EA288 2.0 TDI 184PS Development thread..

[Rick101]

I'm in a similar situation with car on lease. Just phoned and spoke to Stuart who was very helpful.

Hopefully can find a suitable insurer. Not sure wether I need to notify the lease company, I believe I just have to make sure car is not modified and in good condition on return.

Only additional concern is that I have a maintenance contract that states 'fair wear and tear'. I wonder if they have strict ideas about how long tyres and clutches should last.

[corgi]

I wonder if they have strict ideas about how long tyres and clutches should last.

They will. If your tyres are lasting half as long on average as other GTDs on their fleet they may start asking questions, the same with things such as clutches. But that's down to you not the tuning box...

If you drive relatively normally and use controls normally, there shouldn't be an issue... tyre wear and clutch wear should be acceptable. If you drive like an idiot they may not be with or without a tuning box

[Rick101]

I'm a fairly quick driver though I think mechanically sypmathetic.

The Eagle F1's on my current Stage 1 Octavia are down to 4/5mm after 23000 miles.

[monkeyhanger]

Would they really try and quantify clutch wear? As far as they're concerned, the clutch is operational at point of hand-back inspection or it isn't. As long as the tyres are legal (maybe insistence of at least 3mm tread)

Biggest lease company concerns are "is it working" and visual appearance, looking for dings, dents, scuffs, scratches to either the bodywork, wheels and interior as well as seat wear. Stone chips are usually considered fair wear and tear to a point, but depends who you're dealing with and how many you've got.

Once that car is back with the lease company it'll be going to auction in the vast majority of cases, it just needs to look tidy.

[Rick101]

It's more the maintenance side of it that concerns me.

When I looked at the BVRLA guide for acceptable fair wear and tear I was appalled! I keep my cars good nick, regular washing, quality wax. Always careful where I leave it etc.

Anyway, back on topic.

Re insurance, I've 3 months left on my current policy. Changing from the vRS to the GTd I get a refund on £9! Decided to do that and just run it standard for now. After three months I'll reassess and that would be the time to either fit the box and find a amicable insurer or if I'm happy with it, leave it as standard.

[corgi]

Would they really try and quantify clutch wear?

They would if you were wearing a clutch out through abuse every 20K miles... the cost of replacing those eats into their profits. Same with tyres, if you're replacing the front pair every 5K miles... Any "excessive" maintenance costs are highlighted through reporting...

This is about the predictability of margins for these businesses. In spite of what you might think, the margins are fairly tight. \they know that on average at the end of the lease they are likely to return 92-97% of CAP Clean values for the better kept cars, hence their statements about fair wear and tear. Every extra pound they spend on maintenance reduces that return.

If you are way out of line on maintenance, they will take action...

[monkeyhanger]

Someone going through a clutch at 20k miles deserves to be nailed to the wall, they would never expect to have to replace a clutch for you within the term of your lease, and for abuse like that the clutch would be considered a wear and tear item that the driver is usually responsible for unless we're talking catastrophic failure that the warranty would cover. But for someone with a car handed back on its original clutch which was working fine, they wouldn't try to measure the clutch wear to determine if it was fair wear or not. I would normally expect to replace teh tyres at my own cost on a lease unless i'd taken out a full maintenance package with it.

[corgi]

But for someone with a car handed back on its original clutch which was working fine, they wouldn't try to measure the clutch wear to determine if it was fair wear or not.

I never said they would measure the clutch wear. But, if it needed replacingat say 40K miles but showed signs of abuse...

As for tyres etc. most business leases will have full maintenance.

[Ross Detours]

The clutch on my Astra needed done at 35K miles. I often have a heavy right foot but I am definitely not sore on the clutch. They stripped it down and said there was play in the flywheel and that was enough reason that they would cover it under warranty. Otherwise I was looking at £2500.

[corgi]

Understood. There was a manufacturing fault that caused your clutch to fail.

The point here is, that if you're clutch fails from abuse (the heat causes bluing of the metals, premature wear on clutch bearings etc are strong indicators of prolonged heavy duty use) in the case of clutches, there are similar indicators for brakes and so on...