Writing about that Hyundai got me into dealership hell

I leased a CRV this week. Not trying to open the lease vs buy can of worms so let's set that aside. 
Same dealer jerk around. I knew exactly what I wanted, down to a list of stock numbers that I was willing to consider, told them the terms I wanted; lease length, miles, down payment.  I inquired with 5 dealers on 4 different car types. 2 dealers pretended to not understand and wanted me to come in, I told them I wasn't coming in give me a price and I will consider, 1 gave me a berkeley off price ($717 / month for a RAV 4), 1 no answer for a week, which was after I already picked up my new car from the dealer that actually gave a reasonable quote. 
I probably could have got it a little cheaper if I tried really hard but what's it gonna be $10/month cheaper? It wasn't worth the $360 In aggravation. So 1 out of 5 dealers actually tried to sell me a car, I spent less than 30 minutes there and drove away in my new car, I'm sure they are making money on me 3 different ways but they broke my balls the least. Buying a car sucks, used cars too. The only way buying a car doesn't suck for me is if I know the person I am buying from and it was theirs. 

Tom1200 said:

Peabody said:

It's a Hyundai. The fun's just starting.

If you think you hate the dealer now, wait till you own one.

We had our first Santa Fe for 14 years. All it ever needed was a starter and a minor AC repair. The service department was fine.

The dealer back then was locally owned. They were straightforward to deal with.

The same dealer is now part of a Mega-chain that owns every dealer Hyundai dealer in town. The experience was ok but not as good as when it was locally owned. Basically they acted like a dealer. To their credit they were no near as high pressure as the company dealership cross town.

I was sponsored by Hyundai in the 90's and all of my dealings were through a couple dealers, and they were great. The company and the dealerships were a lot smaller then. All the dealerships now are huge and the quality of personnel seems to be very low.

I bought a used car (our Odyssey) at a local Hyundai dealership.  10/10 would never use them again, but that's probably a better reflection of the dealership themselves, rather than all Hyundai dealerships. 

Oh, and should we have a "good dealers assist list", similar to the on the road assist list?

Things worked out

Holler Hyundai was great to deal with. A couple cursory upsell attempts but nothing too gratuitous. Their numbers on the contract matched my estimate within a couple dollars, save for one error I made in not realizing the rebate incentive was taxable, so kudos to them for being square shooters.

Good news!

While we were walking the dog late this afternoon, an Ioniq5 passed us.

JG and Dana just got one, I told my wife.

A few seconds later, I got a text: Hey, we just drove past you. 

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

This is a good idea.  I'm looking for a new/relatively new ride and I would love to give the business to someone who isn't going to waste my time.

I really dig that color. What's it called?

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

I really dig that color. What's it called?

Digital Teal. 

honestly we had no idea it had such a chameleon effect. We thought it was just a cool teal color. But it actually has a really neat color change effect from a deep, saturated aquamarine to a bright teal with almost none of the gaudy pearlescent rainbow effect of the old school chameleon paints. I dig it. Mostly, I'm just glad cars to see some cool cars are still available in colors besides silver, white and black.

So there really are people out there that decide they should get a car and 4-5 days later they buy it?  

I'm the "just under two years" decision guy. 

Datsun240ZGuy said:

So there really are people out there that decide they should get a car and 4-5 days later they buy it?  

I'm the "just under two years" decision guy. 

This one has been coming ever since we had one as a press loaner just a little over a year ago. We drove around in it and kind of thought 'wow this should probably be Dana's next car." Of course we did  alot of reverse analysis of her driving habits over the last several years to make sure it was a realistic option in a functional way, and it really seems like she's perfectly in the wheelhouse for the strengths of the car matching her driving patterns. The rest of it has mostly been a matter of waiting for the right time to pull the trigger.

Oh yeah it also came with two years of free charging at Electrify America, which would probably be more awesome if the EA chargers around here weren't always full of brodozers that wanted to park 20 steps closer to WalMart.

JG Pasterjak said:

Oh yeah it also came with two years of free charging at Electrify America, which would probably be more awesome if the EA chargers around here weren't always full of brodozers that wanted to park 20 steps closer to WalMart.

