gryphea

OK. Despite agreeing the deal on Tuesday and AFTER I have paid for my insurance, the garage have now emailed me to say Mazda are wanting Wear Care, an insurance package that solves any nasty surprises on wear and tear. Thing is this is another $35 a month which sounds very steep , especially as we were actually planning on buying the car at the end of the lease. So over two years this adds $840 to the lease- a not inconsiderable amount and one I certainly feel should have been brought to our attention last weekend. In % terms this is quite a large percentage , around 8%. Ok so we have two kids but we put plastic mats on back of drivers seat and there is no middle seat for them to stand on/climb all over.

Any opinions on this before I just cancel the whole deal? Do all yu leasees pay something similar to this 'rip-off' insurance?

Gryphea

Oakvillian

Sounds to me like they're trying it on (again...)

If they made you the offer and you went ahead and sorted the insurance, it seems a bit wrong for them to suddenly turn around and impose another condition on the lease. How much do you need this car? If you can afford the time and hassle of starting again from scratch, I'd be strongly inclined to call their bluff and threaten to walk away from the whole deal unless they remove the condition.

I thought as a lessee you're responsible for any "nasty surprises in wear and tear" anyway, beyond the reasonable wear and tear expectations.

gryphea

Well it is a hassle to start agin as I do need a car for the commute on monday. However my OH could walk to work , but that means I would have to have the kids and drop them at nursery for my first few days at work. Not what I wanted , however not an impossibility either. Very hacked off with Mazda though, and so am inclined as you say to walk away.

As IainK said the mazda 5 is sort of unique so I will need to rethink, but I think I may do as Mazda have just hacked me off and I don't do well when I am hacked off!!!

Gryph

JonboyE

Yup. It would be cheaper to cancel the insurance than take out their wear and tear policy. I would tell them to take a hike.

Atlantic Xpat

Wear and tear is generally sold as an optional extra. I'd tell 'em that you don't want to take the option & if they are unhappy with that there are plenty of other dealers anxious for your business!

gryphea

To continue the saga I thought I would paste you guys in on my ranting emails to Mazda:

Ist email upon being told they had added $840 Wear Care to our two yr lease

'am really not happy about this Wear Care charge, especially being asked for it so late in the day, once I have paid for my car insurance. It adds another 8.4% to the costs of the lease - a not inconsiderable sum and it now brings a whole load of other initally more expensive cars within lower lease payments, eg Honda CRV, Saturn Vue etc.

Once again we are reconsidering our position, we really feel if this was a necessary charge this should have been highlighted either on Saturday , Monday or Tuesday, not today!!'

Then got this back (should say guy is a Brit):
I already warned them. So please don't worry about these strange Canadian ways. If you really don't want it there is nothing they can do about it. They can only request not insist.
I'll see you on Saturday as planned and explain what it's all about in detail and if you still don't want to buy the extra protection that Wear Care affords then you can have the lease without.

So I sent this:

The thing is that we feel we have been/will be railroaded into this and that to mention this at such a late stage is really bad form and exceptionally poor business. From our perspective we agreed a price on Saturday, OK that was subject to finance, which once agreed upon we then went about getting insurance, only once we had got insurance , subject to cancellation fee , do we get mention of this 8.5% loaded to the lease. Its not an inconsiderable amount, especially as unless we dislike the car we will buy it at the end of the lease, making it $840 down the drain. Now when we arrive on Saturday I know we will start to hear (in effect) all about how poorly Mazda treats its lease customers and that the littlest interior scratch will incur the most monstrous expenses at the end of the lease. None of this makes us feel warm or cosy about Mazda!!

We need a car , really by next week, which is another reason we feel railroaded a bit and as the clock ticks by we feel these late mentions of yet more money are not really very fair.

Will there be another price hike tomorrow?

I am awaiting a response!!!!
To say I have a bad taste in my mouth is an understatment!!

Gryphea

JonboyE

Good on you. Don't let the so and sos wear you down. (Unless they have a policy to cover that.)

PS "Bad form" doesn't sound quite right in a Canadian letter - I hope they watch lots of UK TV.

Novocastrian

It's true. I returned a Mazda Protege after a 3-year lease in ~2005. A couple of days earlier I went by the dealer's place to get an end-of-lease inspection done and was told it'd be $250 for a longish scratch which some bugger had put in with a car key the first week I'd had the car. Fair enough, that sounded about right.

Two weeks after the return I got an invoice for $1200 from Mazda for the paint and a couple of other things on top. I refused to pay more than the $250 of course. No warm or cozy feelings about Mazda here either.

gryphea

OK, so did mazda do anything to chase up the money or anything?

ARH

Hi Gryph

This is typical practice. When we got our Acadia (after I beat them down on the price), they spent 10 minutes explaining the advantages of wear and tear insurance, all the usual "Calgary is a busy city, lots of stones flying about to chip the paintwork, blah, blah, blah". I let the guy talk on and on then I said "No, thanks".

The wear and tear insurance isn't worth the paper it's written on, from a quick scan of the fine print it usually has tonnes of exclusions. As you rightly say, it adds a big percentage onto the cost of your lease - not worth doing, especially if you are planning to buy it at the end of the lease.

Stick to your guns. I bet they lay it on heavy tomorrow as well when you get to the dealership. Good luck!

ARH

Novocastrian

They called several times asking for the money. I told them to stuff it. Eventually they settled for the $250.