I am near the end of my 13 month Ioniq 5 lease. I leased it in SoCal but have moved to NorCal since. When I called dealers around me to return, all of them are saying “lot full” and can’t take it. I called HMF for help and they basically said there is nothing they can do. Even though the literature says I can return the car to any dealership, only the one that leased me the car is obligated to take it back.
My registration expires on Sunday so I am hoping to get this taken care of this week. I don’t want to drive 400 miles to return the car. Has anyone experienced this situation before and can share some advice?
this is likely because of all the ultra cheap leases Hyundai put out last year on their EVs. There are thousands of Ioniqs out there getting dumped off at local dealerships who did not lease them out, and I don’t think dealerships have any incentives to take them back.
I did that - just showed up and they rejected me, told me I should have called first (I scheduled an appt on the website, so I did not “call”) and asked me to call other dealerships nearby with bigger lots. Tried a couple more and got same excuse - no room on the lot.
About $200. So yes it doesn’t cost a lot. But it’s the time and hassle and also not anticipating that this will be a thing, that I have to scramble to get this done last minute.
It will be a last resort plan to take a day off work to drive this thing back to Orange County and fly back. Really hoping I don’t have to do that.
Just take it there, take the plates off, leave the keys at the receptionist, call Hyundai and let them know the car is there. No chance I’m doing all of this to return a car. Obviously I’d have a pre-inspection if I was taking this kind of action. Get a video of the mileage when leaving too.
This is pretty remarkable that Hyundai dealers are refusing lease turn ins.
ETA: and obviously this creates an awful experience for potential customers, I find it hard to believe corporate is cool with this, I’d never get another car from them again if they pulled this.
Different brand, similar situation from someone I know.
They showed up with the car, called the OEM. Had them hold and asked for the GM at the dealership. Asked the GM to talk to the OEM on speaker on why they couldnt take it and asked the OEM what they wanted to do.
Why would they want to? Takes up space. This customer is not helping the bottom line of the store. If you liked your original dealer enough to buy the car, feel free to take it back to them?
Which dealer did you lease it from? I heard Lithia bought out the Garden Grove, Anaheim and HB Hyundai dealers and now they won’t take back the returns, even if you got it from them originally.
I suppose they are not incentivized to take in any lease return vehicles. Regardless, that is not my problem, because they clearly advertise that the car can be returned to any dealership. If it’s that much of a problem, they can easily have made it mandatory to return to original dealership. Or charge a fee, whatever.
Called Corporate. They transferred me to a team within HMF called Lease-End Servicing Team (855-463-5378). I gave the service agents all the details, she went away for a few minutes and told me her manager will be reaching out to the dealership closest to me and discuss with their business manager, and she will call me back tomorrow to give me an update.
She also explained that they are well aware of this issue happening in California, and I was already her 3rd or 4th case in the past month.
She also mentioned something about change of ownership being the cause of this. I leased from HB, but I am trying to return it in NorCal. B
So will update you all again tomorrow when I get the call back.
I returned mine to San Bruno Hyundai this past Saturday and they took it without problems. I did call ahead but the whole thing took less than 10 mins for me.
To be fair, unless the dealer and bank make it very clear upfront and it’s written in the contract, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a leasee to assume that they could return the car to any dealership w/i a 50-mi radius.
OP doesn’t seem like they’re trying to pull a fast one or do something weird; they seem to just want to fulfill their contractual obligation in a relatively convenient manner.
