Bad Dealer Dealings - List Your Bad Dealer Experience

[Sunshine]

I am not sure how you can "agree" with both sides of the debate. I understand both sides of it. On one hand, I wouldn't give the dealer a penny when placing an order if I could get away with it...that certainly doesn't mean I can't afford the car. It's just I don't wanna part with my money until I absolutely have to. That being said, the most I've ever been asked to put down was $500 and I've ordered several cars. In those cases, it made a bit of sense because I ordered a car that was not available on any dealer the lots due to my unique color/option preferences. It may have been a bit risky for the dealer if I reneged on the order. In this case, as others have said, Tellurides are selling like hotcakes. As such, there is zero risk for the dealer since they could probably sell it within days if you pulled out of the deal (and probably for over MSRP) so why any money down let alone $2500? Regardless, if this is the only dealer selling for MSRP near you and the cost of the deal is a refundable $2500 down payment, I'd probably pony up the money. Interest rates are shit these days anyway so I don't know how that would break the budget more than paying over MSRP with another dealer that takes less of a down payment.

I was thinking the same, interest is next to nothing these days.

 

[MG535]

It may have been a bit risky for the dealer if I reneged on the order. In this case, as others have said, Tellurides are selling like hotcakes. As such, there is zero risk for the dealer since they could probably sell it within days if you pulled out of the deal (and probably for over MSRP) so why any money down let alone $2500?

Maybe there’s little to no risk as of today. But dealers have seen this cycle happen many times before: hot product sells above sticker… they can’t produce enough of them … until supply ramps up or demand falls due to something new on the market. Unpredictably supply > demand and then they are having to discount them.

Without any skin in the game me and tons of other people would order multiple units from multiple dealers. Neither the dealers nor the OEM want that.

 

[Flyerfan017]

I went to Weston Kia in Gresham, OR (close to Portland) this past weekend to take a look at one in person and see if they had one to test drive. They didnt have any new ones but did have a used 2020 S trim with 12k miles selling for $49k. I inquired about the price for a new one to order and was told up front they have a $5k markup. It was justified to me that it was the lowest in the closest 4 states, they used to have it at $3k but realized they could raise it to $5k and it would still be the lowest. I told him i could find it for MSRP in another state and ship it for less. He wanted to know where but i didnt want to show my cards.

He did show me a list of all the Tellurides categorized by trim level that they were expecting in to convince me but i would rather order from a dealer that is selling at MSRP. Waiting for i25 to call me today to place my order.

 

[Kia2020TB]

I went to Weston Kia in Gresham, OR (close to Portland) this past weekend to take a look at one in person and see if they had one to test drive. They didnt have any new ones but did have a used 2020 S trim with 12k miles selling for $49k. I inquired about the price for a new one to order and was told up front they have a $5k markup. It was justified to me that it was the lowest in the closest 4 states, they used to have it at $3k but realized they could raise it to $5k and it would still be the lowest. I told him i could find it for MSRP in another state and ship it for less. He wanted to know where but i didnt want to show my cards.

He did show me a list of all the Tellurides categorized by trim level that they were expecting in to convince me but i would rather order from a dealer that is selling at MSRP. Waiting for i25 to call me today to place my order.

I’m not too far from you in the PNW. Try going through Tri-Cities Overturf Kia (WA). Out the door all in on a 22’ AWD SXP NF/T for MSRP with tax at 55k. It only came with carpet floor mats. I did wait several months but for 6k more you’d have a brand new car and all the bells and whistles.

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[TellurideT]

I went to Weston Kia in Gresham, OR (close to Portland) this past weekend to take a look at one in person and see if they had one to test drive. They didnt have any new ones but did have a used 2020 S trim with 12k miles selling for $49k. I inquired about the price for a new one to order and was told up front they have a $5k markup. It was justified to me that it was the lowest in the closest 4 states, they used to have it at $3k but realized they could raise it to $5k and it would still be the lowest. I told him i could find it for MSRP in another state and ship it for less. He wanted to know where but i didnt want to show my cards.

