18.2K views
New Reviewer
47 comments

I was buying a new car and returning a Nissan Sentra off of a lease a month early. I was returning my car early off lease early so that I could take early delivery of my new car. My salesman brought over the lease guy and they both looked over my Sentra and they both said that it looked great and that I should not receive any hits for the condition that it is in.

I leased the car for 39 months and was giving it back to them a month early and I paid extra for 49,000 miles on the lease. I returned the car with only 46,000 miles on it.

Bottom line they hit me for $744. A few scratches which I can agree with. But the part that really bothers me is that they are charging me for 4 brand new tires. They are saying that it is excessive wear to drive a set of tires 46,000 miles, even though I paid to drive them 49000 miles. They are getting 4 new tires on a returned lease.

I paid extra to drive the car 49000 miles. At the end of the lease they expect the tread to be like new and expect me to pay for it. I think that is very unreasonable. I will never deal with another Nissan dealer again, either purchase or lease.

Location: Geneva, Illinois

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

I leased a NISSAN leaf, I bought it up 2 months before the lease ends since I was running out of miles and 2 months later they hit me up with a 800 dollar deposition fee. NISSAN are scammers.

This is absolutely outrageous, noone mentioned this to me. We should all come together and fight NISSAN

Guest

Same happened with me, do not ever deal with Nissan, they are ripping people off, this will be my last time doing business with them, $400 for scratches and dents and the car is almost brand new, garage kept and never been touched.And they have the worst customer service ever

Guest

Last Nissan in our family. Returned lease with 34K miles on a 36K mile lease agreement.

Charged an excess wear and tear fee and disposition fee. Leased a few Lexusโ€™s in the past, pulled in to the dealer dropped off my lease and never heard from them again.

Guest

I hate Infiniti, same *** with their leasing practices, traded in my Lexus and ended up side down in this *** Infiniti lease, the guy fixed me real good! Never again, last Nissan in our family!!

Guest

You are already lucky.

Dealerships outright refused to take the vehicle back with the same excuses: out of space.

I called 1-80*-***-****, which is the "Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation", who tried very hard to make me believe that they are working on it and of courses they did not help. Managers involved include Cassie Jackson, Kimberly K.

(Kimberly refused to give out her last name.) Kimberly K. indicated that it is my responsibility to locate a dealership that would take back the vehicle.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1280930

well it is a small world Kimberly told me the same thing i will sue them soon car sucks need fixing all the time and car is only 8 months old on a lease

Guest

If Nissan did anything wrong here, it was poorly explaining the responsibilities of maintaining the vehicle and paying for repairs during and at end of lease. It's clearly written on the Nissan lease contract that a vehicle must be returned with specific tire tread, usually 1/4th tread remaining.

Being a new car with new car tires, it is not at all surprising that the tires needed to be replaced at 40k miles. Unfortunately this customer was under the impression that his contract entitled him to tires that would last him 45,000 miles.

Instead, the contract states that if the customer's tires do not meet minimum tread standards, as well as the vehicle meeting condition standards, the customer may be charged at lease end to cover these reconditioning costs. Maybe has this been better explained to him at the time he leased the vehicle or by the leasing company that billed him for the damages, he might have been more satisfied with this normal lease contract term.

Guest

Agreed, I turned my lease in with 9500 miles under the committed mileage and they still wanted to hit me with a "Disposition Fee" when i called to argue that the car was in exce;;ent condition upon the return they stated the fee was for transportation to the aution.......Why is that MY problem. I was told i could return the car anywhere.

Also will not consider another Nissan, ever!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1224744

A disposition is a very common fee on a lease. In fact, it's included in every lease whether billed at lease end or paid upfront in the initial leasing costs.

It's designed to cover the lease-end process which generally consists of the Lessor hiring a 3rd-party inspection company to perform a non-bias inspection of the vehicle and to cover transportation costs to move the vehicle from the place it was returned to an auction or other landing place. Some leasing companies charge this fee to all customers as an upfront fee and most people don't even realize they are paying it. Most leasing companies make it a lease-end fee as this is a more fair way of handling this and it allows them an opportunity to offer a loyalty waiver by returning to a new lease/purchase of the same brand.

Generally speaking the disposition fee applies only when you return the vehicle to the leasing company.

