Leased a new Civic with a maintenance plan

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When I turned my 2013 Explorer in they didn't even inspect it. I setup the turn in appointment at the dealer. When I showed up, they walked out and verified the mileage then signed a piece of paper saying I had turned it in, no issues, that's it. The whole process was under 10 minutes, I was surprised how little they looked the vehicle over.

Granted, I had washed/vacuumed it etc before I showed up, so maybe they just assumed it was good once they saw it.

I'm with the other guys, get your money back. Have the oil changed and tires rotated at whatever quick lube/corner shop when the maintenance light comes on and call it good. That is unless you are even remotely thinking of keeping the vehicle, then treat it like you are going to keep it forever.
 
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Originally Posted By: Huie83
When I turned my 2013 Explorer in they didn't even inspect it. I setup the turn in appointment at the dealer. When I showed up, they walked out and verified the mileage then signed a piece of paper saying I had turned it in, no issues, that's it. The whole process was under 10 minutes, I was surprised how little they looked the vehicle over.


Sometimes people drop it off at the dealer where they give it a cursory look. Then shortly afterwards the auto inspector comes out to look at it. Esp when they can do a few of them at a time since they travel so much.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: gofast182
I recently turned in a '15 Acura TLX. The third party company they used was very good to work with. The person on the phone was very knowledgeable and covered every detail I was wondering about without me having to ask. The person who did the inspection was thorough but found no issues with the car other than normal wear. Then turning it in at the dealership took about 15 minutes and was pretty painless.


Did you detail it first with some HD Speed?
smile.gif


Were you behind the hedge in my yard? I hadn't been keeping up with its care for the past few months (BMW got the attention) so I masked off the hood, tops of the front fenders, trunk, and tops of the rear fenders, gave them a quick clay and went over them with HD Speed. The rest of the car got some Meguiars D156 spray wax.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Other than oil changes, a $15 air filter is probably all that it could possibly need, the OP could probably handle an air filter replacement himself.

Is that really all that the official scheduled maintenance book calls for? On a leased vehicle, you probably want to follow it closely, or else you might get dinged come lease return time.


For 36k miles? Besides oil changes and tire rotations, there's not much to do but inspect things. The OP can say that he performed the inspection items himself.

In all honesty, how would Honda know if the OP did the proper maintenance. The OP could change the oil at -2k miles by the maintenance minder, and so long as he doesn't seize the engine they would never know. I've never tested this, but I've read that even receipts aren't necessary, and that a log of oil changes should suffice.

Now, I'm not saying that the OP should lie and cheat, because that would affect the second owner more than Honda. I'm simply saying that I don't believe any maintenance required for a leased vehicle comes even close to $600+. I don't think I've come even close to that on any of the new vehicles I've owned.

For a vehicle that the OP intended to keep (even if that means a lease by-out), it might make sense to have maintenance package, if:

1. The OP is clueless about maintenance (doesn't seem to be the case) and only trusts the dealer to touch his vehicle, price premium be darned!

2. The dealer includes more perks than just the required maintenance, such as the cabin air filter, brake fluid flush, ATF change-out, etc. These would be the only items I would consider worthwhile, which aren't due. Inspections might find something, but these can be done by any good mechanic, for less, and which will likely result in NOTHING being found, since not much needs to be serviced that isn't defective and covered by warranty anyway up to 36k.

I would actively pursue getting your money back.
 
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Congratulations!

How much was the maintenance plan? I can't imagine the car would need more than a few oil changes and maybe a filter or two over the duration of the lease.

Thanks!
Well the plan was too much in hindsight, like $615, but it was sold as basically anything the car would need for 3yr/36k, which made sense at the time. But the car is only going to need oil changes so I don't know what I was thinking. Oh well. Live and learn. I may look into getting it refunded but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Hey man, don't worry about it. There's something to be said about the value of dropping your car off at the dealer and having a 0$ balance every time.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Congratulations!

How much was the maintenance plan? I can't imagine the car would need more than a few oil changes and maybe a filter or two over the duration of the lease.

