How clean and tidy does the interior need to be, to avoid deductions being taken from the guaranteed price?

 

I am returning a Citigo at the end of a three year 0% finance deal as the guaranteed price is about £1,000 more than the trade in value. The exterior is immaculate. Inside, the pale seats show stains which will probably come out when they give it a really good pre-resale clean. It had G3 fabric protection applied when it was new.

 

 

I have just found a recent thread on this topic which didn't come up when I first searched (probably as I didn't use the term pcp) 

 

                   Checks when handing back car on pcp                 

Not to worry you, but I've heard; maybe a tall tale, of Mercedes having a machine than can scan and detect stuff. Including replaced panels... magic I hear you say. Possibly.

 

They have to allow you reasonable use and you cant' use a car for 3 years without the odd nick and scuff. It makes sense to take advantage of that uplift in value.

 

Might be worth checking windscreen prices on similar age models, to verify the trade in is as bad as you're led to believe.

 

 

On 31 January 2017 at 16:02, ColinD said:

Not to worry you, but I've heard; maybe a tall tale, of Mercedes having a machine than can scan and detect stuff. Including replaced panels... magic I hear you say. Possibly.

 

They have to allow you reasonable use and you cant' use a car for 3 years without the odd nick and scuff. It makes sense to take advantage of that uplift in value.

 

Might be worth checking windscreen prices on similar age models, to verify the trade in is as bad as you're led to believe.

 

 

They might well have a paint thickness checker. That could be a good indicator as to any painting that's been doon and lead to a closer look...viewing under different light sources may well identify different paint sources. The cynic in me says they would just use the info to screw-down the trade-in price but not tell any future buyer.  Yes, I know, evil mind.

As a lease provider, they will be working alongside the BVRLA guidelines - take a look here: http://www.bvrla.co.uk/advice/guidance/returning-your-leased-vehicle

 

This is also a very good guide and shows what is acceptable and not acceptable, in pictures too

 

http://www.gecapital.co.uk/en/docs/BVRLA_FWT_GECapital.pdf

 

 

I have some diamond cut alloys on my Octy vRS that will need a bit of improvement before my PCH lease car goes back if I am to avoid charges.

 

Do any of the Smart repair type places offer a quick fix for this sort of wheel, or am I looking at some big bills to get them sorted?

On 1/26/2017 at 10:43, Muirgarth said:

the guaranteed price is about £1,000 more than the trade in value. 

 

 

 pardon my interrupting this thread to show my ignorance, but I'm still confused by financed based purchases - Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I'm afraid it is one of those "it all depends" kind of situation.

 

In our case we had the money to buy the car outright. If we took 0% finance, we got free servicing. So the cash went into Premium bonds, from which we paid the monthly instalments. At the end of three years we had the choice to buy the car with quite a large final instalment or keep the money and hand back the car. This is what's called the guaranteed buy back price. (The finance people calculate it by starting with the buy back price in three year's time, deducting it from the new price, and dividing the difference into three year's monthly instalments.)

 

Keeping the money left us with about £1,000 more than Skoda would have given us as a trade in price, if we had wanted to buy another car off them.

 

A salesman recently told me that even if the finance was not 0% it might still be worth considering. I'm not sure he's right, but his example was that if you were buying a diesel car and were worried that in three year's time, the value of diesels might have been hit hard by the rethink on emissions, then that guaranteed buy back price might be quite a lot higher than the car's market value.

 

Good luck with the maths!