Omeletpants

I have leased mine and my wife's car every 3 years since 1989. That's about 20 cars. Never once have I been charged for anything upon lease return. On the last 2 leases my wife was 1500 miles over the limit and they didnt charge us. This notion that all dealers are trying to screw customers is bullchit

sadiigo

I am on my 3rd Audi lease and can share my experience with returns. This is applied to VW credit leases. I cannot say anything about other leases.

You will have to return mats and roof racks. The dealer will ask for them, since they are included on the window sticker description. The Audi dealer acts as a middle man in the return process, the car belongs to VW credit and the dealer doesn't really care about the condition of the car. This aspect is dealt by a separate company, which reviews your car prior to the return. There are defined rules of what is acceptable as tear and wear and in my opinion you can negotiate with a person who comes and inspects your car on certain questionable points (except for the excess mileage)

The Audi dealer won't take your lease return market value into any trade in consideration. They are required to pass the car on to the auction on behalf of the leasing company. Sometimes the dealer can buy your car from the VW credit company before he sends it to the auction if they like it, but you won't be aware of this!

I think the best way to extract the value from the car is to return it 4 months earlier. This is what I did with my first lease (Q5). They will sell it at the auction, which will probably be higher than Blue book estimate, if the car has good options and in good condition. They will subtract from the sold price the lease return residual and outstanding lease installments to come up with what you owe them and send you the final bill 3-4 months later. It worked well for me at the end. If you keep the car till the end, they won't give you a dime for the excess market value. I found it hard way with my second lease, thinking it would work in my favor too. The dealer then told me I had a very nice car (S5) and someone would be very lucky to have it

bzcat

The roof rack is listed as standard equipment in the 2018 SQ5 so yes, I'm sure Audi Financial will charge you for the missing roof rack if you return the car without it.

And it's not only Audi that cares. When I sold my 2013 Q5 to Carmax, they asked for the roof rack too because it was listed as part of standard equipment. It sat in my coat closet for 6 years gathering dust in the same spot where the new SQ5 roof rack is sitting, gathering dust.