Matrix lease: Turn-in or Keep??

I've got a 2007 Toyota Matrix XR w/ 49K miles that is IMO excellent condition. The only problem is back when the car had 12K mi my wife got into an accident and there was frame damage. The car was repaired by the insurance and since then we have had no problems. Rides nice and looks good as well.
Her lease is up in May and the payoff is $8,000. Not sure if we will get charged because the vehicle was in an accident or get charged for minor dings.
I'm leaning toward keeping it because for the price we will not be able to find a reliable vehicle in this good of condition.
Any experiences w/ lease turn in's? You guys think it's worth keeping?

Looks just like this w/ black tint.

 

If you both like it, then buy it. You'd be hard pressed to find a replacement for the buy-out.

 

If you cant find another vehicle you like for the price then buy it. As far as getting charged for things unless its excessive wear and tear or you're over your mileage you won't get charged anything. If you read the contract they may claim they're going to charge you if they have to remove tint or something like that however the only car I ever leased I returned with tint and they never said anything. It should say somewhere what they consider normal wear from driving the car vs excessive stuff. Sounds like yours just has the normal battle scars of the car being a DD.

 

Keep it, you know the history of the car.

 

My wife doesn't like the idea of keeping it because of the accident. She is worried about trying to sell it in the future.

 

let me chime in on this. i can at least speak to the longterm reliability if thats a concern. I work for a hospital courier system and we have several toyota matrix vehicles 2008-2010 models and one of them has 221,ooo miles and others have over 150K miles and none of them have ever had a major repair issue whatsoever. we drive them hard and put on about 5K miles a month. I was shocked at how well these vehicles have held up.

but if you like the car, and it is holding up well for you, i would keep it as well. there's no guarantee even if you buy another car that hasnt been "wrecked" that you won't encounter other problems with it. my .02. good luck

 

decide now if you are looking for a reliable daily driver or an investment for the future. cars are depreciating assets. if it rides good now after the repair, it's going to drive just as well into the future. it was obviously fixed right since you've had no problems since. personally i'd rather drive a vehicle who's service history i knew vs. one i did not know, accident or no accident. will it be worth less in the future because of the repaired frame damage? probably. but if you drive it/keep it until it hits 150K, the difference is going to be peanuts anyway. if you are just going to keep it for only a year and get something else in a relatively short period of time, then yeah, maybe i'd give it back and look for something else.

 

Aside from the whole accident thing its worth more than 8K so i would say just buy it.....

 

Thanks for the boost of confidence in the car.

Service history.......all we did was change oil/filter and air filter regularly. Never followed the actual recommended service by owners manual. But will definitely take it in for the 50K service if we keep it.

Yeah, thanks.