Car leasing & post contract fair wear & tear charges

Nebulous2

I had an absolute nightmare with Mannheim on behalf of Novuna. He claimed that two panels had been repaired, as identified by rippled paintwork, which was only visible with a mirror and a black and white striped card. Neither of these panels were repaired in my custody, but he insisted they must have been. I was very wound up at being blamed for something which wasn't true, and wasn't visible to the naked eye. 

I still feel angry about it four months on. 

His use of the mirror, angled photography and the stripy card felt akin to voodoo to me. I could see ripples in the mirror when he showed it to me on one area, the front plastic bumper, but couldn't see them even when he tried to point them out in the other area. 

The only panel I did have painted wasn't picked up by him, so the process can't be that good. 

I tracked down the car, I presume it was bought at auction, and was marketed by a main dealer as 'immaculately presented. 

The strange thing was the price I had to pay was less than I had expected, and if I had been told it would be that before the inspection started I'd have taken it willingly.

It was the process and the bare-faced lies that were so bruising. 

LightFlare

rainy_days2024 said:

I have just returned my Volvo which was on subscription through Care by Volvo, with 36,000 miles on it. No damage costs except scratching to the front two alloys that are over 50mm. They have invoiced me £750 per wheel for new alloys and apparently don't have to prove to me that these have been replaced or give me the existing alloys back so that I can get second hand sale on them. Polishing the scratches out would have been about £100  per alloy but they don't charge that, they want new alloys. On a three year old car.....I have raised a complaint with the financial ombudsman because the BVLRA came down on Volvo's side stating that the damage is over the 50mm acceptable wear and tear llimit but that they don't get involved in how much the lease companies are able to charge past that point....so hopefully the ombudsman will be able to help me reduce this to a fairer rate. I am not arguing that perhaps we should pay for them to be polished but I feel that replacing perfectly good alloys with brand new ones is not a fair on a car I have paid throug the nose for already for 3 years.

 Nothing to stop you having that done yourself before handing back.

In most cases I would think that having obvious damage fixed before any inspection would be massively cheaper