I currently have a 2022 Honda HRV-EX with about 15.6k miles on it and the lease concluding end of the year. I like this car for the fact that it is pretty compact (for ease of parking/driving in city), has heated seats, and most importantly has a side view camera when switching lanes.
I’m deciding between purchasing the car at its residual of ~$17k or leasing another car with similar features. Ideally I’d like to keep the payment under my current payment of $370/mo and $3k signing. One car that caught my eye was the Hyundai Ioniq 5 Limited trim.
Based on my reading of the forums, I understand that I have the option of “selling” my car to a Honda affiliated dealership and pocket the positive equity. I’ve yet to solicit offers but KBB values the car at around $22k. While the car has low mileage, it does has some wear and tear on the driver’s side. There’s two dents larger than 5" and some mild curb rash.
Given this, I have a few questions:
Is it better to get the dents and rim damage fixed before turning the car in or is the valuation of the car good enough that the dealer would “overlook” it
While I have some small issues with the car, I would not mind continuing to drive it for the foreseeable future. That said, would it be better to buy out the car or lease a newer car with the same feature set
The Ioniq 5’s exterior length and width and turning radius are all significantly larger than is the HR-V. If maneuverability is one of the things you like most about your car, you may not find the Ioniq 5 to share that quality.
Are you asking which one would be the overall cheaper option?
Keep the Honda if low cost of ownership is important to you. It will keep its value much longer than the Ioniq. If you decide to return the Honda, you should fix the dents, otherwise the bill could be extensive. If the paint is still intact, you may be able to try paintless dent repair (PDR) at a reasonable cost, but 5" may be too big to fix by PDR.
If you go for the Ioniq, at the end of 3 years you own nothing. If you keep the Honda and finance the residual for 5 years, you definitely still have equity at the end of 3 years. In fact, you can get the Honda fixed and sell if for a profit at any point in the next 5 years.
I realize the wording makes my question a bit subjective. I suppose part of me would love to drive a newer car with nicer features. EV leases seem enticing because they seem to be for nicer cars but at a comparable monthly payment.
From a purely cost perspective it does sound like buying out the HRV would be best.