He did show me a list of all the Tellurides categorized by trim level that they were expecting in to convince me but i would rather order from a dealer that is selling at MSRP. Waiting for i25 to call me today to place my order.

Shared earlier in this thread about OR, WA, CA and NV. Tonkin Kia was buying Canadian Tellurides from auction, or buying from dealers across the country and marking them up $15k over. Including “pre-owned” ones with 48k miles on them. Beaverton was marking up $8k.

Text, call or email Brandon Paluszak @ i25:
970.590.3829 voice / text
brandon@i25kia.com

Even if you opt for shipping from them, you’ll still pay less at the end of the day to get exactly what you want, for MSRP + $695 dealer handling and sales tax, which for OR residents is only .005xMSRP (half of 1%).

 

[Flyerfan017]

I’m not too far from you in the PNW. Try going through Tri-Cities Overturf Kia (WA). Out the door all in on a 22’ AWD SXP NF/T for MSRP with tax at 55k. It only came with carpet floor mats. I did wait several months but for 6k more you’d have a brand new car and all the bells and whi

Can you share the salesperson's contact information from them? I wouldnt mind reaching out to them and seeing if that will work for me. I live in Vancouver, WA and that dealership is less than 4 hours away i think.

 

[Flyerfan017]

Shared earlier in this thread about OR, WA, CA and NV. Tonkin Kia was buying Canadian Tellurides from auction, or buying from dealers across the country and marking them up $15k over. Including “pre-owned” ones with 48k miles on them. Beaverton was marking up $8k.

Text, call or email Brandon Paluszak @ i25:
970.590.3829 voice / text
brandon@i25kia.com

Even if you opt for shipping from them, you’ll still pay less at the end of the day to get exactly what you want, for MSRP + $695 dealer handling and sales tax, which for OR residents is only .005xMSRP (half of 1%).

Thanks! I have already been emailing with Nicole Parrish at i25. That's who i have been waiting to call me today. I do live in Vancouver, WA so i still pay considerable more in sales tax than OR but it has it's other advantages. I saw Tonkin was charging astronomical prices and I now wont even service my existing Optima or the new Telluride when i get it at that dealership because of it.

I would love to fly down and drive home from CO but i have a new baby on the way at the end of the year and I cant predict if i can get away for a few days road trip so i would have to have it shipped. I was willing to pay the $3k markup at Gresham as it would have been the same as the $2000 + $700 shipped cost from i25 but i wasnt willing to go over that, and they werent willing to come down from the new $5k.

So i will order from i25 or reach out to the Overturf dealership above to see if they still do MSRP depending on their ETA's.

 

[TellurideT]

Thanks! I have already been emailing with Nicole Parrish at i25. That's who i have been waiting to call me today. I do live in Vancouver, WA so i still pay considerable more in sales tax than OR but it has it's other advantages. I saw Tonkin was charging astronomical prices and I now wont even service my existing Optima or the new Telluride when i get it at that dealership because of it.

I would love to fly down and drive home from CO but i have a new baby on the way at the end of the year and I cant predict if i can get away for a few days road trip so i would have to have it shipped. I was willing to pay the $3k markup at Gresham as it would have been the same as the $2000 + $700 shipped cost from i25 but i wasnt willing to go over that, and they werent willing to come down from the new $5k.

So i will order from i25 or reach out to the Overturf dealership above to see if they still do MSRP depending on their ETA's.

Agreed on Tonkin we’d never go back there. Just remembered they actually had a couple that had selling prices on their site, but were $5-7k higher when you asked about them in person, making the markup above $15k.

We have a little too. Road tripping would require a 3 day trip each way with all the stops we need to make, so the cost to ship we justified as well. Our shipping cost from i25 to SW Portland is $1800. It was $1500 on its own, but we opted for covered shipping. We didn’t want to settle for something local that didn’t have what we were looking for, or feed into the absurd market adjustment. We’d rather give someone decent 1200mi away our business and get exactly what we were looking for.

