Good Lokey Kia - Clearwater FL

[343BlueR32]

So I must start by confessing that I'm not a fan of the Lokey sales. I've dealt with them twice (once on a lease buyout and once while looking to lease my wife's Sorrento) and the sales people weren't anything to write home about.

The SERVICE on the other hand has been stellar.

I purchase my car CPO from Greenway Kia East (like everyone else said, don't use them) with about 12,000 miles on a 2019 GT1.

I happened to fall under a service writer named Chris when I needed a second key programmed that Greenway shipped me since they neglected to tell me the car only came with one key for some reason. Nothing incredible here. Normal visit just seemed like nice people.

On the second visit I asked them to look at a rear hatch rattle and do an alignment from me lowering it. Again nothing super amazing. They knocked out some TSBs while I was there and charged me what I felt like was a very fair $89 for the alignment.

On this second visit I brought up the front brake shimmy. I know I'm going to get aftermarket pads and rotors soon to provide a long term solution, but I just spent a fair amount of money on other mods so I was hoping they could try to turn the rotors to get me a little more time.

Chris said I was over the normal warranty for brakes by about 800 miles but they were going to try to get it fixed anyways. We set up a third appointment.

This is where they started to really shine. I came back, they worked with Kia and got the brake work covered under warranty despite me now being at about 13,000 miles. I also requested an oil change while I was there because I had zero confidence that Greenway had done the oil change when they CPOd it.

There was a backup at the lathe so they asked if they could take me home. I never had asked previously because I know I am a few miles outside their stated service range. They made the exception and got me delivered home to finish my work.

When I went back to pick up the car, I had found that Chris had somehow found a way to get the oil change for me for free as well.

So I left with an oil change and machined/temporarily fixed brakes with zero dollars out of pocket.

That won me over for Lokey for at least as long as Chris is there. They did what they tried to do and I will absolutely pay a few extra bucks to keep going there for service the remainder of the time I buy Kia's.

 

[MrSmoofy]

Weird I can tell you the exact opposite of this. I bought my 2019 GT2 from there in 3/2019. The sales part was smooth, Jay Rudio my sales person also drives a Stinger I was able to talk to him, the finance manager, the sales manager all at one time with no back and forth on price or anything. They even got the car I wanted from another dealer. The bank they put me with even lowered the interest rate after the deal was done.

Sales for me was the best I've ever had.

Lokey gives you free oil changes for the life of the car. On my first oil change I asked the Service Writer what oil brand and weight they used, he couldn't tell me he didn't know and said he would find out and would call me and let me know. He never did.

The Quantum Logic sound issue that ALL stingers have they still have no answer for and won't even look into it.

The brake pad/rotor issue they acknowledged as a problem with stingers but wanted to charge me to resurface the rotors and sand the pads said it wasn't covered under warranty.

I asked them about traction control as I don't feel mine works because if it did I wouldn't be able to spin the tires. In my titan when the traction control would engage a light would appear to indicate so. Even though the stinger has a light I've never seen it turn on. The service department has not been able to tell me if it's supposed to light up or not and also told me they have no way to test the traction control. They also even tried to pull a "your tires are low on tread that's why the traction control doesn't work"

So I'm glad you had a good experience there but for me, I don't trust anything they say. They also stopped cleaning the carpets and washing the car with service gave me some BS about the county not allowing them to do it meanwhile the Hyundai dealer across the street just build a new car wash for their service department.

 

[343BlueR32]

I could see that. When I went there with my Optima I felt similar situations to that. I try to keep the same service writers but every time I went it seemed like they no longer worked there.

So totally seems like I got lucky with the guy I'm working with now. Hope he stays around!

 

[MrSmoofy]

I could see that. When I went there with my Optima I felt similar situations to that. I try to keep the same service writers but every time I went it seemed like they no longer worked there.

So totally seems like I got lucky with the guy I'm working with now. Hope he stays around!

Yup and watch out they have only 1 Stinger tech and they have him working on other stuff and is never available. Also it's usually 2-3 hours just for an oil change and that's with an appointment.

 

[angel cruz]

Didnt know they had a "special" stinger tech do you know the techs name please as mine is at lokey kia for oil change and the turbo wastegate noise .they have replaced the turbo but had a leak somewhere probably the feed line ...by the way yes jay rudio is fantastic and was great to work with

 

[MrSmoofy]

Didnt know they had a "special" stinger tech do you know the techs name please as mine is at lokey kia for oil change and the turbo wastegate noise .they have replaced the turbo but had a leak somewhere probably the feed line ...by the way yes jay rudio is fantastic and was great to work with

Sorry don't know the tech's name.