Turning in a lease - buyout offers, extensions?

BigEdgar · Feb 22, 2018

Hi everyone,

My lease is up towards the end of the Summer. At this point I'm interested in keeping my car, but like most leases the residual doesn't make sense given the market value of the vehicle. For those that are (or already have) turned in their lease, I'd be interested in hearing your experience on the following:

1. Was Kia offering any discounts to purchase the car off lease? Or was it just the residual? Also, do you negotiate with the dealer for the buyout, or with Kia financing?

2. Were there any offers to extend your lease? If so, was it just to extend at your current payment, or did you have an opportunity to re-negotiate the monthly payment?

Thanks for any thoughts!

SmoothJ · Feb 22, 2018

I can't really say anything about 1, but for 2 I have some input. KMF really holds their contract to the letter, and your chance in getting some sort of extension is slim. I tried to extended my other KMF lease, and was told no - several time by different reps.

BigEdgar · Feb 23, 2018

Thanks - that's interesting. Nissan has been pretty liberal about extending the Leaf leases. But I suppose at the end of the day the finances for these companies are so complex what makes sense to us as consumers doesn't necessarily make sense to their finances.

edman98 · Jun 19, 2018

Hey BigEdgar

I'm in the same boat. Lease due in August. Love the car would like to buy outright but now after 3 years, ~40k miles, max range has degraded to about 50mi on a full charge (which we charge everynight)

Kia service says there is nothing that can be done, so now will likely turn in.

GizmoEV · Jul 18, 2018

I traded in our 2016 EV+ with 14 months left on the lease for a 2018 EV+ and they just rolled the difference in buyout price and trade in value into the new lease.

eageracorn · Jul 22, 2018

Just curious - what were the residuals on the older Soul EVs? I just leased a 2018 EV+ with Sun and Fun, and the residual is only $12,995

BigEdgar · Aug 26, 2018

Posting back - I purchased my car off lease and there were no deals. I just had to pay the residual straight up. My lease deal was struck 3 years ago and the residual was around $17k for fun & sun package, so they've definitely come down a bunch since 2015.

looey · Sep 27, 2018

Ah, I'm in the same boat at the end of October. I signed a 3 year lease, and the residual is ~$16,250. I was going to inquire about extending month to month, but perhaps I shouldn't get my hopes up.