I think frustration is reaching a new high with how Kia has been handling the entire situation. Every Telluride buyer likely becomes a brand ambassador for Kia. This is especially true with those new to the Kia brand -- indeed, in videos, Kia reps have touted their conquest buyers/sales. But, to create and maintain a healthy relationship, good communication is a must, including proactive management of expectations. No doubt here that Kia, whether due to nappa leather supply issues, marketing strategy, general business strategy or something else, has done an extremely poor job in communicating what they're doing and why to those customers who have been waiting an inordinate amount of time. They are souring many of these customers (many conquest) on the Kia experience and risk losing them as brand ambassadors. Now, add on top of that, many Kia dealerships that do not communicate well or at all with their customers (save for good ones here and there, including on this board), and the Kia experience becomes seriously off-putting. Kia corporate needs to address their own communication issues and those of their dealers who represent their brand. People/customers can be understanding if they know what is going on and why (or even grudgingly accepting even if they're not happy about the what and why). Failure to communicate may very well make these new brand ambassadors into brand bashers.
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Order to delivery time
- Thread author Chwtom
- Start date
Where do u see that?
Familyman20
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Damn $1500 is steep if its only a couple of plastic tablet holders, generic tablets and headphones rather than a dealer installed overhead unit! We'll see if they ever release this unlike the mythical front skid plate from last year. I still haven't seen one if those installed
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Nightcrawler1215
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Yea would have been nice to know that is an option, of course like many of us, I was supposed to get a 2020 and got bumped to a 21. Humor me though, I’ve had several 3-row suvs and have never paid for the entertainment. My kids just use their iPads and they have several setups now where you can mount them and it looks pretty good. In today’s world with tablets galore is it worth $1500...honest question, just curious for an opinion from someone who has had the entertainment set up in the past.
Familyman20
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it might be worth it if you can integrate the software from the head unit to the rear screens. Like have apple car play or maps on the rear screens and movies on the front. Obviously you aren't legally allowed to show movies on the front screen from the factory but would still be cool to share content.
My kids will use the ipads too at times, but more often then not they like watching overhead dvds. It's also nice to be able to control that from the front seat with a factory rear seat entertainment system. It's still a pricey option, but for all the travelling my family does and having younger kids, I would do it if its an overhead system that can be controlled from the front.
It’s a shitty situation all around, and yes there’s a lot to unpack here about how Kia builds a brand and experience. That’s not going to be solved overnight and certainly not with 4 months of Covid headwinds and the fallout from that (everything from supply chain issues to dealers who may be struggling to stay in business). Best for them to stay true to their vision and plow forward.
We can agree to disagree here. No matter what Kia does there will be trade offs - eg one more custom SXP going to Texas is one less dealer unit going to the northeast or California, causing markups to stay high. I know folks have been waiting a long time and can’t imagine their frustration about it. I hope everything falls into place for you soon.
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I’ve never had a RES but with two kids now and more road trips in the future, I was really on the fence about what to do here. I was tempted to wait for more info and order but decided the tradeoffs weren’t worth it. In researching other brands it seems like these are more DVD oriented which seems like old tech, and the software experience isn’t THAT great. I couldn’t see Kia having a magically better experience that made it worth more than a couple of new iPads (which have the versatility of also allowing games, reading, etc).
Familyman20
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Another suggestion to combat the supply/demand debate is how bout dealers stop taking paid deposits. How is a dealer supposed to maintain 60+ customers for months long waits when most imo can barely keep one paying customer completely satisfied on a Saturday afternoon who walks in to buy a car with cash?! Purchasing a new vehicle in most cases is horrible. This supply issue just makes it worse. Although super frustrating, they'll arrive when they arrive.
JerseySXP
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Thanks for sharing this - can you buy this stuff after the fact and install it yourself?
Yes, this is the truth. I had no communication with my dealer for 4 months+ last year, we didn't have Failcat, and the vehicle did eventually show up.
It is up to the dealership to manage customer expectations, and taking tens of orders that can't be fulfilled in a stated timeline is irresponsible of the dealer and leaves people frustrated with Kia. Kia could help to manage this with their internal systems, but they don't really care. They probably think that the dealer will take the heat for a long wait, but the dealer passes the buck to Kia and then Kia will ultimately bear the hit to reputation.
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I put my deposit down last week on a 2021 EX AWD Premium with a 20 week estimate. After reading the recent posts in this thread, my already low confidence in that 20 week estimate is now lower. I wish the Nightfall edition did it for me, but it doesn't. Maybe that feeling will change after months of waiting.
JerseySXP
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5 months for EX is fairly reasonable and a responsible ETA given by your dealer...
I did this on my '08 Honda Odyssey years ago when it was new, and it's still working.
That's what I'm wondering as well. I'm hoping maybe one of the dealers here will know something about this. I'm not even sure if it's an overhead unit or not.
I'm also wondering if it even comes up in the system as an option to order at this point.
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Familyman20
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Right?! My friends with kids all think I'm nuts for not having a screen in the car.
ssmblazer I bought one of those controllers for my '07 TL too. Never got around to installing it tho. Aftermarket is possible in time for sure but I don't see KIA allowing movies in the front dash. We'll see what they come up with here!
NDBlackEX
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I think they're building what they can. I'm guessing the nightfall has been in the works for a while, they're sitting on all the materials required to build them so they're pumping those out.
I'm guessing they have limited supplies of different leathers and they've had supply issues in the past because the demand for certain trims was different than expected. I would imagine there's some lead time (probably months worth) involved in getting more material.
Holding back on SX-P orders probably just means that they can't guarantee when supplies will be adequate to enter full production on those trims. I think we all wish that they'd communicate that with dealers if that's the case. I also wouldn't be surprised if they keep hammering out NE until supply is near exhaustion and then they're less common through the remainder of the model year.
I was also curious of the 20 week estimate with Lev but watching failcat has me thinking so far they are on track. They have had 7 SX's created in the last month and I was 22 on their list as of mid last month. If they keep up that rate it will be pretty close to the 20 week estimate. How many EX AWD orders are in front of you at Lev?
