Magnus357

My lease on my '14 991S is wrapping up at the end of this month.

It was a two year lease at 12k/yr miles. I currently have about 22k on the clock and will finish close to the total miles on my lease.

I live in Houston and the car was daily driven. It was a commuter, going out car, and general run around vehicle. I give that back ground so others can understand the use and approximate wear of the car.

The condition of the car would be Good out of a Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor scale. About the only condition issue I would say the car has is rock chips. Many very small and one "big", per the gauge, on the bumper and one "big" on the hood. The "big" ones was "fixed" by a Doctor Rockchip kit. You can't see the base metal/plastic anymore, but it's there. I would need to do many more coats to get them level. There is also curb rash on one side on the bottom of the bumper from enter/exiting a steep drive (and likely from my wife, but we won't go there). It can't be seen without laying on the ground. The interior of the car is in great condition. I don't really eat or drink in the car and live in a mild climate so no real wear would occur. I will say that the ventilated seats, which are awesome in Houston, will not wear will over the miles. I already started to see what I would consider accelerated leather wearing due to the perforations.

About 90 days before you turn in date, Porsche ships you a booklet and a gauging card about the inspection process. See the attached photos.

Then about 60 days before the end of your lease, a third party company contacts you for the inspection. They're a little tricky to deal with as they ask a **** load of questions that you must answer every time you talk to them!. They only book in 4 hour windows, but will come to your work. I elected to have my inspection about 30 days before the end of the lease.

The inspector came to my office. You can't do the inspection in a parking garage unless its on the roof, which was a bit difficult as it was sprinkling that day on and off, but worked okay as my office garage is pretty empty. I've worked at other offices where it would have been tough to get an open spot for pictures.

The inspection takes about an hour, but is really pretty worthless. The gauging card sent to be was not used at all. The inspector verified miles and the functionality of all car features, i.e. all the radio modes, seat actuators, mirror actuators, blinkers. It was weird. This car has two years and another 20k+ miles of warranty. If any of that crap was broken, Porsche would have to fix it anyway.

Then he took detailed pictures of the car interior and exterior although I would say more interior photos where taken. He was very interested in the backseat, which is crazy because in a 911, it's not used much.

The inspector told me that Porsche is hardcore about two things: wheel condition and tires. The inspection booklet says that 4/32nds are needed at turn in. Not written anywhere but definitely required is that the tires meet the summer tire specification the car was sold with, which I believe is an N. They record the DOT number from the tire which I thought was weird as that's just a date code. The inspector says that Porsche's repair rates for wheels are nuts and you should have them fixed by a repair company before the inspection. After the inspection Porsche seems to indicate the only way to get credit for repairs is if it's done by Porsche themselves.

He checks the "spare" and tire tools. Make sure the can of fix a flat is there. Weirdly, he didn't look for the compressor. I'm sure that a "Porsche" compressor (it's super cheaply made) would cost a fortune to replace.

He checks for the manuals and two keys. They really want the maintenance book filled out, which for the two services I had done at Porsche, wasn't done. Which is bull****. He said that would be reported, but I don't see it on the report. I have the receipts and it was done by Porsche, so I'm not expecting issues here, but get the dealer to fill your book out.

Lastly he uses an ultrasonic paint depth gauge to verify that panels have not been repainted; however, the car is aluminum and it screwed with his gauge, he was telling me this, so the readings were "calibrated" off a measurement he took on the roof. The numbers recorded in the report mostly line up with what he was reading, but not totally. Weirdly, he doesn't look for VIN stamps on the panels. All dealers that buy cars always check that as it's a big deal to resell repaired late model luxury cars. Despite all this work on the paint and body side, the way Porsche leases are structured, as long as the repair meets Porsche requirements, your residual doesn't change. This is the primary reason I leased after a bad experience attempting to recover diminished value of another car.

At the end the inspector gave me a piece of paper with two numbers on it I could use to get the report for myself the next day. A redacted copy is attached. It say's I'm good to go with nothing owed. The $300 lease turn in fee is likely what pays for this inspection. I guess Porsche does another at turn in as there's nearly 30 days until my lease is up.

Hopefully that helps people. I had a somewhat hard time finding info on this process online and it was my first lease.

Overall the turn-in process has been pretty seamless thus far. I'll update once I turn the car over back to Porsche.

dflowerz

Very useful post. Thanks! Am planning to lease my 991.2 and will be my first lease so I have no idea about this stuff.

mikeearly

wow, way different than a lease I did on a car 15-20 years ago... closed end lease ... just dropped of the car with the keys and all they cared about was that I kept within the mileage agreement .... and that was about it ....of course it wasn't a high dollar Porsche but it wasn't a Toyota Carolla either...

DerekS

Sounds like a pretty good experience actually. Last time I attempted this I was scared off by the lease end booklet and fled to Carmax instead.

