Arkay

Well, my time with the A8L is almost up and I've an end of lease inspection scheduled for 9 March.

As I have the snow tires and wheels on right now, can anyone suggest if I should replace them with my summer sets (which came with the car) before the inspection? Don't want to take a chance before I return the car in April given the unpredictable nature of wintry weather here in the northeast and the fact that the Pirelli PZero Rossos aren't usually recommended when there's the white powdery stuff on the roads.

And has anyone else here had an experience with the end of lease inspection through AFS and their service provider SGS?

greenie

with you at inspection time so the dealer can see the tread wear. Even though most Audi dealers suffer from a lack of "brightness", maybe yours will figure out that the other three tires MIGHT have the same wear pattern!!

Mister Bally

If you're not going to re-lease with them, be prepared for a few dollars worth of problems being found.

Arkay

I've been really good at taking care of even small blemishes. I have a couple of scratches on the wheels and driving and parking in and around NYC means there is one minor scar on the back bumper - we'll see what they say.

Can't imagine they would not see these as normal wear and tear, but then again, stranger things have happened.

Arkay

for these inspection services.

I'm tempted to just remove the winter wheels and tires and put the summers back on and tempt the Gods of late winter weather!

ittazvic

I turned in an '04 allroad last May. An outside company (don't remember the name) came to my house for the inspection. I wasn't home but my wife said she never saw such a detailed job of all the cars we've leased.

The car literally had only two marks on it. One slight scrape on the right front corner which he let slide and a thin gouge on the rear bumper caused by the garage door when I didn't pull into the garage enough. This cost me $200! Plus the $350 turn in fee - even though I currently lease two other Audi's ('05 Cab and '05 A8) There were NO other marks on the car - literally.

In addition he wrote that the mats were dirty. My wife said he ran his hand over each door skin looking for bumps as well as the edges of the doors where the latching hardware is. I'd at least have the summer tires available for inspection if I were you.

I think BMW does a much better job of explaining what they are looking for beforehand and is much more lenient.

SRaj

Roy, why the switch to MB?

Mister Bally

Those are more reasons why I would never lease. Plus, I like to drive. Don't we all? That's why we get the overpriced sewing machines (A line by Officer Bimbeau in the movie Hollywood Knights).

I just can't see being restricted to an average of 10 or 12,000 miles per year.

I remember a friend who turned in a lease Caddy and no longer needed that third vehicle. The dealer, who gave him service loaners, picked him up at home to when he was first leasing the car and had a service shuttle van made him use the pay phone to call a cab to get back home. This was in the days when cell phones were only for the rich & famous. He vowed to never, ever be in that powerless state again in his life.

Arkay

These are all very valid points.

However, for my circumstances, leasing makes more financial sense.

The lease, though under my personal name for insurance purposes, is paid for by the company I own and therefore is an expense.

And as I take the NJ Transit train, or try to, on most days, the mileage restriction is not as big an issue for me, even at 12,000 miles a year. This is a sad statement for me to make as I LOVE driving but the realities of life with an infant (needing a car seat, therefore drive with my wife in her SUV on most weekends) and running a business mean that even track activities (with my purpose built '99 M3 track car) have been severely limited these last few years.

Lastly, I also get bored with cars easily. Keeping my '99 M3 since new (11/98) is a record for me but because I've invested so much into it to make it a 70% club racing car plus buying a trailer to tow it with. And this is my daily driver so given the opportunity to lease something new every 36 months allows me the luxury of driving something different on a regular basis.

But you're absolutely right, if someone drives more than 15,000 miles a year and keeps the car for longer than 36-48 months, as my father in law does, then leasing makes no sense whatsoever.

Oh, and my wife will shuttle me to/from the dealers when dropping off/picking up my cars! :-)

Arkay

First, I REALLY wanted the S8 (so much so that my brother ended up with an S6 after seeing these cars!) However, because I wanted to lease the car, the AFS numbers were pretty horrendous compared to MB Finance for leases. The differences in payment for the two cars with similar MSRP were several hundred dollars a month for my business.

Secondly, I looked for an alternative to the S8 and the S550 (well, actually, the S65 would've been the winner had it not been for the $180,000+ price tag) was the winner after evaluating it and the 750Li.

Oh, one more thing: I got a 4+% discount on my order for the S550 4matic (MSRP ~$105,000), but could only wrangle a $1,000 discount on the S8, even when the dealer called to tell me that had one on the floor fully loaded with an MSRP of ~$108.000.

If I were buying the car, I would've probably chosen the S8 but for leasing, it just didn't make good sense.