Caring For Your Lease Car

Taking out a lease contract means you need to ensure the car is cared for and well-maintained. This guide has some helpful tips on how to look after your lease car throughout your lease term.

When it comes to leasing a car, you need to ensure that it is well looked after and maintained throughout your lease contract. As you are not the registered keeper of the vehicle, you may incur penalty charges at the end of your lease if the vehicle is not maintained to a fair standard. We’ve put this guide together to help you keep on top of your vehicle maintenance and offer some advice about what type of regular maintenance you should be doing.

Why Is Regular Maintenance Important?

As part of your lease contract, your vehicle will need to be kept to fair wear and tear standards. Most finance companies use the BVRLA’s set of guidelines to measure these standards, so you need to make sure you look over them and understand what is and isn’t acceptable. At the end of your lease, your lease car will be inspected and if the car hasn’t been kept up to standard, you will be liable to pay for any damages to the car.

To avoid this happening, we recommend keeping on top of your car’s appearance and maintenance throughout your lease term.

How Often Should I Be Looking Over My Car?

We recommend spending around fifteen minutes every couple of weeks or so looking over your lease car. Checking for any minor damage or problems that could lead to a bigger issue in the long run if not sorted quickly enough.

For your more necessary checks like your oil levels and vehicle lights, we recommend checking these before every long journey or every two to three weeks. For your more technical checks, you should take your leased car to a garage.

This should be done every twelve months if you don’t drive often to every six months if you travel a lot. The garage will make sure your lights, brakes, steering and tyres are all working as they should. If you are ever nervous or worried about your lease car having a problem, we always recommend you consult a garage to double-check.

What Type of Regular Maintenance Should I Be Doing?

To avoid the possible end-of-lease charges, keeping on top of your car and repairing any damage when it occurs is essential. Below are some of our helpful tips:

Clean your car every three to four weeks.
Check the paint and bodywork for any significant dents, scratches or chips.

Inspecting the windscreen for any cracks, holes or chips (after cleaning your car).
Keep your wiper fluid topped up and don’t let it run dry.
Run your finger along your windscreen wipers to check the surface for any damage.

Ensure the inside of your car is kept tidy and fresh: remove rubbish, vacuum carpeted surfaces, wipe down hard surfaces and clean the windows.
There shouldn’t be any rips, tears or burns in any material nor any noticeable stains or odours.

Check your engine oil levels – it is essential to check them when the car has been parked for a couple of hours to avoid dealing with hot oil.
Inspect each of your headlights to ensure the bulbs are still working and replace them where necessary.

Ensure all tyres are inflated to the correct PSI recommended by the manufacturer.
Measure all tyre tread depths to make sure they are more than 1.6mm which is the minimum legal depth in the UK.

Any Questions?

If you have any more questions about caring for your lease car, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us! You can send us a message on our live chat service, email us at enquiries@willowleasing.com or call us on 0345 350 3776.