lbradshaw27 Anonymous

My daughter thought she bought a car at this dealership over a month ago. However, she never received her license tags and started getting calls about a late payment on the car she traded in. This week she went to the dealership to pick up license tags and learned that they had not been able to secure financing for her. They wanted the Kia back and gave her a loaner - a piece of junk is more like it - stating that the car she traded in (a Neon) had been taken to another lot and they would have to go get it. The next day, her Neon was still not at the dealership. My husband then got involved. After several phone calls with the sales rep and finance manager, he finally told them that if they did not get her Neon at the dealership by noon the following day, he would be up there with an attorney. Miraculously, it showed up at the dealer a couple of hours later. We would have still been waiting if my husband hadn't happened to drive by the dealership and see her Neon sitting there.

Why was it so hard to get back from the "other lot"? Because it wasn't actually at another lot - it had already been "sold" to another individual. The dealership had to call that person and make them return it. My daughter and husband went to the dealership last night and got her Neon back (now all of a sudden, they could find financing for her). They took the Neon down the street and she bought a new Jetta for $100/month less than the Optima she thought she had bought 40 days earlier.

This whole thing is incredible. Kia's motto is "The Power to Surprise". I am surprised all right. Shocked is more like it. It seems to me that this practice borders on fraud. Is this Kia's standard operating procedure or is the problem dealer-specific? Either way, this is not the way to build a solid reputation. By the way, the general manager at the VW dealership where we were treated honestly and professionally told my husband that we were not the first people to come in to their VW dealership with a story like that about the Kia dealer down the street - and that our story wasn't even the worst they had heard.

I deal with a lot of people on a daily basis and you can bet that I will be spreading the news about where NOT to buy a car.

10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )