Question re Leasing and wear and tear

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DTis

New member
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Jul 27, 2014
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Hi! I'm about to start a new job with an 80 mile roundtrip commute - up quite a bit from my current 15 mile commute. It won't be in the worst traffic ever, but still that carpool lane is starting to look mighty attractive, so I started thinking about leasing the RAV4 EV. From what I've read here it looks like this car could handle the round trip, and there are a few charging stations at my work. I don't know a whole lot about leasing but was just doing a bit of research on this forum and elsewhere online, and my current worry is about "wear and tear" charges. I have an active family with messy kids, horse-back riding lessons, girl scout outings: basically I'm worrying about how much in additional wear and tear charges we should plan on owing in addition to the other lease costs. We're in southern cal, not too far from carson :)
DTis
 
Great question. I am not an expert on wear and tear but I suggest you talk with Diane Whitmire at Carson Toyota. She taught me many important aspects to leasing. I am normally a buy rather than lease person. However, the Toyota incentive to lease caused me to lease my RAV4 EV with plans to purchase it at the end of the lease ($10K cheaper than purchasing). I am so THRILLED I got the unlimited mileage lease rather than the 12K miles per year lease. And because I plan to purchase at the end, my guaranteed residual value is $1000 cheaper than if I had the 12K miles plan. I also went with zero drive off dollars (my lease payment is higher than if I paid the $5K + $2.8K drive off).

Good luck to you. My RAV4 EV is the best, and most fun car to drive, that I have ever owned. What a wonderful machine!
 
I purchased the wear and tear allowance option. It might not matter since I am most likely going to buy the car outright at the end of the lease. For $400 the wear and tear allowance option allowed for up to $5 k of wear and tear. That included bald tires, spills, scratches, dents, etc. If I buy the Rav4EV at lease end, that's a wasted $400. However, stretched across 35 payments it allowed for some peace of mind knowing the little one and the dog can mess up the seats and not have to worry about it.

I wish I did this on the infiniti lease though since my dad messed up that bumper, but oh well. On another note, those HOV lane stickers help a lot! You can save yourself a lot of time and stress.
 
I wouldn't be so sure it will be money wasted. I know somebody that leased an M3 and bought it out at the end. They made him buy a full set of new tires before they would let him buy it out. Those tires are not cheap. I'm sure he would have been happy to pay $400 up front to avoid that cost at the same time as the buyout when he could have put it off for another 6mo to a year.
 
Not very smart given the car is his once he decides to pay it off. My mom took the bumper off the leased Subaru with 3 months left on the lease. Nissan just bought the car outright by paying the residual plus the 3 payments
 
miimura said:
I wouldn't be so sure it will be money wasted. I know somebody that leased an M3 and bought it out at the end. They made him buy a full set of new tires before they would let him buy it out. Those tires are not cheap. I'm sure he would have been happy to pay $400 up front to avoid that cost at the same time as the buyout when he could have put it off for another 6mo to a year.

that somebody got screwed! big time!

i have bought "leased" vehicles, and there's no way they'll inspect it before turning it over to you.
Technically, if you lease today, you can buy it tomorrow.. ( there's a buy off quote in your statement)
you just send them the check and that's it! Congratulations! you now own the car!

in my case, i negotiated with the residual value and got a few hundreds off.
 
Wow, very helpful info, thanks! When I started thinking about what the kids and dogs etc have done to my Odyssey it gave me pause... :lol:
Cheers,
DT
 
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