2022 Niro EV lease buyout in CA, does Kia Finance negotiate?

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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I leased a '22 Niro EV thanks to an ad here on Leasehackr. Lease is ending at end of this month. Residual is ~$21,512. I’m still weighing my options (e.g. buying it out, buying a used '22 Niro EV (unlikely due to prices I’m seeing), buying some other EV used, leasing some other EV).

No, I cannot qualify for the $4K used EV tax credit due to income cap nor the $7500 new EV tax credit when buying a new EV. Yes, I know about the commercial lease loophole for the lender to get the $7500 on any EV, regardless of income, where it’s made, battery, minerals, etc.

Car’s is great shape and I’m not at all over my allowed miles. This is my 2nd lease ever. First was a Leaf long ago and I returned it at end of lease due to nutty high residual.

Does Kia Finance negotiate in the buyout price? Has anyone recently tried and succeeded? From digging around, it sounds like in the past, they didn’t or didn’t normally.

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No. You can ask but the answer is probably no.

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I tried asking today over the phone. Answer was no. Oh well. Had to try.

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For that money you can have an equinox EV lease maybe for another 100 months.
Just look here

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Interesting (not sure which specific lease you’re pointing to) but no thanks. No CarPlay is a deal breaker. '24 is first model year and first model year of any vehicle, esp. GM isn’t a great idea.

I doubt one could keep extending a lease that long either. AFAIK, it’s uncommon for leases to run much longer than 36 months. Haven’t ever heard of an 8+ year lease on a consumer automobile.

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I was not clear enough with my approach.
My point is that if you make so little miles there in no financial sense to buy a car and especially EV.
Look at marketplace for other deals on different cars. I see some great delas on ID4. No need to go with Equinox.
Btw. EQUINOX EV has build in google map.

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I know about the ID.4 S deal ($149/mo for 24 months + $999 DAS before tax and license). I dropped by a VW dealer over the weekend to get some numbers and use the infotainment system and controls. It is NOT a car I will buy at the end for sure (poor reliability) and I really do not like the controls (I wrote about it elsewhere). There are no knobs for HVAC nor stereo, no hardware buttons anywhere, just capacitive “buttons”, including on the steering wheel and lack of shortcuts to get back to even CarPlay.

No CarPlay on GM EVs is a dealbreaker. Google Maps does NOT help w/my use cases. On CarPlay, most of the time, I have Waze up. For navigation, I actually prefer Apple Maps for its UI and pinging my Apple Watch for upcoming turns. I use Google Maps when driving the least, by a long shot. Yes, I know Google owns Waze. I’ve also heard complaints about the no CarPlay GM EVs infotainment systems booting slowly, so when you want directions, you have to wait for it to boot. I have other music-related CarPlay use cases.

As for other deals, the cheap EV leases are mainly because of the commercial lease EV loophole, so that $7500 tax credit the lender gets can be passed to the lessee. I suspect Trump + the GOP will kill that as they didn’t like it anyway.

So, if I lease any car that I don’t intend to buy at the end of lease, I will be stuck looking for another car and cheap EV leases will be gone. I also can’t qualify for the new nor used Federal EV tax credits due to income cap and those will probably be killed too.

Also, no on Teslas for me (long story). I have been monitoring automaker advertised EV leases on HyunKias, Honda Prologue, Fiat 500e, BZ4X and Solterra. But again, there’s the same issue w/all the above. Maybe I could lease a loaded enough EV6 or Ioniq 5 (not going to buy a stripped down one, if I own, there are certain features available that I want) that I purchase at end, but that’s not cheap at all. The rest I listed I wouldn’t buy at end of lease.

If I didn’t think the commercial EV lease loophole would go away, I’d be inclined to jump on the ID.4 lease deal and then lease the next EV after that, etc.

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YMMV, but one dealer told me that the Hyundai/Genesis/Kia family does lease buyouts.

I have a similar residual for this same vehicle, but I was told that the market value for my vehicle is lower than my residual. Has that been your experience? I maintained an immaculate vehicle, so my residual is around 22K.

