End of lease experience with X5

[zcpierre]

I'm considering leasing my 2014 X5, but I have never leased before. I won't get any tax breaks from the lease, so if I chose to do it, it would be simply to save money in the short run and get a new car after 3 yrs.
I am curious what your end of lease experiences have been like?
I know that it depends on the wear and tear of the individual car, but generally speaking, do most of you have to pay money at lease end or are the dents and dings overlooked and you simply drop the car off and go???
I mostly drive to and from work and I have a 4yo daughter who occasionally makes a mess that I have to clean up, but that's about it.
It seems like a lot of people lease BMWs, so I really want to hear about your overall experiences.

[BMWMN1971]

I have been leasing X5 since 2005 and just ordered my 4th one. In my case leasing has been the best option since the X5 is my wife's car used to take the kids to school and go to her work. I drive the car on weekends. Thus, we can manage around 12k miles per year and every 3 years we get a new car. BMW is in my opinion the best option for leasing. I tried to move to Mercedes, Porsche, Range Rover but there is no way to beat the value of the BMW leasing. First, the car offers almost everything we need as standard and we only add few items to make it a little nicer. At the end, the price is always within our budget and leasing options the same. All other manufactures have terrible leasing options where a car with the same MSRP as the X5 will cost way more monthly. Also, the X5 won't cost you a penny in maintenance during the years you lease.

Regarding returning the car at the end of the lease I have never had any problems. They will inspect the car and check for dents and dings as well as the tire conditions. In the last 2 X5 I returned I had nothing to pay. In the current one that I will return in one month (once my new 2014 arrives) I hope things will go smooth again. However, at this time I had to purchase 4 new tires to replace the ones I had and I will basically return the car with brand new tires. It was the first time I had Bridgestone instead of Michelin and they were terrible. It cost me $1500 to get 4 new tires. Also, this time I will have to pay for extra mileage since I went over the 10K/year that I leased. If you pay before you return the car it will cost 0.16 cents/mile instead of 0.20 at the time of return. I never had issues with dings and dents. BMW sends you a template couple months before the lease ends and you can see if you have any dents or dings that are bigger than the template. If you do, it will cost you money to repair. If the damages are within the limits of the template it will be fine. I also have 2 kids and I try to keep the car very clean so I have no issues when returning. In sum, I never treat the car as a leasing. I treat as it was my car so I take very good care of it.

I highly recommend leasing from BMW.