Kia dealers are horrible

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This is unacceptable. Admins, can you please take out the trash?

@max_g @Ursus @vhooloo

Knock it off with your inappropriate comments.

I am Shocked ! Shocked I tell you !

I would guess that almost everyone who posts here has run into a few of these types. I’m like an elephant in that I haven’t forgotten and it taints how I deal with others in the business.

I’ve sworn off Hyundai/Kia for the simple reason that their warranty is total junk and they’re not even good liars. This includes corporate, who literally told me to sue them.

I would lease one because once I get past the BS it’s a good value car, but will never again own - after having 3 of them. Learned my lesson.

It really depends on the dealer and the amount of competition in a given market. I leased a 2012 Kia Optima and it was by far the fastest and lowest pressure sales process I’ve ever been through. The guy that leased me the car was even named Brad “Pop” Corns - no joke.

what about their warranty?

I worked with some very sweet and genuinely caring people too, but then again, my Sales managers were whip cracking overlords who would push your morals to a breaking point trying to get you to sell cars to drunk and senile people. I learned to obscure the truth, deal with extreme confrontation, and stand up for myself in that job when I was younger. It’s a tough job for sure and there are a lot of great people there too. I don’t mean to pigeonhole every car salesman. It really helped me to learn about myself.

Still, I don’t like how sales jobs can twist good people into believing that they are blameless or not complicit in a problem. There are just a lot of customers who are trusting lambs, they are not stupid people, they are just good natured, and after years of salesmanship, even a good honest sales person will believe those lambs deserve the slaughter they always do get. That mentality is a reality of the world we live in, but it’s not the world I want to help shape.

It’s a reality of the business, but dealerships are sort of like a “hard hat area” masked to look like a playground.

Almost every dealership is horrible and full of you-know-what.

Everything they tell you is a lie. Every number they show you is crooked. Anytime you try and disprove their lies you’re overthinking it and talking yourself out of a good deal.

Only when you get up to leave do they suddenly realize a mistake was made. “Oops, sorry.” What a surprise another math error in favor of the dealership by thousands and thousands of dollars. How come the math error is never in the customers’ favor? Interesting.

Then as you keep getting up to leave and they keep correcting the numbers eventually you actually approach a fair value and they began insulting and condescending comments about how unfair you are and they need to make a living and stop wasting their time.

And then when you still threaten to leave the price suddenly drops again. And then you counter lower and after another 30 minute argument they agree to the number verbally, never on paper, so that hopefully time will pass and they can pull the “oh that price was only for that exact second of that day when I could hide how much I’m losing on this deal.”

And then the whole negotiation starts over again.

I can not stand shopping for a car.

Welcome to 2018 where ALL of this can be done via email, and you only step foot into a dealership to sign. Isn’t technology grand?

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their dealers are absolutely the worst. had all the numbers on paper and showed up and they still changed them on me. Then told me “security etching” was requirement to buy car.

total BS.

A minority of dealerships will do this online in my experience.

You tend to get the run around and you’ll still get all the wrong math when you press for details if you get them at all. Then comes the “when are you available to come in” mantra that will not go away and you either have to bite the bullet or move on.

My experience is the exact opposite. Of course, I’m interacting with Internet Sales Managers, not sales people. I email details in my correspondence up front, telling them the vehicle, trim, and options I want. I also target a selling price in that initial email. I CC 4-6 dealers on the email and say “I’m buying a car from one of you, best deal wins” and let them fight it out. Once the best sales price is negotiated, I inform them I want a lease, and the terms of the lease with expected MF (buy rate), expected RV, and my calculation on the monthly payment per the lease calculator.

My last vehicle I was within $1.00 of the lease payment… went to dealer, signed, and took the car.

People keep pushing this email thing. My experience in NY they will simply ignore you.

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yep, but be stubborn and reply that you live far away, cannot stop by for a quick chat and already test drove the car.

Agree…I’m 50/50 emailing the ISM, and if no response, GSM. Even if I get lucky half the time, I eventually get the “when are you stopping by…” spiel. Then, telling them I’m out of town usually nets 50% of the 50% that initially replied simply dropping off.

Love all the crazy dealer stories. Just to show it is not just Kai dealers back a couple of years ago we were looking to buy (purchase not lease) an Accord for my wife. Did the dealer email thing and was surprised that the closet dealer had the best offer. Great- I went down to finalize the deal.

As soon as I sit down they break out the old 4 square system and want to talk about payments. I tell them we already have an offer and that we want to buy it at that price. They refused to honor the price and proceeded to play games. I walked out and we ended up buying the car from the second lowest priced dealer. Still had to have the fight with the finance people about all the crap they wanted to add on but got the car at the quoted price.

5 boros + LI etc are just not competitive enough…in my experience one needs to have 100+ Mile radius

I been doing ok just pain as you waste a whole 2 days sometimes to get a respectable hacker deal.

woah, thats impressive and aggressive. I emailed about 10-12 dealers in the all of CA, but emailing them combined is really really … too much?

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