On the day the new car lease is over it is time to take the lease vehicle back to the dealership. At this point you can either go into another new car lease or just walk away.
But in either case the lease vehicle will be inspected and this can get tricky. Each dealer handles the lease return differently.
Some dealerships just say thank you very much and let the lease company handle the post lease inspection including contact, negotiation and billing for required repairs to the lease vehicle.
You will also find that some dealerships will perform the off lease vehicle inspection and report to you directly.
What will they report on you ask. The new car lease contract stated you would be responsible for any damage to the vehicle that was considered above and beyond normal wear and tear.
This statement alone (that you signed off on) is very ambiguous and open to interpretation. What is normal wear and tear? Again this will be different between individual new car lease companies.
In my experience the lease vehicle provider will let you slide on a few minor nicks and scratches. But will charge you full retail price for repairs such as body damage and vandalism damage.
This is why you would want to prepare the lease vehicle for turn in before the off lease inspection occurs. You can fix the car cheaper on your own by shopping around for the best prices on the needed repairs.
When the new car lease company's saw their customers upset to the point of refusing to lease a vehicle again they developed a strategy to assist on the new car lease turn in procedure.
Some company's started providing a free inspection a month before the end of the new car lease contract. This helped prepare the consumer of what to expect.
This is where I came in. I worked for BMW North America as an independent contractor and performed these free inspections.