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Went to a Kia dealer in San Jose to look at the 2023 EV6 in early February. It was getting great reviews in magazines like Car and Driver. Sales guy said they h

by raminf 4y ago

Went to a Kia dealer in San Jose to look at the 2023 EV6 in early February. It was getting great reviews in magazines like Car and Driver. Sales guy said they had only two of that configuration on the lot. Wouldn't let us sit in them or take them out for a test drive. Absolutely nuts. Walked away and went down the street. Every other dealer was more than happy to go on test drives, even when they had low inventory.

filoleg 4y ago
This feels like a common KIA dealership thing, which is a shame, because they are finally making somewhat interesting cars now. Around the time Kia Stinger GT came out and the hypetrain was pumping at the max (2017-2018), I heard plenty of stories of people being refused Stinger test drives at the dealerships. Most of them had a common theme of the potential buter not "looking right". I.e., too young or not looking like what the dealership employees imagine someone who could afford Kia Stinger would look. Often it was outright refusal, other times it was some bs made up reason, even though it was obvious the cars were used for test drives and were available. Conveniently enough for the dealership, just not for those specific customers. This is extremely ironic, because the more "premium" the car brand is, the better they treat you at the dealership, even if you clearly cannot afford it at the moment. Here is a personal anecdote. I went to a BMW dealership once (the most "premium" brand dealership I've ever went to by that point in time), because I was thinking of upgrading my decade+ old Camry. I didn't have money at the time to buy, but that was fine, because I had honestly no idea what car I wanted in any terms other than i wanted it to be "good" and "no larger than a Camry, preferably closer to being Honda Civic-sized". So I scheduled a bunch of test drives at different dealerships to try out a bunch of different cars and see it for myself. Plus, even if I had the money to buy at that time, I knew that a major redesign was coming for BMWs I was looking for in the next few years, and I was going to wait until then regardless. I didn't want to waste anyone's time, so I honestly told all of that to the salesman working with me at the dealership. The experience I got was great, even with all of that info in mind. No aggresive sales tactics, no "we might have a financing option that could work for you" insistence after being told "no" once, suggesting other fun cars to try ("since you aren't planning to buy now anyway, wanna try this cool i8? I know a street about a mile away that is a long stretch with no cameras or cops, and it is usually empty, so we can test out the car there for real."), and in general just providing great service all around (any inventory questions and delivery times were discussed in the most plain and no bs terms). I don't even like BMW cars, but this experience made me strongly consider one in the future and understand why some people swear by brands like Mercedes/Audi/BMW/Porsche/etc., despite some of their cars being pretty questionable and (arguably) not the best bang for the buck. Disclaimer: I've never owned and still don't own a car from any of the brands mentioned, and neither do I have any relationship with those companies outside of test driving a few of their cars.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  100% this. I bought a BMW EV partially because the dealer experience was so good. He was like, here's the demo car.. we have an inventory car on the way in 3 months or you can customer order with 6-9mo wait. Zero pressure. The guy was like hey here's the car.. let me run a copy of your ID, here's the keys to the car, take it for a spin and come back in 30min let me know what you think. This was at the same time other EV makers couldn't be bothered to keep a demo car on lot, or if they did wouldn't let you drive/touch/etc. Even let me come back with my wife and take if for an hour out on the highway, etc to test in more conditions.
rootusrootus 4y ago
This is one reason I ended up buying a second Tesla rather than an Ioniq 5. Hyundia/Kia dealers are accustomed to dealing with a particular kind of customer who seems more willing to take the abuse. It makes expensive Kia/Hyundai cars a tougher sell, because you are buying into a dealership experience that frequently sucks. Not just sales, but service down the road.

by raminf 4y ago

filoleg 4y ago

This feels like a common KIA dealership thing, which is a shame, because they are finally making somewhat interesting cars now. Around the time Kia Stinger GT came out and the hypetrain was pumping at the max (2017-2018), I heard plenty of stories of people being refused Stinger test drives at the dealerships. Most of them had a common theme of the potential buter not "looking right". I.e., too young or not looking like what the dealership employees imagine someone who could afford Kia Stinger would look. Often it was outright refusal, other times it was some bs made up reason, even though it was obvious the cars were used for test drives and were available. Conveniently enough for the dealership, just not for those specific customers. This is extremely ironic, because the more "premium" the car brand is, the better they treat you at the dealership, even if you clearly cannot afford it at the moment. Here is a personal anecdote. I went to a BMW dealership once (the most "premium" brand dealership I've ever went to by that point in time), because I was thinking of upgrading my decade+ old Camry. I didn't have money at the time to buy, but that was fine, because I had honestly no idea what car I wanted in any terms other than i wanted it to be "good" and "no larger than a Camry, preferably closer to being Honda Civic-sized". So I scheduled a bunch of test drives at different dealerships to try out a bunch of different cars and see it for myself. Plus, even if I had the money to buy at that time, I knew that a major redesign was coming for BMWs I was looking for in the next few years, and I was going to wait until then regardless. I didn't want to waste anyone's time, so I honestly told all of that to the salesman working with me at the dealership. The experience I got was great, even with all of that info in mind. No aggresive sales tactics, no "we might have a financing option that could work for you" insistence after being told "no" once, suggesting other fun cars to try ("since you aren't planning to buy now anyway, wanna try this cool i8? I know a street about a mile away that is a long stretch with no cameras or cops, and it is usually empty, so we can test out the car there for real."), and in general just providing great service all around (any inventory questions and delivery times were discussed in the most plain and no bs terms). I don't even like BMW cars, but this experience made me strongly consider one in the future and understand why some people swear by brands like Mercedes/Audi/BMW/Porsche/etc., despite some of their cars being pretty questionable and (arguably) not the best bang for the buck. Disclaimer: I've never owned and still don't own a car from any of the brands mentioned, and neither do I have any relationship with those companies outside of test driving a few of their cars.

steveBK123 4y ago
100% this. I bought a BMW EV partially because the dealer experience was so good. He was like, here's the demo car.. we have an inventory car on the way in 3 months or you can customer order with 6-9mo wait. Zero pressure. The guy was like hey here's the car.. let me run a copy of your ID, here's the keys to the car, take it for a spin and come back in 30min let me know what you think. This was at the same time other EV makers couldn't be bothered to keep a demo car on lot, or if they did wouldn't let you drive/touch/etc. Even let me come back with my wife and take if for an hour out on the highway, etc to test in more conditions.

rootusrootus 4y ago

This is one reason I ended up buying a second Tesla rather than an Ioniq 5. Hyundia/Kia dealers are accustomed to dealing with a particular kind of customer who seems more willing to take the abuse. It makes expensive Kia/Hyundai cars a tougher sell, because you are buying into a dealership experience that frequently sucks. Not just sales, but service down the road.