Thanks!
Well the plan was too much in hindsight, like $615, but it was sold as basically anything the car would need for 3yr/36k, which made sense at the time. But the car is only going to need oil changes so I don't know what I was thinking. Oh well. Live and learn. I may look into getting it refunded but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Hey man, don't worry about it. There's something to be said about the value of dropping your car off at the dealer and having a 0$ balance every time.


Except he paid $600 up front.
 
If this plan includes brakes and tires it's not a bad deal. At 36k you might need a set.
 
Originally Posted By: dblshock
Except he paid $600 up front.

Right, and now he doesn't have to worry about it for 3yr/36k.

Maybe that has no value to you, but it does to me and many others. Maybe it won't always be him handling the car. Sometimes life takes a turn, and that'll be one less minor thing to worry about.

If he had payed $3k for the maintenance plan (as some probably have) I would have been concerned. At $615 up front, why not? He'll probably need 5 or 6 services depending on the maintenance minder.
 
I was told almost all leases go to auction even if the dealer wanted to keep it to sell.

One thing I thought was odd was that at return, the tires had to have x/32 of tread left or it was $100/tire.

We were about 2 weeks from lease termination and daughter totaled car. It saved us money.
 
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dude, it's a Leased car...change the oil twice a year and you're good! My company's leased vehicles for our outside sales people run 3 years and 100K miles with nothing but oil changes and the occasional air filter and wiper blade change. If you're not planning on buying it yourself at the end there's no reason to maintain it like a BITOGer!
 
While leasing a car would probably feel strange to me, I can definitely understand the appeal of it. Takes a lot of the worry out of driving/maintenance, and you won't get the depreciation hit like someone who buys the car then sells it a few years later.

I'm thinking in the future this will be even more common, just like leasing smart phones. Cars are being built with more and more expensive features that will not make sense to repair when they get older.
 
Kid's new car (purchased) has two years oil changes (all the maintenance required) thrown in. I expect that's common.

I assume they do the same for their leases. In fact, I assume that the leases are the reason they do that. The idea would be that it's just easier to include the basic maintenance than to get tough with the customers at lease end.
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
While leasing a car would probably feel strange to me, I can definitely understand the appeal of it. Takes a lot of the worry out of driving/maintenance, and you won't get the depreciation hit like someone who buys the car then sells it a few years later.

I'm thinking in the future this will be even more common, just like leasing smart phones. Cars are being built with more and more expensive features that will not make sense to repair when they get older.


I'm not sure you fully understand leasing. The whole point of the lease is to pay just for the depreciation, not for the car itself. The only way you really gain on it is because the car makers tend to guess that the car is worth more at the end of the lease than it actually ends up being. It's one way they end up subsidizing a lease instead of giving you a big rebate on the purchase.
 
We went back to the dealer last night and had the contract cancelled since we had 60 days to do so. The finance guy didn't even ask any questions which was nice since I was expecting at least a little bit of push-back but got nothing. Cool.

I was just going to keep it but the deal-breaker was that the contract was only good until January of 2020 for some reason when the lease went to September of 2020, and the finance guy couldn't explain why. So $615 for a little over two years of coverage instead of the full three years was ridiculous.

Anyway, no big deal. I can still take it in for a $29 oil change if need be and still be WAY ahead of the game in the end.
 
I've not driven it yet (it took her a few days of constant fiddling to get the manual seat adjusted where she wanted it and I'm afraid to move it on her!) but she loves it. It makes her old '02 Corolla feel like the golf cart it was. She's way more comfortable driving it at speed since the Corolla was a bit mushy and numb and inspired no confidence. I've been a passenger a few times of course and the two-door body style gives a big guy like me plenty of room to get in/out. Interior materials are pretty nice and it's relative cheapness is well hidden. And she loves the infotainment center and how it can interface with her Android. It's solid, quiet, and plenty zippy. The 1.5T seems like a good little motor but I'll probably ignore the OLM and do 5k changes with Dexos v2 oils due to the fuel dilution issues many people are reporting with them.
 
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