What you need to know about lease returns!
Yesterday, our blog contained some insightful information from Men's Health about leasing a car. In a word, the magazine said: DON'T.
Today, we are talking about what if you do and the lease is up. What's good lease return advice? Well, 106 St Tire & Wheel can help you not get stung by a dealer. And don't tell us you have a great rapport with the dealer....truth is, the dealer does NOT check in your car, an independent agent does. So don't kid yourself. If the car's condition is less than what that person wants, you will foot the bill. And, by the way, who is that person? No one you know, let us assure you.
You know this, right? You do not own your LEASED CAR.
You are LEASING it; the dealer is going to sell your car when you return it. Any damage done, even those little nicks, dents and dings are going to cost you. What's more, even if you have a great relationship with your dealer, more than likely, an independent, hard butted sub-contractor is going to go over your “borrowed” car with a fine tooth comb.
Every single one of those dents, marks and scratches in what goes beyond “normal ware and tear” – like anything bigger than a credit card sized scratch is going to cost you. Please read your leasing agreement carefully to be sure about the terms.
The biggest dealer charges on the return of a leased car result in 3 areas on your car: glass, bumpers & body damage, tires and wheels. 106 St Tire & Wheel has your tires and wheels covered with our lease return inspections
And, here are some other pointers about returning leased cars:
1) Make sure that your car has all the equipment it started out with.
2) Don't exceed your annual mileage limits. The leasing company won't cut you any slack.
3) Some dealers offer wear-and-tear insurance, but consider the price carefully.
4) Repair damaged bumpers, broken windshields, body damage otherwise the dealer will do it for you and for a nice, hefty fees.
We have 4 locations: Northern Blvd, Queens Blvd, Merrick Blvd and 108th Street and all are lease return inspection and lease return preparation sites. We can make sure our customers don't incur the added expense of what could be a few thousand dollars or more in wheel, rim and tire damage on your leased car.
We are your Queens resource in tire and wheels we can repair the pesky dents in wheels, dings, curb rash, bent rims to that will cost you big when you return your leased car to the dealer. We also can weld your steel rim or your alloy wheel using state of the art TIG welding. Our experts can repair almost any wheel no matter how damaged it might be and, usually, do it in 24 hours or less. And, 106 ST Tire & Wheel's rim repair starts at just $35; we can totally re-manufacture your wheel if the rim damage if needed...dealers could charge you $1000 to repair or replace that same wheel.
If your tires are bald, you are going to pay for that as well. Since 106 St Tire & Wheel are experts in this field, we will expertly determine in advance, if the wear on your tires will cost you at the dealer.
And we can provide a used tire if just one tire is damaged or worn to the degree where you will be charged for it. We can provide 4 tires that are used but are good enough condition based on the miles you have put on your leased car that can certainly pass the dealer's agent inspection without costing you. 106 St Tire & Wheel can sell you new tires, but why would you want them? We want our customers to save money...times are tough, we our reputation by understanding what life is like in Queens...we live in here, too...our customers are our neighbors!
Please remember, your tires must have a 1/8th inch thread left on them in order to not have the bald tires be something the dealer will charge you for. And, it's unlikely that your dealer is going to stock used tires so you will more than likely be charged for a brand new dealer tire which go for top dollar.
We have been in business for decades providing quality customer service and we are deeply involved with our customers and our community. When we save you money, you're happy...happy customers share their experience and we are delighted when you refer your friends for the best discount prices on name brand tires, wheel repair, services like brakes, shocks, oil changes, tire rotation, etc.
Also, don't forget to do regularly scheduled maintenance and save the receipts. Again, 106 St Tire & Wheel can help you here with oil changes, summarizing and winterizing your car, we offer 47 point safety inspections for free, we offer $45 wheel alignments for most cars, we offer tire rotations free with an oil change, most cars $25, free tire pressure checks...low tire pressure causes uneven tire wear which will cost you when you return the car to the dealer and, more importantly, this jeopardizes your safety as most tire-related accidents happen because of improperly inflated tires. Every year, 10,000 accidents result from this...there are missed days or work because of injuries, serious accidents, property damage. Please take your tires very seriously...it's the only part of your car touching the ground. Can you afford to take them for granted with your family riding in your vehicle?
106 St Tire and Wheel has built an amazing reputation by satisfying our customers over the decades we've been in business and we want you to be one of the scores of people at our locations we see year after year.