it's predictability. You pay fixed (known in advance) cost and even if the bottom falls out from under Tesla prices or the car turns out to be bad quality and you are not the type to lie to people about it having no problems at sale time - you still return the car at the end of the term and are on your merry way. That was a big factor in why I chose to lease, anyway.
OP, did you ever figure this out? I just got a bill for almost $5k for a lease I turned in October. Also saying I had a ~$3800 balance (all 36 payments paid per my bank and my tesla account) as well as $1000 for wear and tear on the wheels and a $500 disposition fee (which I shouldnt have had, because I traded in for a model 3.) My wheels had just under 11k miles on them - I switched them out a year in with Arachnids and then I plopped the old ones back on. They said they were <4/32 based on my pictures. They rely 100% on the pictures of your self inspection for tread depth. They didn't measure the tread at the service center or anything. I feel totally ripped off. They said the termination fee doesn't make sense, but they still haven't removed it! I have to call them back for a 3rd time tomorrow
4/32, measured via penny apparently. Although they just told me over the phone its the service center discretion. They did not measure my tires, they just put new ones on for some reason and that's enough for leasing to charge me the full $1k for new tires to replace ones with 11k miles on them. It could have been uneven wear, etc. I won't know exactly what the problem is, because they didn't document it. As for the termination balance, they said its because they never received the odometer disclosure from the service center and the service center didn't report the return until 3 days after end of grace period, even though I returned it 5 days prior. It should be $0, but they are working on it. They removed the disposition fee, you shouldn't be charged a disposition fee if you did a trade in for a new lease. Lesson: be prepared to buy a whole new set of tires when you lease return your tesla
I only replaced the front (And they did need replacement). I also retained all the pictures with thread depth measuring and such (that I also uploaded in the self-return process). Got no hassle on that front.
leasing is almost always a financial loss over buy and sell. The only case most people come out ahead is if the value at trade in is a lot under the lease residual. For Teslas that isn’t normally the case. Selling private party won’t get you mysterious wear and tear charges...
A lot of people lease high-end cars and trucks through the businesses they own. That makes it a deductible expense to the business. For businesses that purchase, an X at over 6,000 lbs GVW, means they can take the deduction in one year.
The only lease I've ever had was with MBenz and they told me I could pull up with bald tires and they didn't care. I had allowance of a credit card size scratches / dings too. Never had any issues returning my lease there... shocking (or not really) that Tesla is this strict with leases since most people dont give two poops about what happens to their lease since they know it will be returned. Keep us posted because this is very interesting.. i'd have a heart attack if i received a 10k bill.
MB is unusual in this. I have leased many BMWs and they are strict. They have a sheet that shows minimums tread depths, max size for any paint scratches, max size of windshield pits, max wear on seats and carpet, etc. They usually send you a bill a lot sooner than the OP. Usually in 10 days or less or sometimes even at turn in.
The lack of organization and coordination between the different Tesla organizations is amazing. I am going to buy a tread depth gauge and use that to take pictures in addition to the penny. Keep us posted. Tesla had favorable lease terms back in the day (pre-2018), so you could come out ahead (vs financing or even paying cash) by a significant amount. I am about $20k ahead (vs if I paid cash) based on recent Vroom appraisal. This will probably grow as we get closer to the March Model X refresh.
FWIW, here are the base guidelines Tesla used to evaluate excessive wear and use on a lease return. It is pretty specific on sizes of mark, tire wear, etc. There may be other metrics also.
Update in case someone runs across it - The reason I had such a high bill was because the service center screwed up and reported the return date 3 days after I actually returned it - this resulted in a $3k charge. I had to call 4 times and wrote 5 emails before that went away. The first communication I had was "yea, thats a mistake, let me file a ticket to get rid of it" but it took 3 followups and 4 more phone calls to have it actually removed. As for the tires - still working on it. Finance told me the pictures I sent them showed not enough tread. When I asked for the pictures, they said sure, but never ended up sending them. Unfortunately, I don't have those pictures, but I remember very clearly that the car had plenty of tread left (above lincoln's head) They said if I can prove that the original wheels were installed had <10k miles on them, they may consider removing the wear and tear charge. I sent them my entire trip history from teslafi, the invoices from tesla service, and payment receipts from my credit card... but then they said they need an actual receipt - which I don't have. I can probably get that on the Tesla app, but I dont have the car on my account anymore so all that service history went away.. I talked to someone in service who told me I needed to talk to sales to get that, and the sales rep said he will follow up and he did that by emailing the service center. lol I don't really want to blindly pay $1k for the tires when I know they were just fine and that the whole process was tainted already with the bad $3k charge already. If anyone knows someone at Tesla FInance that can help me investigate, please DM me