My Is250 Is Handed Back In April

GaryC · January 4, 2011

Hi all,

My 08 reg IS250 SE-L Multimedia 3 year deal finishes in April. It has guaranteed residual of £12600 and I have received the letter from Lexus asking me what I want to do. The monthly payments I am paying are based on 42k over the 3 years but I have only done 33k so by time April comes the mileage will be approx 36-37k. However the car has a couple of minor marks, scuffed alloys (front two tyres) and a small dimple dent in passenger door. The back tyres are still fine but front tyres will need replacing very soon. The condition inside is nearly perfect and back seats unused.

Will Lexus try to knock loads of money off the residual because of these minor knocks even though my mileage is £5k under ? Or is it best to sell it privately ?

The other option is to keep it another year but am I missing out on the guaranteed residual and if I don't take it now the car will plummet in value and I'll have to sell on later at a bigger loss ?

Gary

LexiMarc · January 4, 2011

While I can;t answer your quesry directly - I had a similar issue in September when handing back my lease hired Nissan X-Trail. I took it out in 2007 at new cost of nearly £27k and played it safe at 15k miles/yr for 3 years. By the end of the 3 years, the car had only done 27k miles but had a few supermarket dings, light scratches, interior scuffs and slightly curbed front alloys. Concerned that the finance company would sting me on collection for the scrapes, scratches, dings and scuffs, I got a local Chips Away guy to take the car away and sort all the above which he did admirably. When the collection agency came and did their 30-minute inspection, I got a clean report - not a single mark against it and once it was taken away, never heard anything further - i like to think the £125 Chips Away work potentially saved me a few hundred more but I guess I'll never know.

DJP · January 5, 2011

As per the above post it is one of those where there is no right answer. If you are intending to hand it back then I would also have the marks etc repaired. When I handed my Merc CLK back a couple of years ago they tried every trick in the book to extract £850 from me. They ended up with £125 and the threat of legal action. I suspect much depends on whether they believe they can get the residual back at aution. The lower mileage IMHO won't make a scrap of difference. I have always over estimated the mileage at outset hoping to build in a "profit" on the residual to provide a deposit on the next one. Has never worked!

As far as the tyres are concerned, as long as they are legal you should be fine.

Selling privately is always a gamble. I'd have a good look around at what cars on selling for and personally would only go for it if I was sure I could comfortably beat the residual otherwise it's not worth the risk IMHO.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do and the outcome.

ScottyP89 · January 5, 2011

Selling privately at the moment is a joke. I'm trying to sell my current car to get an IS250 Auto and I'm just getting no interest what so ever. Half tempted to just trade-in but won't get hardly anything for it compared to a private sale!

GaryC · January 7, 2011

Thanks for the help. This is very useful info. Particularly about the lower mileage not making any difference.

Right I'll stick a couple of front tyres on and go on a few trips to eat some miles up before I hand it back (or trade it in).

I think Lexus are a bit sly. When I rang up the dealership they said the finance is nothing to do with them - it's all to do with finance company. All very well but they don't act like this when they are selling you the car - it's all one big happy Lexus family. They treated it like it was some joe bloggs finance company that are nothing to do with Lexus at all. DJP's stopry about Merc trying to get as much money as they can and threatening legal action just stinks.

Teeonethousand · January 10, 2011

Ex Lexus owner lurking here....when i handed mine back the finance company were great - they sent me a booklet with what is considered fair wear and what is not - it was quite generous. My suggestion before you spend anything is to ring them and ask for a copy of the booklet and take that as the guide. When the person came to collect he inspected it - they tell you any issues and once the paperwork is signed by you and him that is it - no more comeback.

They send them to auction so will incur pick up and sale fees - if you want to keep it i would suggest making them a reasonable offer - say the residual less 500 and see what they say

Good luck

Thanks for the help. This is very useful info. Particularly about the lower mileage not making any difference.

Right I'll stick a couple of front tyres on and go on a few trips to eat some miles up before I hand it back (or trade it in).

I think Lexus are a bit sly. When I rang up the dealership they said the finance is nothing to do with them - it's all to do with finance company. All very well but they don't act like this when they are selling you the car - it's all one big happy Lexus family. They treated it like it was some joe bloggs finance company that are nothing to do with Lexus at all. DJP's stopry about Merc trying to get as much money as they can and threatening legal action just stinks.

GaryC · March 26, 2011

Hi again,

My car is to be handed back at the end of April and the residual is £12600. The Jag dealer I am buying my new car from says this value is low and not to hand it back. He said I'd get considerably more for a private sale but he has offered my a £13,500 trade in and says I can still negotiate on screen price of the new car I'm getting. Should I accept this offer or try to sell privately ?

As I stated in my original post the car has a small dimple dent, small scratch (about 5mm wide by 20mm) and minor scuffed front alloys.

It's mint inside, has factory fitted spoiler. multimedia and Lexus iPod connectivity. It's done 37,000 miles.

By end of next month it will have done about 39,000 miles. The Jag dealer says the £13,500 offer is up to end April so I can run my Lexus for another month and still get the £13.5k. It's silver on 08 plate.

Any advice on what's best ? Would I get £14-£15k private ?

Gary

Shepherd · March 27, 2011

Hi again,

My car is to be handed back at the end of April and the residual is £12600. The Jag dealer I am buying my new car from says this value is low and not to hand it back. He said I'd get considerably more for a private sale but he has offered my a £13,500 trade in and says I can still negotiate on screen price of the new car I'm getting. Should I accept this offer or try to sell privately ?

As I stated in my original post the car has a small dimple dent, small scratch (about 5mm wide by 20mm) and minor scuffed front alloys.

It's mint inside, has factory fitted spoiler. multimedia and Lexus iPod connectivity. It's done 37,000 miles.

By end of next month it will have done about 39,000 miles. The Jag dealer says the £13,500 offer is up to end April so I can run my Lexus for another month and still get the £13.5k. It's silver on 08 plate.

Any advice on what's best ? Would I get £14-£15k private ?

Gary

a quick look in autotrader private ads shows that there are cars like your spec advertised privately at £14-15k. Problem is that prices differe region to region as well (i,.e Scotland vs England) etc. Some dealers are selling these at £15k as well.i.e.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201112382500398/usedcars?atcide=emgm3&logcode=emf