TimS
Member
Followed the Stinger for many months, but last week decided it was time to pull the trigger. I began my hunt by sending out emails to several dealers in the area, asking for their out-the-door price on a 2018 micro-blue GT2 AWD. I'd been using CarGuru and other sites to keep track of stock at these locations, so I knew they each had at least one in stock. This is the first time I've ever dealt with dealers online, rather than making my first intro in-person, so I was eager to see how it worked out.
Ron Tonkin Kia, Gladstone, OR (suburb of Portland) - I received a quick response from Doug Daskalos, their internet/fleet director. He gave me a breakdown of the pricing, dealer-discount, and available incentives. I responded with some follow up questions, and he was quick to respond, and friendly.
Beaverton Kia, Beaverton, OR (suburb of Portland) – I received a quick response from Pete Young, Digital sales manager. He was also quick and friendly to respond to follow-up email. He sent me the break-down of pricing and a huge fact sheet of the car I was looking at with about 20000 pictures. Ok, not THAT many, but lots of great pictures of the specific vehicle I was looking at with shots at different angles, etc. Pete checked-in with me the following day, as well.
Lee Johnson Kia, Kirkland, WA (suburb of Seattle) – I received a quick response from Lucian Scutelnicu, their Internet manager. He was friendly and quick to respond to follow-up questions, and he checked-in with me the following day, as well.
Weston Kia, Gresham, OR (suburb of Portland) – I did not receive a response from Weston for several days. When I did, it was a generic form letter that ignored everything I wrote, and instead simply urged me to 'come in for a test drive'. Then this morning, five days after I reached out and three days after making my purchase, I did receive a slightly better email with their price (still higher than the others) and mentioning one possible incentive. I replied that I had already made my purchase and thanked them for the response.
Power Kia, Salem, OR – I contacted David Miller (here on the forum) at Power Kia because I'd seen his activity on the forum and he came across as a very reasonable and helpful guy to deal with. Sadly, they did not have a blue GT2 in stock, otherwise I likely would have dealt with him first. I think dealers who interact with the public deserve some credit, and even though Salem is about 50 miles away, if they had a competitively priced car I wanted, I would have made the trip.
I also did call a couple other places that did not list the micro-blue as being in-stock. I called them because I just wanted to quickly verify if they possibly had one not listed on their website inventory, and I didn't want to wait around for email responses. This included my 'hometown' dealer, Dick Hannah of Vancouver, WA. I've had mixed-experiences with their service dept. in the past, but I was willing to give their sales department a shot. Alas, no 2018 blue GT2s in stock.
As my email to each location indicated, I was going to get pricing from several dealers and I would start with the best offer I received. I was not interested in 'haggling' or 'playing games'.
The best price came from Lee Johnson Kia. Their price was better than Ron Tonkin Kia by about $200. However, Lee Johnson Kia is about 150 miles away (300 mile round trip), and since I had a trade, I had to consider the very real possibility of a wasted trip up there if anything happened during the negotiation that might cause me to walk, not to mention the ~6 hour round-trip during a very busy time of year for me.
Ron Tonkin offered the next-best price. Beaverton was about $1300 more expensive, so I made my visit to Ron Tonkin and the rest is history.
I arrived on a Saturday morning and the place was super-busy. I knew going on a weekend was probably dumb on my part, but... I wanted to get the deal done. I met Doug and we quickly talked over the details and he provided the various options: Purchase vs Lease, protection plans, warranty extensions, incentives, etc. I knew what I wanted ahead of time, pointed it all out, and the negotiation was done pretty quickly. I declined all additional add-ons (warranties, etc), and Doug did not even blink and never asked twice – and I appreciated that greatly. Hard-sells on warranties/protection plans annoy the hell out of me. You just got done selling me on 'quality' and 'workmanship' - but now you turn a 180 and feel you need to sell me additional warranties 'just in case'? A few years ago I was buying a car for my wife and the Mazda dealer kept hammering the additional warranties, and I got to the point where I told the finance manager, 'If you ask me one more time - I'm walking.' But Doug didn't press at all - he was great.
Next, I spoke with Rebecca, one of the dealer's finance reps. She walked me through the finance steps. I was waiting for the 'hard sell' on various add-ons, and to her credit she only asked once about the electronics warranty extension. The electronics on the car are only warranted for 3 years, and an extension was ~$1k. I turned it down, and she nodded and moved on. She was incredibly sweet and patient.
Due to a bit of a mix-up, my car wasn't actually ready until Monday. In the meantime I was given a red GT2 as a loaner – and I didn't complain.
When I returned to pick-up my vehicle, I had just a handful of forms left to sign, so I met with a different financial rep to do that. I do not recall his name, but we quickly went through the remaining paperwork. He did try to push the electronics warranty on me, and pushed a bit more than the previous two folks, but we were almost done, I held my ground, and in a few minutes we were done.
Doug then took me out to give me the overview of the car.... sweet hickory bacon! There's WAY more to it than I thought, and it's gonna be fun (and take some time) to learn it all. When he finished, I then departed and have been in driving nirvana ever since!