BTW, Kia in Puyallup had a markup, but I don’t remember the exact. Maybe $3k? But their order timeline was 12mo when we inquired end of July.

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[Flyerfan017]

Agreed on Tonkin we’d never go back there. Just remembered they actually had a couple that had selling prices on their site, but were $5-7k higher when you asked about them in person, making the markup above $15k.

We have a little too. Road tripping would require a 3 day trip each way with all the stops we need to make, so the cost to ship we justified as well. Our shipping cost from i25 to SW Portland is $1800. It was $1500 on its own, but we opted for covered shipping. We didn’t want to settle for something local that didn’t have what we were looking for, or feed into the absurd market adjustment. We’d rather give someone decent 1200mi away our business and get exactly what we were looking for.

BTW, Kia in Puyallup had a markup, but I don’t remember the exact. Maybe $3k? But their order timeline was 12mo when we inquired end of July.

Thank you again for all the information. I just got off the phone with Nicole at i25 and the order placed. She said a rough eta was 4-5 mo and i am ok with that. I would also want it covered shipping, only makes sense especially when it's through the winter months.

Yeah i cant wait 12 mo and I assume Overturf would be roughly the same considering they only do a couple per month. At the end of the day I am choosing to give my business to a dealership that is willing to sell at MSRP instead of take advantage of the consumer and market, even if shipping it comes to the same cost.

 

[bags]

I am not sure what to make of this but the Sussman in PA is giving me bad vibes.

1) I keep asking him if I can use the KIA motor financing at the time when the car gets here and he keeps saying his rates are better and wont answer YES or NO (quoting 1.99 APR which is actually a little higher than KIA right now).
2) Asking for non-refundable deposit

They call what they do a "factory order" but other places in the area Bergey just seems to shoot it more straight they say when they get an allocation that matches you with your place on the list they will give you a call and opportunity to put down a refundable deposit. Also not giving me a run around answer on the financing.

Not sure if I am being paranoid but it seems a little shady at Sussman but interested to hear if people had any issues using KIA financing there?

@tigerhill Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been away and just saw this. In the end I don't feel that Sussman is the best option for a dealer. I don't know if they are still selling at MSRP, but there were a few things that ended up sitting wrong with me in the end.

1. I paid a $500 non-refundable deposit at the time of my order. They didn't have any way to document that I paid this deposit even when I requested it. All I got from them was a hand written note on the back of a business card. It was pretty shady. This came back to bite me a bit as in the final paperwork, I didn't realize, but they never noted that I paid the $500 deposit so they essentially pocketed that. By the time I realized it (months later), my salesperson was no longer working there (he wasn't too useful anyway) and the finance person was out on an extended leave with COVID. In the end it wasn't worth my time to fight it and I just ate the $500, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
2. There were some minor things like a small nick in the paint under the driver side mirror. My salesperson agreed to give me a paint pen and I followed up with him for weeks on it and was never able to get them to give it to me.
3. My order came with cross bars, but they never gave me the keys to the cross bars. Honestly, I wasn't even aware that cross bars had keys at that time so I didn't question it. They did right by ordering replacement keys 6 months later, which they gave me without a charge, but still an annoyance I had to deal with.

Honestly, at the time I knew more than the dealer did about Tellurides, which in part is due to the level of research I had done, but I'd still expect the dealer to know more than I would no matter how much research I did as an outsider.

Luckily, I live much closer to a few other Kia dealers and get my service done at Scott Harvey Kia in Trenton, NJ. I'm very happy with them from a service perspective and they have no problem with the fact that I bought elsewhere to pay MSRP.

So my overall opinion on Sussman Kia is if MSRP is all you want then they are likely an option (assuming they still sell at MSRP), but otherwise they are not the greatest option.

 

[Flyerfan017]

FYI...

Got a call from Dick Hannah Kia in Vancouver, WA (other side of river to Portland, OR) letting me know they just got a used one in if i wanted to come look at it. I already ordered mine from i25 but i was curious what their markup was so i asked. Salesman said the used ones are going for whatever they buy them at but the new ones have a markup based on the trim level. An LX trim was ONLY (his words) $2k up to an SX which was $7k.

