Scratch and dent insurance for lease car

mothemoneysaver

Hi,

Just wondering if anybody has any positive or negative experience with using a "protect" insurance, also referred to by some as a scratch and dent insurance.

I'm looking at the Select Car leasing "protect" insurance which will cost £499 for 4 years and covers up to £3000 for scratches and dents, or a £250 contribution for body shop repairs. 

I wouldn't normally be too interested in this for my own car, but for a leasing car I thought it may be worth it to reduce end of lease return costs? 

On-the-coast

I suspect that figure doesn't include the alloys insurance does it?... add another few hundred... and what about the interior?
How careful a driver are you (and where do you park your car).  You'll have other insurance (less excess) that covers you for bigger dents anyway.
if it helps, I've returned 4 or 5 lease cars. Each has been gone over carefully and I've paid between 50 & 250 for the scratches, tyres and overmileage charges.  The £250 i should have challanged - it should have been no more than £150.  very small scratches dents chips don't count (read the guides).
The only insurance I'd personally consider is Gap insurance (and make sure you get the right type)

DullGreyGuy

When our car went back the person doing the checks was able to spot where repairs had been done (carpark hit and run) by a device he claimed was reading the paint thickness. He asked what had happened, I didn't tell the whole truth, nothing came of it (but nor did a chip on the front splitter). He did say he'd be noting the "dry paint" on the wing where it folds under the bonnet but it'd be a £2.50 charge and they'd likely waive it (never heard about it again)

mothemoneysaver

On-the-coast said:

I suspect that figure doesn't include the alloys insurance does it?... add another few hundred... and what about the interior?
How careful a driver are you (and where do you park your car).  You'll have other insurance (less excess) that covers you for bigger dents anyway.
if it helps, I've returned 4 or 5 lease cars. Each has been gone over carefully and I've paid between 50 & 250 for the scratches, tyres and overmileage charges.  The £250 i should have challanged - it should have been no more than £150.  very small scratches dents chips don't count (read the guides).
The only insurance I'd personally consider is Gap insurance (and make sure you get the right type)

Thanks, is that £50 to £250 per scratch, or altogether?

You're right, it doesn't include alloys, that is another £500 on top!

Stateofart

I'd be weary about these.  There's often caveats that mean you have to get each scratch done when it happens, rather than waiting and saving up a load of work to be done in one.  Means you'll be in and out the garage more often, which you probably can't be bothered with so you'll probably not claim, which is what they want.  I was offered alloy wheel insurance with my Audi, only one wheel at a time though, and meant a two days without the car and a 50 mile round trip.  It was around £20 more at my local but he could do all himself and was done in a day.

Ozzig

DullGreyGuy said:

When our car went back the person doing the checks was able to spot where repairs had been done (carpark hit and run) by a device he claimed was reading the paint thickness. He asked what had happened, I didn't tell the whole truth, nothing came of it (but nor did a chip on the front splitter). He did say he'd be noting the "dry paint" on the wing where it folds under the bonnet but it'd be a £2.50 charge and they'd likely waive it (never heard about it again)

The paint thickness device is an actual thing, detailers use them to check before they do any abrasive polishing.

WellKnownSid

DullGreyGuy said:

When our car went back the person doing the checks was able to spot where repairs had been done (carpark hit and run) by a device he claimed was reading the paint thickness. He asked what had happened, I didn't tell the whole truth, nothing came of it (but nor did a chip on the front splitter). He did say he'd be noting the "dry paint" on the wing where it folds under the bonnet but it'd be a £2.50 charge and they'd likely waive it (never heard about it again)

Paint thickness testing has been common practice for years.  It's a quick and easy way to tell if a panel has been sprayed and warrants further investigation.

If you're buying second hand and want to know that the car you're buying isn't going to have a rusty wing in 12 months due to a dodgy paint job - then £25 from eBay will quickly tell you.  Factory robot applied paint is super thin - whereas the paint applied by hand-spraying will be much, much thicker.

DullGreyGuy

Ozzig said:

DullGreyGuy said:

When our car went back the person doing the checks was able to spot where repairs had been done (carpark hit and run) by a device he claimed was reading the paint thickness. He asked what had happened, I didn't tell the whole truth, nothing came of it (but nor did a chip on the front splitter). He did say he'd be noting the "dry paint" on the wing where it folds under the bonnet but it'd be a £2.50 charge and they'd likely waive it (never heard about it again)

The paint thickness device is an actual thing, detailers use them to check before they do any abrasive polishing.

I wasnt disputing it, he only said there was a problem in exactly the place it had been repaired and it had been done to a good standard so its not he eyeballed it and then used a dummy device to pretend its science rather than a hunch

On-the-coast

mothemoneysaver said:

On-the-coast said:

I suspect that figure doesn't include the alloys insurance does it?... add another few hundred... and what about the interior?
How careful a driver are you (and where do you park your car).  You'll have other insurance (less excess) that covers you for bigger dents anyway.
if it helps, I've returned 4 or 5 lease cars. Each has been gone over carefully and I've paid between 50 & 250 for the scratches, tyres and overmileage charges.  The £250 i should have challanged - it should have been no more than £150.  very small scratches dents chips don't count (read the guides).
The only insurance I'd personally consider is Gap insurance (and make sure you get the right type)

Thanks, is that £50 to £250 per scratch, or altogether?

You're right, it doesn't include alloys, that is another £500 on top!

All together. Probably an average of £150/car
i did get a quote for skimming two alloys once, but the lease company return “as is” cost was cheaper.  Pretty sure one of the companies I used was Select, but I’ve used all different ones

These companies know that if they develop a general rep. for milking customer on return then people like me will stop leasing.