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As for market value, I’ve already tried shopping around on places like cars.com for '22 Niro EV EX (my trim level) with similar mileage and not in black (I don’t buy black cars). A lot of dealers are shady and the price they list is after deducting the $4K used EV tax credit which I can’t qualify for (I’m way over the income cap). It may say that in the seller’s notes and/or in their pics. So, I have to add back $4K to the listed prices.

So, after adding back the $4K, it’s beyond my residual. Makes no sense to buy a random used '22 Niro EV for more $ where I don’t know how it’s been treated and if it’s not CPO, gets the shorter 5 year/60K mile powertrain warranty. If you are the first owner or buy out your car at end of lease, you retain the longer 10 year/100K mile powertrain warranty. I know how I treated my car and the battery + know it’s not been in any accidents.

I tried a few other used car listing sites and they have the same issue. Some are listings are ambiguous, forcing you to check the dealer’s web site (where it may still be unclear). Also, I’ve seen some dealers list a lowball price and force you to pay for another $2Kish of crap fees (not talking about license and tax).

So, from that, Kia Finance set the residual about right.

Not sure what you mean by “one dealer told me that the Hyundai/Genesis/Kia family does lease buyouts.” My choices are to return at end of lease, buy out the car for the residual + tax + purchase option fee or buy/lease something else. And, there’s this benefit (common industry practice):
"Do you offer any benefits for returning customers?

As a reward for your loyalty, when you lease or finance a new Kia vehicle with Kia Finance America within 60 days of returning your lease, your vehicle Turn-in Fee will be covered up to $400. As an additional benefit of your Loyalty Reward, any Excess Wear and Use charges will also be covered up to $500. That’s a total reward of up to $900!" from Kia Finance America. Nissan’s NMAC does something similar.

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A nicely discounted Io5 + all the lease cash = makes for a way more attractive immediate buyout than a 22 Niro at $21k.

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I can’t speak to “nicely discounted” but the current lease deal for '24 Ioniq 5 SE Standard Range is $159/mo + $3999 DAS for 24 months, not including tax and license. From terms:“Option to purchase at lease end for offer shown at residual value of $22,893 plus a $300 purchase option fee”. If I did the math right, total outlay not including tax and license is $30,849.

But, I wouldn’t want to buy it because I would have regrets about owning a car where the 360 degree cameras were available but I passed on it. I had three previous cars ('13 Leafs and '19 Bolt) with that feature (n/a on '22 Niro EV) and loved it.

Looks like I would need to go all the way to the Limited trim. Hyundai calls it
Surround View Monitor (SVM). Limited is advertised at $299/mo for 24 mo + $3999 DAS. Then “Option to purchase at lease end for offer shown at residual value of $31,290 plus a $300 purchase option fee”. That comes out to $42,765 before tax and license.

Yes, I know the Ioniq 5 DC FCs WAY faster and has a bunch of features n/a on '22 Niro EV.

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I meant that I was told by a Genesis dealer that Kia leases can be bought by either Kia, Hyundai or Genesis. Some companies don’t allow lease buyouts, and Kia is one of those unless you talk with someone from either Kia, Hyundai, or Genesis.

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nina-drives: I don’t understand the purpose of that. Maybe it helps for your situation (?) but I don’t see what that does for me.

Why would I do that? Why would I involve a dealer in buying my car at end of lease? It’s not required in California but is apparently required in a handful of states (possibly by state laws).

For CA and most US states, if I wish to buy my car at end of lease, I simply send the funds to Kia Finance and make a check payable to HCA Exchange, Inc. In digging earlier, HCA refers to https://www.hyundaicapitalamerica.com/.

Options are listed at bottom of Kia Finance America.

At Kia Finance America, Leasing & Lease-End:
" Lease-End Buyout Checklist

If you reside in a state that requires a seller to have a motor vehicle dealer license to sell used vehicles (CO, DC, FL, HI, IN, PA, SC, or SD)- do not send us the purchase fund. You must purchase the vehicle from the dealer or from another authorized dealer selected by the assignee. You may purchase the leased vehicle only through any authorized Kia dealer. The dealer cannot increase the sale price above the purchase option price and should not charge additional fees if you have your own financing. If you are financing through the dealer, there may be extra fees/costs associated with the new financing…"

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And the market knows that too, so an obsolete used Niro is going to continue depreciating on a much steeper curve than ICE vehicles. Look at what obsolete used Nissan Leafs are going for these days.