 

[TellurideT]

FYI...

Got a call from Dick Hannah Kia in Vancouver, WA (other side of river to Portland, OR) letting me know they just got a used one in if i wanted to come look at it. I already ordered mine from i25 but i was curious what their markup was so i asked. Salesman said the used ones are going for whatever they buy them at but the new ones have a markup based on the trim level. An LX trim was ONLY (his words) $2k up to an SX which was $7k.

Do NOT do business with them. They were falsely giving “Costco Pricing” on 2022 Tellurides that Costco Auto didn’t even have prearranged pricing for. After letting them know we were onto them and reported back to Costco Auto when we were verifying the pricing, they tried to gaslight us and totally deflected from their dishonesty. We told them Costco knew of this now and that we also went with our out of state order for MSRP. They still keep emailing us even though they know we have a better deal and had told us to to go with that one lol.

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[Flyerfan017]

Do NOT do business with them. They were falsely giving “Costco Pricing” on 2022 Tellurides that Costco Auto didn’t even have prearranged pricing for. After letting them know we were onto them and reported back to Costco Auto when we were verifying the pricing, they tried to gaslight us and totally deflected from their dishonesty. We told them Costco knew of this now and that we also went with our out of state order for MSRP. They still keep emailing us even though they know we have a better deal and had told us to to go with that one lol.

Dont worry, we didnt. I already saw from this forum they had a huge markup and there dishonesty (might have been from one of your post). I only originally reached to them for a test drive but had no intentions of buying from them. I already got an order in with i25 out of CO. Just wanted to bring the information to the forum that i recently found out for anyone in this area that was looking at them.

 

[Harrius33]

Not really a bad dealership but a dealership that feels it has enough business. Before we really knew what we were getting into with the Telly buying process/insane markups, we saw 5 Telluride SX’s listed for sale on Ron Bouchard of Lancaster, MA website. It’s an hour away from Boston so my wife and I decided to take a ride.

We pull up and ask to take one of the Telly’s for a test drive. The salesperson, Jason, says that all of those Telly’s that were listed on the website have been sold and he doesn’t know why the glitch keeps happening. He did, however, say that there was an EX available to look at “but the person who just test drove it is probably going to buy it and there is a 12-16 month waiting list to get on the waiting list”. He didn’t even take our contact info! He thanked us for coming in.

So now that we knew what the process entailed, I started calling local dealerships. Spoke with Ken Russian at Lev Kia in Framingham, MA and he immediately said it would be a 10 month wait for an order on an SX with NF pkg at MSRP subject to customer test drive and a 500 dollar refundable deposit. There was no BS, no markups. The experience with Lev Kia has been on the up and up thus far and is always subject to change but I am willing to stay loyal to them since Ken clearly stated he wanted to earn our business by not charging over MSRP.

In conclusion, the folks at Ron Bouchard didn’t seem to want any more business than they already have and have Telly’s listed in their website that are not even available

Hi E91fan,

I can attest to this as I had purchased a 2021 Telluride SX with captain's chairs w/ AWD and no extra options/accessory for MSRP via Ken Russian back in October 2020 (placed the factory order) and vehicle was delivered by mid February 2021. All in all, it was a good experience and would purchase another Kia via Lev if need be. Side note, I tried purchasing one that was already in a lot at Commonwealth Kia in Lawrence, MA and their markup was $4K over MSRP for the S model and $5K and above for any trim higher than that, I just test drove it with my wife and walked away immediately after after I said I like it and would like to make a deal but markup can't be no more than $1K and said he'll talk to the manager and left us hanging for 20 minutes, in retrospect, it was 20 minutes too long.

 

[nayinianu]

That's really useful. Thanks, mine is due next week.

Hi, Planning to place an order with Kia of Puyallup tomorrow with 2K mark up price. Can you please let me know the experience you had with Kia of Puyallup? Were there any last minute price increases?

