Lease return
Before the return report is written.
Preparation before a lease return: put right what would otherwise be assessed and charged. Assessment, scope and timing agreed in advance.
Lease return
The line between fair wear and damage.
At a lease return the vehicle is assessed against a fixed schedule. Normal wear is priced in, anything beyond it is charged as diminished value. The line between the two is narrower than most people expect.
The decisive point: what is put right before the appointment never appears in the report at all. What appears in the report becomes an amount. Preparation before a return is therefore rarely about appearance, it is arithmetic.
What gets inspected
Four areas, in this order.
Inspections follow much the same pattern everywhere. Knowing what is looked at allows targeted preparation rather than a blanket job.
Scratches and dents.
Assessed by size and depth. What sits in the clear coat can often be polished out. What reaches the primer needs a different solution.
View scratch removalStains, odour, pet hair.
The interior is judged strictly because it strongly affects resale value. Smoke odour and pet hair are the most common findings.
View interior cleaningKerb damage.
Kerbing on wheel rims is a classic and is almost always charged. Light marks can frequently be refinished.
View wheel workChips in the windscreen.
A chip in the field of vision usually means a windscreen replacement at your cost. Repaired in time it is a fraction of that.
View glass serviceTiming
Four to six weeks beforehand.
Too early is unhelpful, because new marks appear before the return. Too late is worse, because there is no time left to correct anything.
An honest assessment
We look at the vehicle and say what is likely to be flagged and what is not. Not every mark is worth treating.
Only what pays
We recommend selectively rather than across the board. Where a correction would cost more than the expected deduction, we say so and leave it.
Hand it over clean
A cleanly presented vehicle is generally judged more leniently than a dirty one with the same marks. First impressions carry into the report as well.
Fleets too
When several vehicles go back at once.
With company fleets, deductions add up quickly, and returns often fall in the same quarter.
For businesses we schedule vehicles one after another so operations continue, and we assess each individually rather than applying the same scope to all. Often it turns out part of the fleet needs nothing and the work concentrates on a few vehicles. Details under fleet preparation.
Anyone returning vehicles regularly is considerably better off with a fixed care interval across the term than with a single preparation at the end. More under business care.
