Friend of mine who works at a KIA store sent me this. Seems that KIA wants to force brokers out of the game and heavily penalizing dealers who are involved. Will other manufacturers follow suit?
6 Likes
Doubt it will change much. Hard to enforce speaking from another brand and no dealer is going to self report broker sales if that drives their business.
4 Likes
kia corporate is aware of the terrible reputation their dealership network has and their first thought is “what if we could make it worse?”
34 Likes
Toyota makes the dealers report broker sales. They can get some serious fines if they don’t. They call people after the sale and ask them how they found the dealership etc if they’re out of region. Multiple of my dealers got warnings when they didn’t list “broker assisted” on the paperwork.
1 Like
Meant to reply that to your comment above
Exactly.
Corporate: “We need to find a way to move less units and have more unhappy customers, so get rid of the brokers.”
Yes but TMNA didn’t say, in essence, “get rid of the brokers” as part of those requirements. Kia seems to be doing just that with those over the top corporate regs.
1 Like
Broker deals ineligible for all incentives is quite a mood 
8 Likes
I’m wondering if they’re doing this all the sudden bc of all the press delivrd is getting….interesting timing if not.
I’ve also seen a bunch of pop up brokerages on Facebook lately which also seems to be a result of his new fame
7 Likes
5 Likes
I wonder if this is actually referring to a different broker model similar to wholesale / fleet, where the broker is buying the vehicle… versus what we see commonly here on LH (broker assisted but transaction always happening between dealer <> end consumer)
4 Likes
Why would they care though?
It mostly just has to do with how much attention Delivrd is getting
6 Likes
Taking money out of dealers mouths.
1 Like
I think some brokers also incorrectly use corporate trademarks and often are presented as affiliated with the brands they’re brokering. At least this broker knows it’s clients well. They put Volvo and Genesis in between Bugatti and Rolls Royce. It’s like they’re catering to LH!
4 Likes
LOL this is funny bc:
- I doubt they will actually find a way to enforce this? Dealers can continue broker sales and report it as though the sales manager (or just some random junior sales associate) made the sales.
- Let’s say they even figure out a way to enforce this - their dealer network sucks ASS. Nothing is stopping customers from walking across the door to Honda/Acura if they have a poor dealer experience, and likewise, nothing is stopping customers from working with brokers for other brands that offer competitive leases.
tl;dr: for a brand that makes excellent cars, this will only prevent Kia from moving units lmao. This has to be the dumbest decision any brand can make.
says 80/10/10:
WSJ on Delivered / CSI scores on broker deals / small # of states 
reminding dealers what they are(n’t) allowed do w/r/t broker deals
2 Likes
https://x.com/GuyDealership/status/2041974294054342898?s=20
”• Sales only count as “retail” if there’s a true end consumer at the time of sale.
• That means vehicles sold for resale, rental, or future use generally don’t qualify.
Toyota says rental or dealer-use units must be placed into legitimate use immediately.
And then stay in that use for a meaningful period (e.g., ~120 days)”
So they are also trying to stop a loaner/demo loophole too?
Toyota does “surveys” and have called my customers after they purchased. If the customer says they used a broker and the dealer didn’t mark it as broker assisted they get in trouble.
1 Like
I don’t think there really is a big loaner/demo Toyota market.
What dealers do is mark them sold before the allocation cutoff so they can get more allocations. Then they hope they sell them by the end of the month so they don’t have to go back and put the car into inventory. I think that’s what Toyota is tryin to prevent there
Toyota doesn’t love brokers but they def allow them. However they will vet them and give the dealers a really hard time if they work with brokers and don’t disclose it. My dealers have had many issue. Toyota went so far as asking me to submit my tax returns which I don’t even think they can ask for legally, my business license should have been enough. But they froze my dealers financing for a couple days so I just complied. This was years ago…
Their biggest issue is they don’t like dealers selling out of region. That’s the customers they always “survey” and try make sure the dealers are compliant with labeling them brokered
1 Like