 

[E91fan]

Hi E91fan,

I can attest to this as I had purchased a 2021 Telluride SX with captain's chairs w/ AWD and no extra options/accessory for MSRP via Ken Russian back in October 2020 (placed the factory order) and vehicle was delivered by mid February 2021. All in all, it was a good experience and would purchase another Kia via Lev if need be. Side note, I tried purchasing one that was already in a lot at Commonwealth Kia in Lawrence, MA and their markup was $4K over MSRP for the S model and $5K and above for any trim higher than that, I just test drove it with my wife and walked away immediately after after I said I like it and would like to make a deal but markup can't be no more than $1K and said he'll talk to the manager and left us hanging for 20 minutes, in retrospect, it was 20 minutes too long.

That’s good to hear and I’m glad we ended up doing business with Ken at Lev. He said it would be 10 months at the most. We placed our order at the end of June and did request a color change from gravity gray to Wolf. Hopefully it will be here before the year’s end.

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[TellurideT]

Hi, Planning to place an order with Kia of Puyallup tomorrow with 2K mark up price. Can you please let me know the experience you had with Kia of Puyallup? Were there any last minute price increases?

They had a 12+ month wait for orders when we talked to them end of July and their markup was close to $3k. We went with i25 Kia in CO with a 4-5mo wait at MSRP. We opted for covered shipping which was $1800 to SW Portland and still are coming in under the $3-15k markups everyone here in OR, WA, CA, and NV had.

Contact Brandon Paluszak at 970.590.3829 voice / text, or brandon@i25kia.com.

 

[Kia2020TB]

Hi, Planning to place an order with Kia of Puyallup tomorrow with 2K mark up price. Can you please let me know the experience you had with Kia of Puyallup? Were there any last minute price increases?

Just sayin, you might want to check out Overfurf Kia in Kennewick, WA since they are selling at MSRP - noticed their name has been floating around in the thread but throwing it out there. It would save you 2k and the dealer is about 3.5 hours east of Puyallup. Maybe use some of the stashed cash to make a pit stop at Minors in Yakima. I wouldn’t pay a dealer markup which is why I ended up going to Overturf. The only “increase” I had was the MSRP adjustment straight from the factory which was in the ordering contract that I’d pay that difference. From time I ordered to pickup it was $700 more. Probably the only down side is it was a 9 month wait for me (initial order October 2020 to pickup July 2020) but might not be that long now. The wait was well worth saving money on a ridiculous dealer markup. Just my 2 cents and worth what you paid for.

 

[nayinianu]

They had a 12+ month wait for orders when we talked to them end of July and their markup was close to $3k. We went with i25 Kia in CO with a 4-5mo wait at MSRP. We opted for covered shipping which was $1800 to SW Portland and still are coming in under the $3-15k markups everyone here in OR, WA, CA, and NV had.

Contact Brandon Paluszak at 970.590.3829 voice / text, or brandon@i25kia.com.

I did contact Brandon as well. He did mention it would be MSRP + $695 dealer fee + shipping with 4-5 mo wait. Which is going to cost more than 2K compared to Kia of Puyallup with 6-9 months wait. Will confirm once again on the timeframe.

 

[nayinianu]

Just sayin, you might want to check out Overfurf Kia in Kennewick, WA since they are selling at MSRP - noticed their name has been floating around in the thread but throwing it out there. It would save you 2k and the dealer is about 3.5 hours east of Puyallup. Maybe use some of the stashed cash to make a pit stop at Minors in Yakima. I wouldn’t pay a dealer markup which is why I ended up going to Overturf. The only “increase” I had was the MSRP adjustment straight from the factory which was in the ordering contract that I’d pay that difference. From time I ordered to pickup it was $700 more. Probably the only down side is it was a 9 month wait for me (initial order October 2020 to pickup July 2020) but might not be that long now. The wait was well worth saving money on a ridiculous dealer markup. Just my 2 cents and worth what you paid for.

Thanks, will contact Overfurf Kia in Kennewick, WA tomorrow. I'm just worried about the wait time, heard it would take more than 12 months.