleet BTW)

majorwally

Who would you use for the repair?
What about chipsaway, any good?

forgotmyname

Depends on who you get. There will be very good ones and ones that are doing it for the money and will give up when complaints come in.

Its like saying is your local takeaway any good. We dont know your local takeaway and us saying our local one is great doesnt help you.

Its a franchise thing so each repairer will be different. They advertise as being able to earn £80k a year. Tempts all sorts. Some will already have some skills to do it and others will wing it.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

depending on the scratches, if they are cut into the metal it will rust, once rust is in the panel its hard to stop it once it gets to level where its firmly imbedded and not just surface if he waited till the end of lease then the rust would get pretty bad, just having the services done the dealership will note it down, and it will be held on the system as having damage on the service schedule in their systems if he leaves it till the end, when the lease company has it back they know where to look for the repair as they may ask for copies of the condition reports when it was services he will get a copy at the end of every service also and it will be noted.


TBH, your better off paying the dealership to have it done, and keep the receipt, if theres any comeback for poor repair at the end of lease, then at least you can say if a dealer cant repair it right who can?

datostar

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

TBH, your better off paying the dealership to have it done, and keep the receipt, if theres any comeback for poor repair at the end of lease, then at least you can say if a dealer cant repair it right who can?

The dealer will probably use one of the Chips Away type operations anyway. Most do for small cosmetic jobs. Done that way, though, you pay the dealer and presumably he takes responsibility for the quality of the work. My son used to work for a mobile repairer and a lot of the work was on brand new cars scraped at the dealer's premises or during transit on the transporters.

SmellyPetrol

On a lot of finance deals (if you're handing the car back, anyway) you have to adhere to fair wear and tear. Any damages must be covered by an approved by manufacturer mechanic etc.

as others has said - you shouldn't leave it, they may add crazy amounts onto the price.

Strider590

majorwally wrote: »

He paid £3000 deposit and it costs him £180 per month. Then after 2 years he either gives car back or settles loan.

Chances are he got the deal he could JUST about afford, so unless he get's a chunky payrise, he won't have the money to buy the car at the end, won't have the money to go buy another one outright and will have no choice but to stay on the debt train for another 2 year deal, it's no wonder people struggle buying houses these days, when they've been drawn into these car finance deals.

majorwally wrote: »

Anyway, all was well until I noticed he had 2 large scratches on rear drivers side. He's obviously scraped along a bollard or something

Or he parked next to a nose first parker, who subsequently reversed out of their parking space and scraped along the side of "his" car.

OddballJamie

Strider590 - He could of course be earning bucket loads and afford to buy a new car, but the lease term worked out cheaper than the depreciation on the car. Not everyone needs to drive around in old cars and you certainly can't take it with you.