Improve your dealerships, HMG

[Devin]

2021 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study

TROY, Mich.: 10 Nov. 2021 — From coast to coast, new vehicles are hard to find on dealership lots as the supply chain disruption and effects of the pandemic continue. However, customer satisfaction with the vehicle purchase experience holds steady year over year, according to the J.D. Power 2021...

www.jdpower.com

The synopsis of this ranking is that Kia is almost bottom of the barrel as far as dealership experience goes. Hyundai is one spot above it. Genesis, the brand that I've seen other folks post on here being something that Kia should aspire to, while being ranked quite a bit higher than the aforementioned two, is last place among luxury brands.

I get that these are still basically budget automobiles, but is this really where the HMG brands should be expected to be?

 

[JSolo]

The last time I was at the local kia dealership. A bunch of salesdroids were chatting but no one approached or asked if I had any questions.

This dealership is on a weird corner and is rather ghetto inside. IMO, the experience starts with the outside, having adequate parking, etc. If I ever have to have the car serviced, this is the last place I'd go to.





Yes, that's their whole parking lot. In the back is service. There's a hyundai shop across the street too, but both are under the same ownership, leader automotive, which is not all peaches and roses. I tried working a deal at one of their hyundai stores before the stinger. They wanted thousands over msrp. Seemed very shyster like, i walked out.

Anyways, question how many google reviews are from real customers.... Or perhaps they see the wrong demographic when I walk in.

Googled the dealership I got mine from. Their rankings are even lower. My experience wasn't terrible, but wasn't 100% either, probably 85%. No issues with my salesman but the salesmgr was a bit of a h@rdass and finance guy tried hard to pad the sale.

So yes, HMG has a ways to go to improve their dealership experience. ymmv Be prepared. I walked out of 5 or 6 dealerships because we couldn't agree on a deal.

 

[MerlintheMad]

What is an Audi doing parked in a Kia service center?

I've seen these ratings already. And I just like to point out the fact that somebody has to finish dead last. If you raised all of them by 188 points so that GMC scored a perfect 1,000, Kia would then have a score of 944, and would still be one up from dead last. The point is also, that 756 out of 1,000 isn't bad. It translates into roughly three out of four Kia customers being satisfied. The percentage difference between top dog GMC and bottom ranker Chrysler is only 5.7%.

 

[Devin]

What is an Audi doing parked in a Kia service center?

I've seen these ratings already. And I just like to point out the fact that somebody has to finish dead last. If you raised all of them by 188 points so that GMC scored a perfect 1,000, Kia would then have a score of 944, and would still be one up from dead last. The point is also, that 756 out of 1,000 isn't bad. It translates into roughly three out of four Kia customers being satisfied. The percentage difference between top dog GMC and bottom ranker Chrysler is only 5.7%.

So your assumption is these metrics don't matter?

 

[MerlintheMad]

So your assumption is these metrics don't matter?

Taken as a comparison, a 5.7% difference doesn't matter to me. Dead last is dead last, but what does that mean? If it meant that GMC pleased five out of six customers but Kia pleased one out of six customers, that would be a huge difference: but Kia pleasing three-fourths and GMC pleasing four-fifths doesn't look nearly as bad of a difference. I would take these numbers and expect to find a decent Kia dealership/service center c. three out of four times. And the odds for a GMC customer are only a little better.

 

[stoopid]

I've had poor experiences with dealers of varying target-buyer demographics. The dealer/management sets the tone for their team.

 

[D.J.]

Taken as a comparison, a 5.7% difference doesn't matter to me. Dead last is dead last, but what does that mean? If it meant that GMC pleased five out of six customers but Kia pleased one out of six customers, that would be a huge difference: but Kia pleasing three-fourths and GMC pleasing four-fifths doesn't look nearly as bad of a difference. I would take these numbers and expect to find a decent Kia dealership/service center c. three out of four times. And the odds for a GMC customer are only a little better.

I can appreciate, and share your perspective.

 

[Devin]

Taken as a comparison, a 5.7% difference doesn't matter to me. Dead last is dead last, but what does that mean? If it meant that GMC pleased five out of six customers but Kia pleased one out of six customers, that would be a huge difference: but Kia pleasing three-fourths and GMC pleasing four-fifths doesn't look nearly as bad of a difference. I would take these numbers and expect to find a decent Kia dealership/service center c. three out of four times. And the odds for a GMC customer are only a little better.

I went searching for the rankings due to the constant complaining about Kia dealership experiences, and this seems to corroborate the anecdotes on the board.

To be honest my dealer has been pretty good. The sales side was my only complaint, service has been pretty good, aside from them breaking my Bluetooth integration on my Optima and never being able to fix it.

 

[D.J.]

aside from them breaking my Bluetooth integration on my Optima and never being able to fix it.

This sounds interesting,,, care to share?

 

[Devin]

This sounds interesting,,, care to share?

Certainly. A few months after I bought my '15 Optima I brought it in for an oil change. They had a TSB to do with the radio and when I got it back, the voice controls were broken if I had a phone paired to it. What would happen is normally when you press the voice button, it would chime and you could speak simple commands. If it was successful it would chime the "off" sound. If I had a phone paired to BT the exit chime would play instantly. If I unpaired the phone it would work normally. I always had my phone paired, so it was essentially useless.

I brought it in twice for them to look at it, but they said they couldn't reproduce. I tried several different phones over the five years I had it, including a couple of Blackberrys on BB10, an Android BB and a few Samsungs. Maybe it worked with an iPhone and all they had were iPhones? Anyway, I gave up eventually and just lived without it. To be honest, the voice controls were not all that awesome on a base Optima anyway.

Aside from that though, the service department as been pretty good. I have not had that much in the way of abnormal needs from them though. Things may have gone sideways if I had warranty issues.

 

[D.J.]

Certainly. A few months after I bought my '15 Optima I brought it in for an oil change. They had a TSB to do with the radio and when I got it back, the voice controls were broken if I had a phone paired to it. What would happen is normally when you press the voice button, it would chime and you could speak simple commands. If it was successful it would chime the "off" sound. If I had a phone paired to BT the exit chime would play instantly. If I unpaired the phone it would work normally. I always had my phone paired, so it was essentially useless.

I brought it in twice for them to look at it, but they said they couldn't reproduce. I tried several different phones over the five years I had it, including a couple of Blackberrys on BB10, an Android BB and a few Samsungs. Maybe it worked with an iPhone and all they had were iPhones? Anyway, I gave up eventually and just lived without it. To be honest, the voice controls were not all that awesome on a base Optima anyway.

Aside from that though, the service department as been pretty good. I have not had that much in the way of abnormal needs from them though. Things may have gone sideways if I had warranty issues.

It really sucks when things that should work, (and seem simple) just don't work.

I am thankful my Stinger software/Bluetooth setup work fairly flawlessly, for now!

 

[JSolo]

It is possible to bring it in for a service and not have them update. Let the service writer know and also print out a page in big bold letters to not update any ecu/tcm software. If you're able to speak to the tech before they touch the car, let them know then as well.