any lease return experience with Mazda in Canada?

Hi

I am thinking about taking over smb's lease
for Mazda MPV . There is 15 months left,
and I don't know yet whether I want to
return the car at the end or I would buy it out.
Just wanted to ask if anybody
had an experience returning Mazda after lease.
One of my collegues had really bad experience
with that.
Delership charged him $250 disposition fee
and after the inspection provided him a list
of things to be fixed roughly for $2500.
He ended up eventually with buying the car.
I didn't see in what condition his car was
and therefore whether it was justified or not,
just know that his tires did not match the
original ones (the afterinspection bill was
not for tires only of course)
I am just trying to understand whether it is
a general trend with Mazda or Mazda Canada or
maybe the dealership where he was doing that
just try to rip him off

Thanks
ED
P.S. could you please cc your reply to ?

wrote:

> I am just trying to understand whether it is
> a general trend with Mazda or Mazda Canada or
> maybe the dealership where he was doing that
> just try to rip him off

My observation is that leases are rarely a good
deal for the consumer, that they're inherently
expensive. The consumer pays a lot of money in
order to have somewhat reduced cashflow. Basically,
a lease results in the consumer paying the depreciation
on the car and then giving the car back. The lease
contract will do everything it can to maximize the
obligation of the consumer.

Lease contracts can be quite restrictive; that fine-
print is not there to protect the consumer. Take the
time to re-read the fine-print *now* and make sure
you do whatever you can to avoid obligating yourself
to the dealer at the termination of the lease.

Further, make an itemized list of the items that you're
obligated to pay to the dealer at termination and refuse
to pay anything you're not obligated to pay.

I do not know the specifics of how one appeals the
judgement of a dealer with respect to condition of the
vehicle at the termination of the lease. It's quite
possible that the fine-print in the lease contract
already spells out a process which contains no appeal.

Good luck.

>
> Thanks
> ED
> P.S. could you please cc your reply to ?
>