chicagopjp Posted September 18, 2015 Report Share Posted September 18, 2015 I've got a Sport coming off-lease around year-end, and those 22s have seen better days. Each wheel has been scraped against a curb to one degree or another, and some are longer than the 6" allowed for in the lease-end guidelines as reasonable wear and tear. At least some of my rash is well longer than that. Does anyone have any actual experience with how this will be treated? I'll gratefully take any information you have, but among my questions are: Does someone who works for the dealer do the inspection, or is it someone else (like a third-party service)? In either case, what is your experience with their "flexibility" (willingness to cut me a break)? Are they going to ding me for replacement cost on the wheels, or some lesser amount? Is there a way to get a preliminary assessment, so I can figure out whether I should get the wheels repaired on my own before the "real" inspection? Is there a different forum or website I can post to, considering that this isn't necessarily specific to Edges? Thanks very much for any insight you may have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 Had a coworker who leased. When he went to take the car back, the dealer inspected the vehicle and wrote a complete report of everything they could find; door dings, scrapes, scratches, etc. In his case, they charged him the full cost of making all of the repairs not covered by the contract. A few weeks later he got another bill for a ding the dealer had missed, from the leasing agency. Your contract should call out everything allowed and everything beyond that you will be responsible for the full retail cost of each and all repairs. (The car must be returned in the same, exact condition as leased (less that allowed as normal wear). I would carefully reread the contract and arrange to make any repair outside the contract good at a better price before you take the car back (when its too late). If your uncertain, why not drop by the dealer and have the sales manager take a look; as it appears (on the surface) that you may be responsible for the cost of new wheels. And that's not a minor cost if you have to pay retail. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 Btw, does your contract call out 6" per wheel, or total of 6" for all wheels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOEHIO Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 (edited) Try getting some touch up "silver-ish colored" paint brush on style, and touch them up. Also, return it in need of a wash, the dirt will help hide the scrapes. Edited September 20, 2015 by JOEHIO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
27Sport Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 How exaclty do you scrape all the wheels that bad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOEHIO Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 Wives are not always as careful by curbs, that's how. ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingNut Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Are you leasing/buying another Ford at the time of turn in? If so, they won't hassle you. Some dealers do the inspections themselves. Others put them in a lot and have a 3rd party handle everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Btw, does your contract call out 6" per wheel, or total of 6" for all wheels? The contract doesn't get down to that level of detail. It's Ford's guidelines for reasonable wear and tear which say, I believe, 6" per wheel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 (edited) Wives are not always as careful by curbs, that's how. ! No comment, but that's not wrong. And, to be fair, living in a very urban environment is another reason. Sometimes you're in a jam and you need to get that beast, with those gigantic wheels, parked. It happens. Finally, throw some snow, ice, and all-around blizzard conditions into the mix, and this is what you get. When the snow is piling up and you have to park on a street, you can't always tell where the curb is. Edited September 22, 2015 by chicagopjp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Are you leasing/buying another Ford at the time of turn in? If so, they won't hassle you. Some dealers do the inspections themselves. Others put them in a lot and have a 3rd party handle everything. Go Wings. We'll see. It's possible, but a Ford isn't at the top of our list. I think I'll bring it to a local dealer and see if anyone is willing to give me some feedback on what we're talking about. Some initial research says that I might be able to get the wheels reconditioned for around $200 a corner. That's obviously cheaper than replacing them, and I assume less than Ford would charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingNut Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Go Wings. We'll see. It's possible, but a Ford isn't at the top of our list. I think I'll bring it to a local dealer and see if anyone is willing to give me some feedback on what we're talking about. Some initial research says that I might be able to get the wheels reconditioned for around $200 a corner. That's obviously cheaper than replacing them, and I assume less than Ford would charge. Post some pictures so we can see what the damage looks like. There may be a good chance you can grab some touch up paint and do a decent job. My guess is whoever is looking at the vehicle, is going to do a quick once over on the paint and wheels. Obvious stuff will be marked.......but obvious stuff usually leads them to look closer. If they don't have a reason to look closer, you are good. So if you can keep from making them look like a sore thumb, they'll probably overlook the wheels all together. $200/corner is up there in price if you do all 4. The mobile guy near me was around $200 but $600 for all 3. And he made it look brand news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted September 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Here there are, in all their majesty. I don't know how well the rash shows up here, but I don't think touch up paint will save me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOEHIO Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 My wife did a lot worse damage to her '09 MKS wheels, I used silver touch up paint, with s FINE artists brush, helped make it look not as bad as it was. Traded it in on a new MKS a few months ago back in June, wheels weren't even mentioned, and they sold the car within a week and a half. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 (edited) My guess is whoever is looking at the vehicle, is going to do a quick once over on the paint and wheels. Obvious stuff will be marked.......but obvious stuff usually leads them to look closer. If they don't have a reason to look closer, you are good. So if you can keep from making them look like a sore thumb, they'll probably overlook the .... If kit was a new vehicle when rented, they will usually go over the car with a fine toothed comb. Even so, the company who wrote the contract is the one who has to sign off on the vehicle, as they are the onest who acruelly owns the car. They can always come back on the leasee for anything they find on their (separate) inspection (which is why the dealer will look so closely. Larry ( my friend who leased his Explorer), said they refused to accept any touch up and required the dings to be done by their body shop (told him he could have used any body shop prior to return, but at that point his lease was up, no choice). He also had to pay for one new wheel. So the next car he leased and parked way out in the parking lot. Every time we went to take his car, he would do a Walk-around and check everything. Really paranoid. Never told me what it cost on returning the Explorer, but it was several hundred. (Which is why you need to have the dealer take a look and see if it would be cheaper to have the dings fixed at a less expensive shop.) Don't know about the wheels, if not clear, could be 6" total for all wheels. Dings are cheap, four new wheels from a dealer would be a killer. I would be interested in knowing what you find out. Edited September 23, 2015 by enigma-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted September 29, 2015 Report Share Posted September 29, 2015 Here there are, in all their majesty. I don't know how well the rash shows up here, but I don't think touch up paint will save me. image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpegWas looking over older posts and noticed that one of the wheels lost its hub cap (they say "Sport" on them). Might consider picking one up from eBay before taking it back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted November 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 I always hate it when someone drops into a forum, seeks advice, then is never heard from again. Since you were kind enough to weigh in on my plight, I figured I'd give you the short version of how this ended: Nobody at the dealer would even hazard a guess as to what Ford would ding me for, and how much the bill would be. Ford exclusively uses a third party to do lease end inspections; the dealer is never involved other than as a mailbox for dropping off and picking up the cars, basically. My guess is Ford does that to take the dealer out of the equation. Otherwise, you could picture the dealer overlooking lots of things in the interest of selling a new vehicle. Just a guess. Anyway, I'd gotten a quote from a highly-regarded wheel repair shop in the Chicago area of $200 each to recondition those wheels. In addition, with the dealer's help, we identified a number of other issues on the body. None seemed major, but several would have exceeded the lease-end guidelines. Again, nobody would speculate about which of them Ford would charge me for, let alone how much. So, having settled on either a CR-V or an Escape (with a slight edge to the Escape), I set about cutting my best deal on one with the dealer. From the published data you can find at KBB or Edmunds, for example, I got a price well below market. I purposely hemmed and hawed about the lease return though, and the sales manager proposed that I basically pay him to take over the risk on damage. In the end, we added $800 to the price of the new Escape, and wrote out an agreement that if Ford sends me a bill for damage to the Edge, the dealer will take care of it. Maybe he'll get the better end of that deal, but to close off the risk on my side, for the same price I thought it would cost me to repair the wheels alone, seemed like a good solution to me. So now I'll head over to the Escape (we wanted to downsize) forum. Thank for your input and best of luck with your Edges. PS - My deal at Fox Ford Lincoln on Elston Ave in Chicago started off a little rocky, but Fred Dino (Sales Manager) and Evan Wolford (Product Specialist) did a great job going the extra mile to right the ship. They're in a beautiful, brand new, built-for-them facility, and if you're in the area, you should go check it out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted November 12, 2015 Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 Glad it all worked out, and good luck with the Escape! Post a few pics of it here please before moseying on over ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagopjp Posted November 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 Glad it all worked out, and good luck with the Escape! Post a few pics of it here please before moseying on over ...Thanks. Here's a couple the dealer sent me before I took delivery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjonis Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Thanks for the followup! I've only ever leased a vehicle once, and there was no body issues, although the back of the front driver's seat had some minor marks on it (not tears/rips or permanent marker, it was something had moved and rubbed against it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excelongt Posted January 3, 2016 Report Share Posted January 3, 2016 google search or Yelp search "Mobile alloy wheel repair". I've had good experience with someone coming to my location and repairing curb rash wheels. They usually charge $100 a wheel, which i think is very reasonable. The end result looks very good. Not sure of the longevity of the repair, as I've only ever done this on vehicles I was returning at lease end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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