Your turn-in date is the deadline. The inspection is the test.
Somebody you have never met is going to walk your car with a light and write down what they find. You can meet them with the panels already right, or you can let them decide what it costs. That is the whole decision, and it is easier to make early than the week it is due.
Not a scare line, just how the arrangement works. Hand the car back with damage on it and a third party inspects, prices and bills it, at their rate, on their schedule, with no input from you. Handle it beforehand and you choose the technician, the standard and the day. Same money leaving your account either way. Completely different amount of control over it.
We are not going to tell you what your lessor will charge, because we do not know and neither does anybody else quoting you a number for it. Every agreement writes its own definition of normal wear, and most measure it at inspection with a gauge. Go and read that section of your contract. It is the only document that decides this, and it takes five minutes.
They will not walk your car in the sun. They will walk it under a light, and a straight line bends over anything the metal is still holding.
On a car you are keeping, a body shop repair is a decision about your own vehicle. On a car you are handing back, it is a different question entirely. A refinished panel stays refinished. An inspector with a paint gauge reads it, and it lands on the vehicle history where the next owner sees it, along with anyone deciding what the car is worth.
Paintless repair adds nothing. No filler, no primer, no colour, no blend into the panels beside it. The metal goes back to where it started and the finish is the one the factory put on. There is nothing to find and nothing to disclose, which is exactly the position you want to be in at a turn-in.
When the paint is genuinely broken, that is body shop work and we will say so from the photos rather than after we have your car. The full list of when we send you elsewhere is here.
Twenty minutes with your own car tells you what you are dealing with, and it is the same method the inspection uses.
There is a longer walkthrough, including what a repair that stopped early looks like, on how to look at a finished repair. Send us what you find and Myke reads every set himself.
Sort them into three piles under that light before you decide anything. It takes another ten minutes and it is the whole decision.
A fingernail catches instead of gliding. This is a different job to the other two and usually the most involved, so price it first and separately. It is body shop or paint work, not paintless, and we will tell you that from the photo rather than take it on.
Paint intact, but the straight line in the panel kinks as it crosses. Assume these get found. The inspector is using the same light and the same angle you just used, and this is the pile paintless repair exists for.
Your fingertips find something the reflection does not. These are the genuine judgement calls, and this is exactly where your own agreement decides rather than us. Measure them against the written standard in your contract.
Pile 2 is the one that matters. Pile 1 needs a different trade. Pile 3 is a conversation with your contract. Nobody needs to fix all five to be finished, and any shop telling you otherwise has not looked at the car.
On cost, so you are not left guessing: a straightforward door ding starts at $197 to $250, and it moves with how sharp the damage is, where it sits on the panel, what is behind it, and whether the metal is aluminum or steel. Several dings on one car is one appointment, not several. The number moves with each panel, the trip does not. The full ranges are here.
Drag the handle. Same panel, same light, nothing added to the car and nothing sprayed.
Most lease dings are same day work once we are scheduled. What runs out is not capacity, it is your runway. Booking with room to spare is what keeps the options open: mobile at your home or office instead of a shop visit, a choice of days, and space to move if the photos show something that belongs in Escondido.
Leave it to the final week and the calendar makes the decision for you, which is the one situation where people end up taking whoever can fit them in. That is how a lease car ends up with a repair nobody would have chosen.
Estimates run days and evenings, well past shop hours, because they are done from photos. Anything sent too late for the same evening is answered by 8:30am the next business day. The Escondido shop is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:00pm, with Saturday by appointment.
Usually yes, and the reason is not the repair, it is who decides. Return the car with the damage and a third party inspects it, prices it, and bills you at their rate with no say from you. Handle it first and you choose the technician, the standard and the timing. Your lease agreement defines what counts as chargeable, so read that section before you decide anything.
It depends entirely on your lessor and what your contract calls normal wear. Most agreements have a written standard, often measured with a physical gauge at inspection, and the inspector applies it with a light on the panel. The honest answer is that we cannot tell you what they will charge, and anybody who quotes you a number for that is guessing. What we can tell you is what the panel looks like before they see it.
For a dent with the paint intact, yes, and for a reason specific to lease return. Paintless repair adds nothing to the car, so there is no refinished panel for an inspector to find with a paint gauge and nothing to appear on the vehicle history. A body shop repair is the correct answer for broken paint, but it leaves a refinished panel on a car you are handing back.
Earlier than feels necessary. Most lease dings are same day work once we are scheduled, but the constraint is never the repair, it is the calendar. Booking with room means you keep the choice of mobile at your home or office versus the Escondido shop, and it leaves space if the photos show something that needs the shop. Send photos as soon as you know your date.
Not in bright sun, which washes reflections out and hides them. Use garage lighting, shop lights, or the long strip lights over a parking lot. Crouch until your eye is level with the panel and look along it rather than at it, both directions, watching for a straight reflected line bending as it crosses. That is the same method the inspector uses, and there is a full walkthrough on our page about what a finished repair should look like.
Yes, across San Diego County and the south end of Orange County. Most lease prep is done at your home or office. Larger or more involved damage routes to the Escondido shop, and we tell you which one your panel needs from the photos, before anything is booked.
Straight on and at 45 degrees, under a garage light rather than in the sun. Myke reads every set himself and tells you what it is, including when it is not our job.
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Send two or three photos from different angles and Myke gets your preliminary estimate moving.