How can you lease and do performance upgrades?

[McDeLtA_T]

Hey guys. This is going to be my first brand new car and was wondering if anyone knows ways to lease and upgrade the FRS with performance parts without breaking the lease contract. Ideas legal and sneaky are welcome. Also, do you think lease options are okay with TRD stuff?

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[TyperRspec789]

I believe you can have a leased modified car by having everything factory-installed or dealer-installed.. So the car can only have what they already put in it. That's my guess anyway.

[McDeLtA_T]

I guess I cold just do bolt ons then take em off for servicing.. thoughts on that?

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[shishand]

intake or similar bolt ons, simply just remove it before servicing. Exhuast should be fine

Pretty much turn it in stock when the lease is over, or if you plan on buying the car after the lease then by all means go turbo it or something

[Calidrifter]

You'll have to go TRD. Unfortunately anything else will be will probably a violation of your contract.

I feel a lot of guys leasing would have benefited from this:

http://www.toyota.com/financial/buy-or-lease/quiz.html

[RandomFRSguy]

Pretty sure it doesn't matter what you do to it as long as you have it completely stock when you turn it in at the end of your lease. I'd read your lease agreement if thats what your doing.

[Grishbok]

A leased car is NOT your car. Legally, you can not modify the car. You can however, mod the car all you want as long as you return it to stock before the final inspection and returning it to the dealer. Just make absolutely sure you keep your stock parts, and don't modify it in a way that is irreversible.

[Miniata]

Mod the car with (relatively) easily removeable bolt-ons. Don't take it back to the dealer for service, do the oil changes, etc yourself. If you don't buy the car at lease end, return the car to stock and sell off the mods. I don't see any issues with it.

[tdoggy57]

Will the dealership really have an issue if you bring it in for services with mods?

Im modding mine, and plan on buying it after the lease is up. Im keeping all of my original parts just in case, but I was still going to take it in for the oil changes.

[Grishbok]

Originally Posted by tdoggy57

Will the dealership really have an issue if you bring it in for services with mods?

Im modding mine, and plan on buying it after the lease is up. Im keeping all of my original parts just in case, but I was still going to take it in for the oil changes.

it wont be an issue, but if it is extensively modded, they will make note of it in the system should anything relevant to the mods go wrong.

[CaptainSlow]

You can do whatever you want, but you'll either have to return the car to stock before turning it in or buy the car after your term is up. Also might want to read the fine print of the lease agreement, because I'm pretty sure that anything major will violate it. The whole point of a lease (from a dealer's perspective) is they get to have a car that they can sell in 2-3 years down the line in a generally good condition. If they find out you're tinkering with the engine, there might be some kind of penalty at the end (not sure...just speculating).

[gily25]

Originally Posted by tdoggy57

Will the dealership really have an issue if you bring it in for services with mods?

Im modding mine, and plan on buying it after the lease is up. Im keeping all of my original parts just in case, but I was still going to take it in for the oil changes.

It's all going to depend on the dealership honestly...some technicians will do the oil change and ignore any other parts, other dealerships require the tech to note aftermarket parts (buy or lease) as they appear. It's one of the reasons these "service included" for 24 months make me leery, it's just a reason to get in the engine bay and snoop. You might be able to gauge the shop by the kinds of vehicles parked in the employee area (if there are modified cars, tech probably respects proper mods, will defend they didn't cause problems).

Just like negotiating the price for sale, when you bring the car back for the lease turn in you are going to negotiate any damage, service visits (they usually want you to service with a dealer), etc. Think of it as you would negotiating a trade-in on a new car.

Whichever way you go I wouldn't bother trading in/turning in a 2-3 year old car with mods, it'd be a better choice to take them off and sell them used, since most dealers will usually strip it anyhow and you're not going to get extra cash for them.

[jadewbj]

You can 100% do it, I have many friends who have done it. As others have said you must keep all the stock parts and return it in stock form.

As long as you don't do anything crazy most dealers won't report anything during service.

Whatever you do do not return it with mods on it, you will not just get no money for them they will actually consider it damage and take money away.

If the value of the car with the mods is more than your payout you can always buy out your lease and then sell the car.

[Tt3Sheppard]

Is it really ever worth it to lease a car? Lower monthly payment?