Congrats on your purchase. I like it a lot. I am on my third Hyundai/Kia product and have become a bit of a fan. You have to be willing to search dealerships like you did. I ended up buying through a dealer that was 50 miles away from me and it was very professional and fair. The local dealers were awful. Keep us updated on your experience with the vehicle, I am very interested in these.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I like it when good things happen to nice people, well done sir. Now that the car deal is done and dusted could you work a deal on a home charger lease or rental? They may have one laying around . 

Biggest downside to leasing, it guarantees you are dealing with another dealer in 2 years :-(.

TRoglodyte said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I like it when good things happen to nice people, well done sir. Now that the car deal is done and dusted could you work a deal on a home charger lease or rental? They may have one laying around . 

I have a $250 generic Amazon level 2 charger that I like a lot and has worked fine for every EV I've owned and every one the press fleets have dropped off for the last five years. It will charge at 32 amps and 7-7.25kw with no issues. The math shows it should add around 25 miles per hour to the Hyundai, but at some point I'll actually measure it.

We may upgrade it at some point if a good deal presents itself, but it's certainly not begging for an upgrade at this point.

Skimed the thread so far.  BUT I've been scowering the internet for a Elantra N stick and never can come up with much.  Always comes up a N-line.  

Skimmed the thread so far.  BUT I've been scouering the internet for a Elantra N stick and never can come up with much.  Always comes up a N-line. 

chief8one said:

Skimmed the thread so far.  BUT I've been scouering the internet for a Elantra N stick and never can come up with much.  Always comes up a N-line. 

I could be wrong but I don't think the 2024 Elantra N's have hit the showrooms yet. Not sure why. I can't find any and I can't find any reason why. 

chief8one said:

Skimmed the thread so far.  BUT I've been scouering the internet for a Elantra N stick and never can come up with much.  Always comes up a N-line. 

So, while we were waiting on some paperwork, the subject of Elantra Ns came up with our sales guy. (Side note: our sales guy drives a GR Corolla that he bought from George Bonafede. How's that for a thread callback?) Anyway, he said that their dealership has an allocation for a 2024 6-speed N that they;re hoping to see soon. On the downside, he also mentioned that the N stuff and the new Santa Fe were pretty much the only cars that still had ADM. I think he said +$2500 on the Elantra. Which kind of sucks, but it's better than the $10k being tacked on to Type Rs or the God knows how much being added to GRCs.

If you want his email let me know or send me a DM or something.

Olemiss540 said:

Biggest downside to leasing, it guarantees you are dealing with another dealer in 2 years :-(.

Yeah it was kind of nice being out of this ecosystem for eight years.

And while the conditions are fairly specific, I do see an argument for leasing at times, especially if the deal is solid. With EVs, the technology is changing fast enough and the depreciation curves are so unpredictable that making a 5-year+ commitment on a financed purchase could have you upside down or obsolete well within the life of your loan. 

There's also something to be said for spending money to improve your life. My wife suffers from a bit of highway anxiety, which is unfortunate since her daily commute 188 days of every school year is 20 miles each way on I-95. Driving something that she feels safe in and 100% confident with the reliability is worth something. Like I mentioned before, in a perfect world we'd all be driving paid for second-gen Priuses as our appliance-level rides, but the last thing I want is a call when I'm out of town saying that a check engine light or some other thing that 15 year old cars do has triggered a lack of confidence in her main source of transportation. I think it's completely okay to solve that problem with a portion of your paycheck.

Definitely. There's a lot to be said for One Good Car. It enables all the sketchy ones :) And congrats!

L2 chargers are all basically just passing 240v through if I understand it right, so I don't think you need anything special unless you need IoT stuff like scheduled charging. And 32A is just fine for overnight unless you own a Hummer. Faster wouldn't get you anything.

Just got the report from the first drive to work. Used 6% of the charge, which equates to roughly $.70 worth of electricity. That's vs. roughly $2.65 in gas for the same commute at today's local price of $3.59/gal.

Congrats on the new purchase! Happy to hear that you and Dana found one to your liking and that Holler treated you well. Funny to hear that your salesperson bought George's GR Corolla. He sold it not long after we bought our Ioniq6. My wife absolutely loves her car. Hopefully y'all do too!