Could I have done something to get a better price? Probably. Could I have spent time trying to play-off prices against each dealer? Maybe. I don't claim to be an expert at all, but I researched what I wanted, I watched pricing and followed inventory levels, and I had a mental 'target' of where I wanted the sale price (NOT the monthly payments) to be. I got the price very close to what I wanted, and went for it, and so far am happy as a clam.
Ron Tonkin Kia, Gladstone, OR (suburb of Portland) - I received a quick response from Doug Daskalos, their internet/fleet director. He gave me a breakdown of the pricing, dealer-discount, and available incentives. I responded with some follow up questions, and he was quick to respond, and friendly.
Beaverton Kia, Beaverton, OR (suburb of Portland) – I received a quick response from Pete Young, Digital sales manager. He was also quick and friendly to respond to follow-up email. He sent me the break-down of pricing and a huge fact sheet of the car I was looking at with about 20000 pictures. Ok, not THAT many, but lots of great pictures of the specific vehicle I was looking at with shots at different angles, etc. Pete checked-in with me the following day, as well.
Lee Johnson Kia, Kirkland, WA (suburb of Seattle) – I received a quick response from Lucian Scutelnicu, their Internet manager. He was friendly and quick to respond to follow-up questions, and he checked-in with me the following day, as well.
Weston Kia, Gresham, OR (suburb of Portland) – I did not receive a response from Weston for several days. When I did, it was a generic form letter that ignored everything I wrote, and instead simply urged me to 'come in for a test drive'. Then this morning, five days after I reached out and three days after making my purchase, I did receive a slightly better email with their price (still higher than the others) and mentioning one possible incentive. I replied that I had already made my purchase and thanked them for the response.
Power Kia, Salem, OR – I contacted David Miller (here on the forum) at Power Kia because I'd seen his activity on the forum and he came across as a very reasonable and helpful guy to deal with. Sadly, they did not have a blue GT2 in stock, otherwise I likely would have dealt with him first. I think dealers who interact with the public deserve some credit, and even though Salem is about 50 miles away, if they had a competitively priced car I wanted, I would have made the trip.
I also did call a couple other places that did not list the micro-blue as being in-stock. I called them because I just wanted to quickly verify if they possibly had one not listed on their website inventory, and I didn't want to wait around for email responses. This included my 'hometown' dealer, Dick Hannah of Vancouver, WA. I've had mixed-experiences with their service dept. in the past, but I was willing to give their sales department a shot. Alas, no 2018 blue GT2s in stock.
As my email to each location indicated, I was going to get pricing from several dealers and I would start with the best offer I received. I was not interested in 'haggling' or 'playing games'.
The best price came from Lee Johnson Kia. Their price was better than Ron Tonkin Kia by about $200. However, Lee Johnson Kia is about 150 miles away (300 mile round trip), and since I had a trade, I had to consider the very real possibility of a wasted trip up there if anything happened during the negotiation that might cause me to walk, not to mention the ~6 hour round-trip during a very busy time of year for me.
Ron Tonkin offered the next-best price. Beaverton was about $1300 more expensive, so I made my visit to Ron Tonkin and the rest is history.
I arrived on a Saturday morning and the place was super-busy. I knew going on a weekend was probably dumb on my part, but... I wanted to get the deal done. I met Doug and we quickly talked over the details and he provided the various options: Purchase vs Lease, protection plans, warranty extensions, incentives, etc. I knew what I wanted ahead of time, pointed it all out, and the negotiation was done pretty quickly. I declined all additional add-ons (warranties, etc), and Doug did not even blink and never asked twice – and I appreciated that greatly. Hard-sells on warranties/protection plans annoy the hell out of me. You just got done selling me on 'quality' and 'workmanship' - but now you turn a 180 and feel you need to sell me additional warranties 'just in case'? A few years ago I was buying a car for my wife and the Mazda dealer kept hammering the additional warranties, and I got to the point where I told the finance manager, 'If you ask me one more time - I'm walking.' But Doug didn't press at all - he was great.
Next, I spoke with Rebecca, one of the dealer's finance reps. She walked me through the finance steps. I was waiting for the 'hard sell' on various add-ons, and to her credit she only asked once about the electronics warranty extension. The electronics on the car are only warranted for 3 years, and an extension was ~$1k. I turned it down, and she nodded and moved on. She was incredibly sweet and patient.
Due to a bit of a mix-up, my car wasn't actually ready until Monday. In the meantime I was given a red GT2 as a loaner – and I didn't complain.
When I returned to pick-up my vehicle, I had just a handful of forms left to sign, so I met with a different financial rep to do that. I do not recall his name, but we quickly went through the remaining paperwork. He did try to push the electronics warranty on me, and pushed a bit more than the previous two folks, but we were almost done, I held my ground, and in a few minutes we were done.Doug then took me out to give me the overview of the car.... sweet hickory bacon! There's WAY more to it than I thought, and it's gonna be fun (and take some time) to learn it all. When he finished, I then departed and have been in driving nirvana ever since!
Could I have done something to get a better price? Probably. Could I have spent time trying to play-off prices against each dealer? Maybe. I don't claim to be an expert at all, but I researched what I wanted, I watched pricing and followed inventory levels, and I had a mental 'target' of where I wanted the sale price (NOT the monthly payments) to be. I got the price very close to what I wanted, and went for it, and so far am happy as a clam.
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