So if you were to instead buy the vehicle at lease end or trade it in to a dealership where the dealership is taking ownership of the vehicle than the inspection process and transportation process is not necessary, thus no fee. Leasing companies that charge this fee upfront are unfairly charging everyone a fee whether they return the car at lease end or not. Companies that charge at lease-end do so with the intention of giving the customer the most flexibility and charging a fair fee based on the cost of the proposed transaction whether it be return, purchase, lease extension or trade-in to a dealer.

Not using all of your miles may award you one benefit.

It may mean that your vehicle's value is higher than the anticipated pre-set residual value. You should always check this at lease end and see if there is a value or equity position in which it might be worth trading your vehicle in to a dealership instead of simply giving it back to the leasing company.

However, the mileage and condition of the car have absolutely nothing to do with the disposition fee. When it comes to Nissan lease contracts, the disposition fee is $395 and is clearly stated on the front page of the contract.

Guest

This is standard procedure for all leased vehicles Regardless of your mileage or whatever mileage you paid for, you cannot return a car with tires with less than 4/32 of wear.

Guest

Yes, small dings cost few hundred bucks under the name "Excess use", and then there is tax on excess use. This is simply ridiculous.

My gross liability while returning a Nissan Leaf after using it for 3 years is $1047.90 which is more than 3 months leasing money. i.e.

almost 10% of the total leasing cost. Never leasing or buying another Nissan.

Guest

Wow thats crazy that you dont think you should have to pay a disposition fee, didnt you read your lease docs?. Do you really expect to return the car w bald tires and not be charged for it?

when you rent a car with a full tank of gas and return it with half do you also not expect to pay for that?

I lease all my cars and love the deals, its still incredible to me that i lease a car for less than my neighbor pays for cable t.v.Enjoy your low payment and the fact that you drive a new car every 3 years.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1121725

You're an ***! Disposition fees are only there to penalize you if you do not purchase or lease from them again.

What you pay or making the statement to enjoy the fact you have a new car every 3 yrs has NO relevance to the point that more and more people are upset about the UNFAIR Disposition Fee. And...the sarcastic comment about not reading the leasing docs...really? Ever buy a house!!! Plus, what happened to stand by your word because I am pretty certain the sales person stated, "That's the great thing about the lease, you drive it at a LOW payment and get a new one in 3 yrs.

and nothing is owed at the end".

How do I know all of this, I worked in the business for 5 years and loved it and did a very good job as an honest no BS sales person before becoming a financial advisor. You are one of those BS sales people!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1121725

You must be a Nissan employee. Appears you have a bias.

Guest

The same thing happened to me. They are a rip off and I will be leaving Nissan after 5 years of leasing cars.

Guest

Nissan price gouges me on my Leaf and then has the audacity at the end to charge a disposal fee.. !?

I don't care if it's common practice, it's a bad one.

It should be included in the monthly payments instead of snuck in as a hidden fee at the end. Predatory business practices digust me, it's pure and simple taking advantage of people'

s goodwill in not feeling they need to read over the whole agreement b/c companies care about their repeat business.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1047711

its not really snuck in they state it when you lease the car and its written clearly in the contract. Dont get me wrong I absolutely think its ***!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1047711

Ditto on comments above. Had the same experience upon returning my Nissan.Went over car on returning it to dealer.

Their manager agreed that there were no problems with the car. Weeks later got a notice from Nissan alleging dents, dings, and excessive tire wear.

Taking advantage of people truly describes Nissan. Needless to say I will never go near a Nissan dealer again, and will bad-mouth them to anyone who is interested.Bill T.

Guest

Tires are considered routine maintenance. In order to resell the vehicle, it will need useable tires on it and in every lease agreement that I'm aware of, the lessee is financially responsible for that.

The general rule of thumb is tires with 6/32nds or more of tread depth left do not warrant a charge.

Anything below that will require replacement. A set of tires will generally be pretty worn down at 46k miles.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1045017

4/32nds is Nissan's tire tread rule. This is very fair compared to most leasing companies.

They also only charge 15 cents per mile for overage which is much lower than most leasing companies as well. Nissan uses a 3rd party, AIM (Alliance Inspection Management,) to do the lease end inspection.

Anything told to you by a dealership employee regarding condition at lease-end is only an opinion of that individual and is not a final statement of condition. AIM is available to do pre-inspections so you know up front about any condition issues.

View more comments (27)

Nissan USA Reviews

  1. 175 reviews
  2. 59 reviews
  3. 36 reviews
  4. 29 reviews
  5. 13 reviews
Nissan USA reviews