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How big are those dents?
I thought lease turn in inspection had some sort of a standard for dents. Something like if the dent is smaller than a dime, it's a pass?
So I just got my car washed today (2013 Mazda3 Hatchback). As I was wiping my car down, I noticed minor hail damage on the roof. Maybe about 10 small dings. I have never noticed this before and am not sure what to do.
I leased this car about two years ago and have another two years to go on the lease. Other than the hail damage, the car is an excellent shape with low miles.
What concerns me is that when I go to trade or turn in the car, I'm going to loose a lot of value on the car. I'm not sure if it's worth getting if fixed now, fixing it later (like before I trade it in or turn it back in) or not doing anything.
I know that once I pull the trigger on an insurance claim, Car Fax has the information and I could end up loosing a lot of value on the car upon trade-in/or lease return.
I have a co-worker who told me to keep the car until the lease ends and just give them back the keys. He mentioned that there's not much they can do. I disagree, I would imagine after the dealer completes an inspection, I would be liable for the damage.
My gut tells me to wait until I get closer to lease end or when I want to trade in this car for a new one and have a Paintless Dent Repair shop have a look at it. I would hate to spend a lot of money on a car that is not mine. On the other hand, I would hate to get really hosed on the car's value upon trade-in or lease-end.
Suggestions?
Wait until you're about to turn it in and then do a claim on your insurance or get a paintless dent guy.. For all you know you fix it now and next year hail damages it again.
Or
Turn it in as is let the dealer deal with it.
How big are those dents?
I thought lease turn in inspection had some sort of a standard for dents. Something like if the dent is smaller than a dime, it's a pass?
When I was leasing a Charger, they said whatever it was, scratch, ding, dent, scuff.......if it could be hidden by a credit card, it was all good.
If you JUST noticed this after having the car for 2 years and have no idea when it happened..It is probably so minor the dealership wouldn't even bother with it...
Hello, everyone! Don't know when and how, but the roof of my toyota seems to have experienced the power of hail... As far as I have understood from this forum thread, paintless dent repair is the way to go. Can anyone please advise a reliable company in phoenix, az? Currently can't decide between DentRemovalPhoenix [url]http://dentremovalphoenix.com/[/url] and PanskeRapidRepair [url]http://www.penskerapidrepair.com/[/url] ... Both have fairly good reviews.. Maybe somebody has a personal experiance with one of those?
Before you turn it in to insurance find a local paintless dent removal/ pop a dent guy and get an estimate. The exact same thing happened to me several years ago with a lease vehicle I had. I looked over the car and found maybe 10 or 11 hail dents in the roof, hood and trunk, he went over the whole car and found 26 dings, 19 on the roof alone. The guy came right to my house and did the work in my driveway in less than 2 hours for $175. He also found a couple on the doors that he also fixed for that price.
What are your plans for the car? If you plan on keeping the car and buying it at lease termination then there is no need to fix it, unless you are like me and can't stand imperfections. If you plan on turning it in and leasing another car I don't think they usually make you pay for excessive wear and tear. That can vary on a lease by lease basis. This only works if you are releasing with the same company. You can also purchase the car at lease end and sell it as is yourself but, like you said it will lower the value of the car. If you want to turn it in and walk away then they expect that car in near perfect condition. There is probably a "excessive wear and tear" clause in your lease. If it was anything like mine they allow you one ding per body panel and it can't exceed a certain diameter. Beyond that they charge you a certain amount per ding, as you can imagine that could total up quite fast. In my case I was told that I would have to pay $1900.00 in excessive wear and tear charges if I chose to turn it in as it was. I was also quoted $1500.00 by a body shop for the repairs.
For me the pop a dent guy was a no brainer since I wanted to turn it in and walk away. The guy did an amazing job, the car looked perfect at turn in and I was not charged anything for wear and tear. In my case I waited about a year and had it repaired a couple weeks before I turned the car in.
Wow, that's a great deal. I had 8-9 just on my hood. Some of them rather large and was charged $300 out of pocket to fix them. He did remove the hood from the car and it took a few hours also.
On other areas of the car it would cost more due to removing headliners, side panels, etc.
Did your guy do all that or did he just use a dent puller. The correct way is to access the panels from the underside and massage the dent out.
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