I'm coming up on the end of my lease on my '04 Max, and Nissan has told me I need to contact a company called A.I.M. for a lease-end inspection.

I've never leased from Nissan before, but I've had mixed experience with leases in the past ... ranging from nitpicking it to death to just saying, "Looks good to me. Sign here."

So has anyone had a Nissan lease-end inspection lately? Was it done by A.I.M.?

How did it go? Did they get down and measure every chip and door ding, or was it more civilized?

 

My suggestion, find a Lease return Specialist place and have the Max looked over and detailed by them, they remove fine scratches, paid deeper ones, fix curb rashes, stains, etc.... highly recommended, did a 530i I had that was a mess and BMW, charged me only 4 tires....and man that car i drove it to the ground. SO +1 for leas return shops.
my .02
VQ

 

Thanks for the suggestion, VQ. Can you tell me roughly what it cost for your 530?

 

I've never heard of not being able to take a car back to the dealer for a lease return. Several years back, I sold cars, and the rule of thumb was...normal wear and tear. Anything credit card size and smaller was fine, as long as there was no hail. Door dings, scratches, cirb rash, interior spots, all where considered normal wear and tear.

You got my curiosity up. I'm pretty **** with my cars, but I dang sure didn't lease mine so that I could be some how money tapped for returning used equipment...over!

Any other opinions or experiences out there?

 

I too, have heard of the 'credit card' method! We just leased our first vehicle. My twin sister leased 2 Hummers and they told her the same thing the Toyota dealership told us!

 

No, the car will go back to the dealer. But first, they have an independent inspection company that looks them over to make sure there's nothing but normal wear and tear. I've had to do the same thing on my other leases. But some are real picky and others aren't. What bothers me is that they are like house inspectors ... they're paid to find stuff, not to just say every car is fine.

And my car is in as good a shape as ANY 3-year-old car, since I'm as **** as you are. But I did get some small nicks on a couple of my wheels, thanks to a tire company, and I got a light scratch on one door in a mall parking lot (weak keying job?).

But the thing I'm most concerned about is my tire wear. On my BMW's, I had to have 3/32" or more tread, or they charged me for new tires. I don't know what Nissan's standards are, but my tires are definitely showing wear and I darn sure don't want to have to buy Nissan a set of tires. I may get a tire store to lend me a gauge and check them myself tomorrow.

The whole thing is how strict the inspection company is. I had to buy a windshield for one of my Beemers because of a tiny chip one time, so I know they can be horses butts if they want to be.

 

Maybe they meant as long as you had a credit card to cover any blemish, you'd be okay ...

 

Are you going to lease or buy another nissan? If so don't worry about a thing. Unless your car is beat to crap and obviously abused. If your buying something from the dealer than they will buy out the lease and put it on the lot and sell you a different vehicle. Otherwise, normal scratches and dings will pass. Bald tires, Shoddy brakes, and other consumables will need to be okay or you will get hit.

 

Are you returning it bacause your residual is too high for what you can sell or trade it for?

 

Haha, good one!

 

I believe I paid roughly 350 ish for couple door dings some deeper scratches, stains in carpet and scrape on door guard.
hope this helps
VQ

 

I've returned two NMAC lease vehicles. You always sweat a little, but it seems to work out OK.

My '00 Maxima SE got (legitimately) assessed for 4 new tires, but the assessment was a fair $100/tire (we all know its not easy to find 225/50 R17 tires for that price). No other excess wear/damage was noted. The $400 charge for the tires was waived becaue I re-leased another Nissan through NMAC.

Just last week I turned back an '03 Max SE when I got the '07 SE. I had replaced the tires about 8 months ago, so that was not an issue. There was some fairly deep paint scuffs on both bumpers for which I was assessed $470 (I had received estimates closer to $600 to have them repainted). A very small stone chip in the windshield and a small ding in the passenger door were noted but marked as normal wear. I was also 4,000 miles over my alotted mileage. The total excess wear/mileage charge would have totaled about $1,200. I thought I would at least get the $500 excess wear waiver from NMAC for leasing the '07, but the dealer did not write the new lease through NMAC so I thought I was screwed. The dealer came through for me anyway - they ended up buying out the lease so it didn't cost me a penny.

(BTW - The next day the '03 was on his lot as a "Nissan Certified PreOwned" car @ $5k over the buyout price! It was a win-win situation, though. It helped him cover his under invoice deal on the '07 and I got out of the excess wear and mileage charges.)

Overall, I thought the AIM inspectors were at least fair and did not nitpick, following NMAC's end-of-lease guidelines. You can find these "rules" and example pictures of normal vs. excess wear at (http://www.nissanusa.com/owning/your..._of_lease.html)

Unless there are serious issues with your car, you should be covered either by NMAC's waiver or a dealer buyout.

 

No, I'm not going to get another Nissan, so I won't get the "best" treatment.

The car isn't beaten up at all, and I'm not really too concerned. Theonly things I wonder about are some dings to the wheels caused by a stupid, clumsy tire store dude and a light scratch on one door.

I'm sure I'll be fine.

 

Well, the trade-in value of the car is less than the lease payoff.

I *might* be able to sell it in the last month or so of the lease (October) and come out okay, but that's a pain in the a** and probably wouldn't get me $500 anyway. And the car I'll probably replace it with ('07 G35) won't be in the dealers until November. Therefore, I'll just return the Maxima and start over then.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

a bit off topic but was wondering if anyone here knew

a friend of mine is currently leasing a 05 acura tsx - recently the car got flooded and insurance is covering the repairs - it'll be a flood title once he gets it back though - when he takes it in at the end of his lease - what happens due to the flood title assuming there are no other problems with the car at all - acura can't sell the car for as much because of the title i assume so they will want some sort of compensation...

 

Flood damage is not considered "normal wear and tear", so your friend will have to pony up some bucks to cover the reduced value of the car.

What he needs to do is to demand a "Dimished Value" payment from the insurance company. It is for this very kind of thing, and covers - to some degree, at least - the fact that the car is worth less, even though it's repaired.

I had a 2000 BMW that I crashed a few years ago, and I got a check for $5,500 IN ADDITION to the repairs, for the dimished value.

 

I can tell you first hand, that AIM is the place that does the inspections....as far as nitpicking, they are pretty bad. It really depends on that person who is doing it too, but i know i sold a car to one of my customers about a month ago and took in his 02 max off lease and had the car returned for him. It was in pretty good condition nothing major at all....and a month later he calls me up to tell me he got slaped with a bill for $1700. be carefull.

 

excellent info bro, thanks.

 

I had a Toyoto that I leased before the Maxima, I just it gave it back and had no problems. I treated the car like it was mine. Reading the replys I will never lease a car again.