Magnus357

This is a closed in lease as well, which I believe all PFS leases are. It's just that Porsche positions themselves to be able to argue condition at return if the car is beat up.

I will say that I was surprised how little actual contractual language there in in the PFS lease documents. My wife is an attorney and she reviewed the document and was surprised as well. There's not even technically a requirement to have the car repair by Porsche or a Porsche authorized mechanic or body shop.

I will say that if you have a disagreement with Porsche, be prepared to engage a lawyer. The lack of specificity may make them bold, but they'll quickly back down once a simple letter of representation is sent. I'm sure of that.

Magnus357

What's crazy is that I can't get rid of the car. The best option is for me to throw them the keys.

A '14 991S with 24k miles is considered high mileage. All of the trade quotes I got were about 8-9k below the lease turn in value. Even considering sales tax savings on a trade in, 6.25% in Texas offset by the value of a trade, nothing made sense other than a turn in. Oh well. It was fun.

pavster

I generally don't like to lease due mainly to the inconvenience of a hard term - both time and mileage - but we did recently have to return a leased car, though not a P-car. The anticipation was much much scarier than the reality. My car in fact did have a pretty deep scratch across a rear door stretching to the rear quarter panel, probably 2 feet long, with some metal dented in. Was really nervous about it, even checked body shops for repair cost, and it would have been in the thousands if done independently.

The estimator guy came in, looked at it along with the rest of the car, and gave me a whopping total: $200 in damages.

Re: the wheels/tires on the P-car, obviously a very expensive item; I believe you can get wheel insurance when doing the lease, which would alleviate that source of stress.

Need4S

Very helpful info, thank you. As for exit scenarios, can you buy the car at the residual value? Would leasing it for another 2-3 years make sense? With so few terms in the lease itself, I agree that pushing back likely favors the consumer. As for mileage stress, that is one of the few terms that is clearly spelled out, and at $0.30/mile, it's not all that bad to exceed the mileage limit, I think. If you build more miles into the lease, it could well cost more than that, and if you don't use them, you are paying for nothing.

Chris C.

Not a bad process really, and consistent with other programs like BMW.

Funny about the service recorded in the books. Haven't seen a dealer do that in 15 years of Porsche ownership!

Unless it's grown over time, most dealers consider 6-9K miles as "normal" mileage per year. They will just send everything else to auction where this time of year prices are likely lower than others.

991carreradriver

I prematurely terminated the lease on my last car in a one year pull ahead program. I paid nothing. Strangely, I thought for sure I was buying one back P-Zero. Truthfully, my car was in very good shape. I guess as long as you take delivery on a new car, they leave you alone.

In addition, Porsche reimbursed me for 100% of my last lease payment because my new car came in earlier than expected from the Port and I made the payment seven days prior. It took about 7 weeks and had to be approved by the re-marketing department. I thought that was very fair and it bought a lot of goodwill in my book.

shaytun

Did you have any wheel damage? Small scrapes? Only curious as to what Porsche considers as needing repair.

johnireland

It feels like we are entering the rent and recycle phase of the car industry. And with prices so high, to purchase a car is a bad "investment." Better to give the lap dancer fifty bucks than find a girl who is worth taking to dinner and maybe more.

Magnus357

I had zero damage to the wheels. Houston isn't a parallel parking city, so wheel damage for me isn't a thing.

If you have any damage what so ever, I would just have them repaired. For wheels without any polished sections, they can do them on the car. The mobile guy comes out and it's like $80 a wheel. It's perfect when they finish.

I had a Mercedes wheel that the body shop had to repair after a wreck (insurance wouldn't replace it). It was painted and polished. Had to come off the car, but when they were done it was perfect.

From what the inspector told me, if you have any wheel damage what so ever, get it fixed before the inspection.

Magnus357

I could buy the car at the residual, but retail prices for '14 991S with the mileage I have are all over the map. Some for sale for thousands cheaper some for more.

PFS won't re-lease the car. You'd have to go through a third party for that and I want nothing to do with that.

I'm an oil industry guy, so I'm downsizing all my expenses now. I may not be employed by the end of next year, so my next purchase will be a used relatively inexpensive car. Gotta get ready for hard times.

mdkrp

I turned in a 2 yr lease on 991 S Cab last year and the process was painless.
Was just below miles with no major dings. Just minor road rash but rear tires were worn down.
Inspector was nice enough guy but said he had to report the XS wear tread.
Got the report next day via email and when PFS summary came in, they charged me $300 for each of the rear tires.
I called and spoke with the PFS rep and asked for them to waive the $600 as I was in good standing and going into a new lease for a Macan and they waived it. Lease end fee also waived because of the new lease.
I also found that the residual of the car at the end was higher than what the market rate was so it did not make any sense for me to buy it out.