my 02 is leased. i doubt i will buy it at the end. I am too lazy to read the lease agreement but i am wondering.

If i repainted the car another color, will I have to paint it back to black at the end of the lease? I was wondering since the car/paint will be in better condition than if i had just left the car black...

I mean, what if I replaced the stock tires w/ tires other than S-02's? Would they mind? If not, then why mind a color change?

Thoughts?? I'd love to paint it blue....

 

You can do everything but paint.
If leave holes you have to fix it.
Basically put it back to stock or buy it out.

 

You can do anything you want to the car if you use it as a trade on another and don't run the lease out and return it to Honda. They won't give a rat's a$$ since it then becomes a monetary transaction where the new dealership is paying off the lease residual (or balance of the car's worth).

 

I would be very careful about modifying a leased car. Aside from what the paperwork says, the end-of-lease inspections can be very subjective. If you get a bastard inspector, they might decide the non-OEM paintjob devalues the car.

As for tires, they are consumable so you should be ok as long as they are the correct size and ratio and have some tread on them.

Unless you are planning to buy out the car, return to them what they gave you.

-Dan

 

when I bought mine I considered leasing. I knew I would make changes to the car that I might not be able to cover up at the end of the lease (brake upgrades, intake ,after market body kit.....). Did you notice that on the end of the lease agreement that Honda will absorb up to $X.00. I can't remember the amount. This could be used up very quickly (door dings, paint chips they may even hit you up for new filters) once that margin is gone the money to bring the car back to it's original condition will come out of your pocket.

 

Do what ya want ....If ya make all your payments on time Honda will offer you a zero down loan at the end of the lease. Take them up on the offer and you can sell or trade in the car a week later. Or ya might wanna keep it if ya did a lot of mods.
If Honda dicontinues making the s2000 Your car will hold its value very well.

 

The "X.00" amount Honda will absorb is about $125, give or take a few bucks.

I've leased my fair share of cars in the past. Yes, you can get lucky. We had a tree branch put a rather big dent in the roof of a Civic. Honda was going to charge us but they got what they wanted for it at auction so they let us go.

On the other hand, my friend is getting dinged $200 for some scratches on his Integra. Both are commodity cars, both are going to auction. The difference is purely circumstance. One inspecter was nice, the other a stickler.

If you want to permenantly or semi-permenantly mod your car, you better b prepared to buy it. End of story.

-Dan

 

For 2002 s2000 Honda will absorb up to 1500 hundred dollars....But no one repair can be over 500 dollars. I have this in writing on my lease statement and in the lease package they sent me with a wear and tear indicator plastic think to measeure dents and tire wear. Up to four dings per panel before they charge ya and so one. The best lease for wear and tear is honda by far. Yes i said 1500 hundred. Not sure if this is the first year for this but its all in writing and every dealer was really making this point clear when i said i might lease.....1500 dollars is a lot of dings and windshield chips.

 

are you really comparing painting a car to switching out tires (which is common wear/tear on a vehicle)
lmao,
i just thought that was funny!
if you have the money to repaint, why not just buy the car?

 

Thanks for the info. I kinda figured I couldn't paint it. I didn't think about tires being a normally replaced item. Still, if someone replaced them with super-cheap tires and I was honda, I would be pissed~~~

as for the painting, it's very cheap to do since I know people. If I paint it I'd probably turbo charge it and go all out since it would be a company show car. But I can put everything back to stock EXCEPT the paint, which is why I asked. I guess I could paint it back, but the car would be so beautiful in blue! Maybe if I paint it I can get more for it and just sell it at the end of the lease??

Oh well. We'll see. Thanks for the input.