u/Dramatic-Spinach-106

So my lease expires Sep 17 and I’ve been hoping for an extension on the buyout offer. I called KIA finance today and they said that the offer is through dealerships, not them, and that it is at the discretion of each dealership. I’m pretty sure that is not the case - - has anyone’s dealership denied them if their car was eligible? She said they can extend it at their direction, and KIA finance was just acting as a marketer for the offer on behalf of dealerships. She kept saying it was individual dealer discretion. This doesn’t track with other reports here. Any insights?

I was just asked to attend a two day conference in Anchorage in mid-September. I called a friend and she is happy to join me. We have time to do a 2 night/3 full day trip before the conference, and we have up to 5 nights (4 is better) after the conference. I was thinking of taking the northbound train to Denali on day 1, spend the night in the park, day 2 in the park, night two in Takeetna, and day 3 doing the flightseeing trip and whatever else before heading back to Anchorage. The train will no longer be running after the conference. For phase 2, I was thinking we would get a transfer to Seward (train won’t be running anymore), hang around there day 1, do the cruise day 2, and then ?? for days three and four. Does that sounds reasonable for a last minute, time restricted September trip? Anything you would do instead? I am not an avid hiker, especially in grizzly country. I am mostly focused on wildlife and scenery, especially sea life. I was hoping to get some time on the ferries but it looks like that won’t work well with my interrupted schedule. And yea, I would rather do a longer trip completely before or after the conference, but we each have commitments back home that hem us in to this timeline. Also welcome day trip options for my friend for the 2 days I am at the conference.

I’ve searched on here for posts about buying after a lease and understand that in most cases the residual is higher than market. But for my GT Line in my area, the residual of $33.5k tracks at or slightly below dealership listed prices. I’m considering buying it, but I have reservations about committing to the technology longer term for that price. I’ve thought about going down a level or two in trim (still need AWD though, live in the northeast) and saving some money, but then I lose the longer warranty from being the original owner. I could lease again but I would really like to put roof racks on occasionally to carry my kayak and won’t do that on a leased car. I want to stick with a KIA EV because I have my house set up for backup power and not all EVs can do vehicle to load. I could get a good deal on a slightly used EV9, which would be better for carrying a kayak and other gear, but it feels like an awful lot of car for a single person and I would have the shorter drive train warranty. Also, I have the extended warranty for ICCU whereas newer models may still have issues without that warranty. What would you do?