I posted my bad dealer experience, now for the GOOD! A lot of people have written nice things about i25 Kia in Longmont, CO, and I'm here to add to them. We had gotten the runaround on buying a Telluride for MSRP closer to home, so after it fell through I decided I really liked that weird Wolf Gray SXP and wanted one (although I still would gladly take Everlasting Silver or Gravity Gray). I searched the forum and other places for the good dealers, and made my very nice husband who indulges me call around. We got a few bites, but the first big bite we got was from i25 Kia. I am in Florida, so buying from Colorado still sounds insane in my mind, but it's what we did. i25 Kia said they had a Wolf Gray SXP already coming in that I believe they were going to keep as a program car or someone backed out of getting it, but anyway, i25 would sell to me for MSRP, and it was slated to come in by April 8 or so. (This was end of February.) This was a real Telluride at MSRP two-ish months away, so we jumped. We reserved it in late February. It arrived at the dealership on March 22, ahead of schedule, and once we got paperwork done it was picked up by the transporter this past Tuesday, March 30. I wasn't crazy about the transport process, because you get so little information, but I'll be darned if the transporter didn't call me last night, Thursday, April 1, to say he was about to drop off my car. Two days from Colorado to me in Florida, which impressed the heck out of me.
The salesperson we dealt with was Brandon Paluszak, and he is awesome (if you're reading, you're awesome, Brandon, bless you, thank you, may all the good things in life happen for you!) So the deal: they charge a refundable $500 fee to reserve, they do charge a dealer fee (like $700 I think?), and I had to pay shipping ($1500). I still made out ahead of the bad dealership I dealt with and its stupid markup. And i25 was great to work with--super, super responsive, transparent, just great. I realize there were potentially other dealerships I could've dealt with closer to me in Florida, but I'm happy with what we did.
How did you find out all the details/dates you included in your signature (KFOS date, VIN creation date, etc.)? Did your salesperson at I25 update you with that info? Also, I noticed you made your deposit less than two months before your anticipated ETA. Is this ETA earlier than you expected? I was told it would be 3-4 months, but I'm hoping it might come earlier. I'm ready for that same Colorado-So Cal road trip!
by @flyckfly, @jdrummer are in same KFOS group, confirmed with @StephenCantrelle on order/VIN. I do think the switch over to 2022 is going to come into play as July approaches. Think they are pushing to get as many 2021s out.
