I recently, about 2 months ago, leased my kia stinger gt. 435$/month, RWD, with Drivewise. Seemed like a good deal until I talked to my uncle who sells insurance. He told me I could have saved another 20 to 30 dollars per month (his guess at what kia is charging for gap insurance) if I bought gap insurance through my auto insurer, which is usually around 5-10 dollars per month. I was told by my uncle that I should have bought my own and asked for the "included" gap insurance to be taken out of my lease.
Has anyone done this before? Is the kia lease gap insurance truely free and not increasing my monthly payment? I'm inclined (and a bit cynical) to believe my uncle that the gap insurance I bought through kia is super marked up and the cost is hidden in the lease. If we can get an answer, this may provide a good warning to prospective buyers and potentially save a small bit of cash.
GAP insurance is included at no cost in all lease vehicle contracts EXCEPT Toyota. Toyota does not include it but charges $20/month extra on your payment. Other manufacturers include it with the deal. There is no way to take it out.
That said, here's another thing for you to consider about your uncle and his recommendation....
Think about what GAP insurance is for. It's there to pay the remaining money that YOU owe and your car's value won't cover. So, as an example, you have a balance of $38,000 on a car that is valued at $34,000. You will STILL OWE $4,000 on the old car that is now totaled and gone. Suck's to have to pay that but it happens every single day. GAP insurance pays that balance for you.
Now, what if you wreck your car and the damage is say $18,000. That's a LOT of damage to a vehicle! More than 50% of the $34,000 value of your car, actually. So, normally the insurance company would total the car because of the diminished value and the severity of the repair possibly compromising the integrity of the vehicle.
BUT, when you get GAP from your insurance company, they now become the one that has to pay for your $4,000 shortfall. Does your insurance company want to pay $4,000 out of their pocket for you??? NO WAY! Instead, the insurance company decides to repair your car instead of totaling the vehicle so that they're not paying off your loan. Now YOU are driving a vehicle that they wouldn't total, that has a HUGE accident in it's history, and that has lost lots of resale value because the damage will be disclosed by law. All because of the conflict of interest in buying GAP from the same company that SHOULD be totaling your car...
Just food for thought...
