How/where to fix up car before handing back to finance

gilbert_and_sullivan · 15 April 2015 at 4:24PM

Yes the roof (bonnet/boot not affected?) is going to be the big one, maybe get a quote from the BMW bodyshop for the lot to give you a worse case scenario, and work from there..

colino · 15 April 2015 at 4:45PM

Sorry to hear about your health issues, and I'm a bit surprised. We have actually hung on to a 5 series specifically because the other cars are either too high or too low for elderly parents to get in and out of. The 5 with the seat at full height seems ideal to swing in and spin!

ZiggerZagger · 15 April 2015 at 7:05PM

I'll get the quote and let you know what they say!

VSynth · 15 April 2015 at 7:47PM

I recently gave back a car after a 3 year lease and they check it against the BVLRA guidelines.

It had
10mm scratch drivers door
Stone chip offside wing
Dents above passenger door handle
Scuffs on 3 of the alloy wheels.
I got a quote from chips away for the first 3 and it was over £300+vat so I decided to give it back to the lease company as was.

The lease company put the first 3 defects down as fair wear and tear and only charged £45 per alloy.

You really need to find out what BMW's guidelines are before getting any repairs done which may turn out to be unnecessary.

F1F93 · 15 April 2015 at 9:14PM

It may not be a problem in 12 months time. Never hand back the vehicle - you may well find that even with the damage your car is worth more than the GFMV and this can be used as a deposit on your next vehicle. Handing it back will lose this equity.

davybull · 18 April 2015 at 12:23AM

One of my best mates is a very good paintless dent guy and he regulally repairs hail damage on lots of different makes of cars. Often the whole car is affected and it can take days to do a single car!!!!!
On another note I had a Citroen on a contract hire a few years ago. The morning that I had to hand it back one of my large wooden gates came open and blew into the rear quarter putting a bloody big dent into it and scratched the bumper. When I got to the garage I parked it against a wall. The guy checking it just gave the car a quick glance over and nothing was ever said!!!

ZiggerZagger · 18 April 2015 at 4:12PM

That was lucky! I think the wheels are the most obvious damage and it doesn't seem a king's ransom to fix those!

F1F93 - I just checked all the numbers. £17k to pay off the car, market value (not private sale, garage sale so potentially on the low side ) £21-22k (good condition) so definitely not worth handing it back. Was thinking of trading it in but not sure what to go for next (something 2nd hand) and would like to pay balance in cash rather than finance tbh.