Dare I say, Sam is not leasing the car, you are. Its your decision surely? If they are a good friend/carer surely they would want you to be as comfortable and psin free as possible?
Sounds like its played out similar to our situation 6 years ago. Shame about losing the grand, but i guess sometimes we learn hard lessons.
What I didn’t appreciate was that you could take the car out on delivery to the dealership, and still reject it if not happy with the choice. Good to know.
Best of luck with finding a replacement.