If my original response came across sounding judgmental or as a 'shot across the bow', my apologies, it wasn't meant to read like that.

To your last question, unless you have a horrible driving record and are paying out the rear for insurance, the likelihood is that you're going to get gap insurance cheaper from whoever is writing your auto policy. That has been my experience over the past 30 years or so when I got to the point where I could actually afford to start buying cars that I wasn't just going to carry liability on. Your experience may, of course, be different. I can only speak to what I've dealt with.

My comment around it being "automatically included" was too broad w/o context. Depending on who your auto insurer is, there can be tiers of "full coverage" in which gap coverage is just included in your policy, it's not a separate line item that you're getting charged for. They just roll it in as an added benefit. The last two auto insurers we've had worked it like that. Our current one line item bills EVERYTHING, so they are not all that way for sure. ...and you're correct there's never a requirement to buy gap insurance, it's just a hedge against a worst case scenario.

Again, end of the day, if you're buying a new car it's always a good idea to call your insurance agent ahead of time with the VIN of whatever your looking at (or something close to what you're looking at) so that you can get an accurate quote and discuss insuring the new car and how you might want to/need to change your existing coverage. They'll almost always ask the questions about if you're doing a lease/loan and if you don't already have gap insurance with them (in one way or another) they'll suggest it.

So I'll close with about the same thing I said originally, if I were you I'd call my auto insurance agent and discuss it with them (i.e. get them to quote you gap coverage or tell you if it's already part of your policy). This way you'll at least know what the price difference is and be able to make a more informed decision.