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Some companies don’t allow third-party buyouts.

If a dealer group has a Kia, Hyundai, or Genesis within their group, I think they can still buyout your lease, even if you go to their Nissan dealership, for instance.

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Well that’s the entire point of this forum. Check Signed Deals & Tips and Marketplace on pre-incentive discounts.

Hypothetically a $50k MSRP car with $4k discount and $15k lease cash can be bought immediately after leasing it for $31k plus acq, DMV and tax.

There’s a reason no one on the forum is discussing advertisements. They are useless.

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max_g: I’ve browsed some of Topics tagged hyundai, if you have a good example of a recent Ioniq 5 Limited RWD lease that will work for California, I’m all ears. I am NOT in Colorado (crazy CO resident incentives there) and likely cannot get conquest cash since I’m leasing a Kia not a competitor of HyunKia. There are no other cars in my household.

My parents don’t live w/me (so different address) have a very old 06 Toyota and 07 Nissan, so that may not help either.

(I’m in Nor Cal but willing to fly to So Cal (if needed) to pickup and drive it home. I did that w/my '22 Niro EV lease via an auto broker I found thru this site. If it’s outside CA, then it depends on how far and shipping costs would probably need to be factored in…)

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MSRP is $53,500 on Ioniq 5 RWD Limited per https://www.hyundainews.com/assets/documents/original/60125-2024MYIONIQ5PriceSheetJun132024.pdf. There’s also “Freight charges of $1,395 will be added to the dealer invoice and Monroney label on all models.”

Cheapest I see on Hyundai’s inventory page within 250 miles of me is $55,085 where the freight was actually $1,375 and the car came with $210 carpeted floor mats (maybe because dealer ordered that way or Hyundai forces it when they order).

Not totally. They give you an idea what lease or purchase offers the automaker/financing arm is offering now. They give you an end date (but it’s unknown what they will offer next). The lease offers also give you the residual value on a given vehicle and trim level.

And, you can also change zip codes to see understand if they are regional and whether they can apply to you/some place you can go to or are a resident of. Some deals are only valid for those residing in certain states whereas others are valid if you go that state but don’t live there. Some deals also vary depending on the zip code (e.g. more for one region of CA than another).

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So what are you after here? You started off asking in Kia negotiates buy out prices. Answer you quickly found out is NO. You are obviously very ‘frugal’ given your list of previous vehicles, yet you have income. You must have CarPlay and a 360 degree camera. There are many vehicles that meet those requirements. Go spend some money and buy or lease a nice vehicle and just enjoy it. It is really not as complicated a thought process as you are making it.

How about a nice BMW i4?

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Wtmeyer: Fair questions. Got my answer on Kia Finance negotiation on buyouts: no.

Agree on thread drift b/c the “problem” (?) is that others have been steering me in other directions (not buying out my '22 Niro EV), which I’m exploring some of. Some make no sense for my situation.

I’m not interested in leasing another EV that I don’t plan to buy out at the end due to commercial lease EV loophole likely being dead at end of lease due to incoming administration and GOP.

So, to lease an EV that I would buy at end pushes up requirements (e.g. 360 degree cameras) and thus price.

Max_g seems to be pushing hypotheticals w/numbers that are slightly off and it’s unclear whether such deals can be had given how financing and automaker deals come, go and vary. I finally had some time to browse the two places he mentioned.

BMW wasn’t in the picture due to price and normally, their reliability, esp. after warranty expiration is questionable in addition to high maintenance costs. I am surprised upon checking Consumer Reports that i4 has had a good reliability record (!), so far But, I’m skeptical (in the longer term) given what I just mentioned besides i4 being quite a bit more than I’d want to spend.

I am running out of time. Kia does permit lease extensions up to 6 months but that seems like a bad idea if I end up returning the car as I’d need to pay CA another $571 for a year’s registration that they will not refund any unused part of and they don’t allow non-commercial vehicles to renew for <1 year at a time.