So one of the cars I’m looking at happens to include a Kia and out of maybe 6 dealers contacted and several back and forth exchanges not a single one has gotten back to me with ANY sort of pricing, current rebates, etc. All use the exact same form email. None seem to know anything about the cars they’re selling or what they actually have, and from what I can tell none of their internet sales guys are older than maybe 22. One of the girls at the places I contacted actually has a goddamn snapchat dog filter picture of her in her goddamn email signature, which is a form email list, sent out EVERY DAY. Honestly the whole thing’s put me off from even considering one of their cars.
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Hahah If you’re on this forum, you can get way better car than a kia.
It will be interesting to see the shenanigans that go on when the Stinger hits dealerships. Finally Kia has an interesting car and all these new customers will get to experience it
They’re definitely down there, but I find the CJDR dealers are even worse. Never had a worse experience then when I go to one of their dealers. The Stinger won’t change the dealers either. That’ll take time. They already have the Cadenza and K900 which were supposed to change dealers as well. You’ll still get a shitty experience with their nicer cars, just a better value.
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So what do I get? Not a fan of the E class or S-90. Too shiny and ostentatious. The GLA and even GLC are too small for me (I literally don’t fit) not to mention the bewildering array of options. Not really a fan of infiniti or lexus. Stelvio and XC60 lease horribly. There’s really honestly not many cars I actually want to lease but I need something.
I think it was actually a CJDR dealer that sold my info because soon after my visit I started getting nonstop random telemarketing calls. Never giving my real number again after that.
What is the list of cars you’re looking at
My experience with most Kia dealers in NC has been similar, apart from Battleground Kia. However, I god a great experience working with Hyman Bros Kia in Midlothian, VA. Not sure what your location is but you might want to check them out.
As far as e-mailing dealerships go, Your experience seems consistent with pretty much every dealership I’ve ever contacted. It goes against the dealer’s whole selling strategy to give you any info over email. They want you to come in so they can waste a whole day of your time and get the most amount of money out of you. I spent a day and a half at a Kia dealership when we got my wife’s KIA Soul (before discovering this amazing site). Her KIA Soul is garbage, makes a lot of squeaking sounds and the car even drove one time without the key! Also extremely underpowered. I’m looking forward to giving the car back next month. It’s possible the other KIAs are better, but for the price we paid we could’ve gotten a much nicer car (if only we knew).
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BMW 540i? BMW is usually more lease friendly then most of their competitors. Last December I got a factory demo 2016 550i M Sport for $577/mo., zero down.
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Did you check if you had fed the Soul Hamsters? They squeak if you don’t let them out periodically…
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hahahaha… I should’ve seen that coming! 
Nicely played 
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I was starting to look into the 328i 328d and 340i sedans or wagon versions, maybe as a demo, or even CPO If they’re reasonably reliable. Not sure I want to go above $400 and especially $500 even on a super nice car unless it’s a Maserati or something I can put on Turo to offset it.
That’s the thing, I really don’t have the time to deal with all this. I have maybe a few hours a week to look at cars. Standard response is “When can you come in?” -uhh I live in LA and you’re in OC so I guess once we have a signed deal nobody nearby can match and I’m picking up the car, otherwise I’m not wasting an entire day sitting in traffic and/or a car dealership with probably nothing to show for it but a headache. The most time I want to spend in any dealership is like an hour tops.
I’d think internet sales would realize this is the way of the future and streamline things as much as possible. Shit like this is exactly why it’s been 10 years since I’ve even looked at cars.
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Volvo XC60/90 - leases horribly
Volvo V60 country - not as bad but still high
Alfa Stelvio - slightly better lease but still bad, also possibly not reliable??
VW new Tiguan - good lease but definitely just basic and not luxury and engine feels wheezy
Kia Niro - great mpg, nicer than vw? Dealers have been horrible so far
Ruled out so far:
VW atlas - great leases but too damn big
Infiti QX30/mercedes GLA - too small I don’t really fit
Mercedes GLC - not really crazy about it for how much they want
yea, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Dealerships know exactly what they’re doing. Their games annoy the crap out of everyone, but their data says that it works more times than not, so they continue to play the games. The best I can suggest is show up at the dealership 45 minutes before they close. They want to get out of there just as much as you do, so from my limited experience, they’ll be more likely to cut out the games. Get all the numbers you can, get an idea of what sales price you’re willing to settle for, and lay it out for them. If they say no, see what they offer and walk. At that point you may be able to call some dealerships and do a little negotiation over the phone. As I’ve said in other threads, I’d say out of 10 emails, I get about 2 responses that aren’t “come in and we’ll take care of you” and then out of those 2 I get 1 telling me my numbers are crazy and 1 that is nicely laid out but still outrageously high. Others on this forum seem to have better luck, but I guess I’m not so lucky.
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We all have the system for buying cars that we all (collectively) vote for every time we do business with the game players. We must want it bad cause we keep coming back.
The way I look at it is you can only easily get 1 or 2 of the three options below:
- Outstandingly low price
- Convenience
- Straight-Deal
Which one of those things are most important to you. You won’t (ever) get all three.
Dealers have to be ultra aggressive and get you to buy right then on the spot. I think it’s some crazy statistics that say if you leave there’s a ~80% chance they will get you back in.
Best experience I ever had buying a car was over the phone 150 miles away. Told them what I was getting locally and they called back 15 min later and beat the deal and told me they’d deliver me the car. Guy showed up the next day, I signed paperwork in a whole foods cafe and had my car.
I tried buying a Genesis last month and had one of the worst experiences. There was an issue with brake rotors and they said they would only resurface not replace them on a new G80. The GM said to “how can you expect perfect engineering from anything, even NASA gets it wrong and space shuttles blow up”. I wish I was joking or even exaggerating but he had the audacity to use the deaths of astronauts as a comparison to why the brake rotors were warped. Nearly lost my shit and walked out. So I’m now left still grinding away to replace all 3 of our cars instead of 2 now.
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•Outstandingly low price - not the car I want
•Convenience - not the option I want
•Straight-Deal - not the color I want
Story of my life…
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