This review is of our new car buying experience from Kia City in May 2015.
Our new car purchasing journey began with visits to Calgary Honda, Kramer Mazda, Advantage Ford and finally Kia City.
Our experience at each dealership was relatively unique. Thinking back Calgary Honda was the most positive experience, Kramer Mazda didn't even bother sending a sales rep to come talk to us so we just left, Advantage Ford was laid back and Kia City started out fun and friendly but quickly turned into a high pressure sales pitch.
Lori, our sales rep was friendly and attentive. She rode with us for two test drives as we tried out the Forte and then the Optima. It was a nice shopping experience actually.
When we got back from the test drives we headed into Lori's office. I think I got a little too excited about how much I really liked the Optima, after that the pitch came hard and fast. There was immediate pressure to move forward by providing a credit card to show we were "serious". This way we would be sure to get their absolute best offer. Next thing we knew we're putting a down $1000 deposit and were immediately shuffled off into the finance office. Yup, we were unexpectedly the proud new owners of a 2015 Kia Optima EX.
Due the fast pace of this purchase, things started to get uncomfortable for us after we had left the dealership.
What was different from the other dealerships we visited that day was Kia City never provided any paperwork showing the full breakdown of the true cost of the car. There was this semi handwritten form that showed the price of the car itself, no GST, etc. There was a couple of other charges noted in different places on the form... $399 here, $500 there. But no real full breakdown.
Once we agreed the cost of the car was acceptable, Lori showed us the bi-weekly financing cost. So the form she was working on really only indicated the actual price of the car and the bi-weekly payment. Both Calgary Honda and Advantage Ford gave us fully detailed, printouts of the car we chose for potential purchase which showed everything from Air Tax, Freight/PDI, Tire Tax, etc. So with those estimates we knew exactly the full price including all charges, not to mention the bi-weekly financing cost as well.
Even after fully purchasing our car, we left Kia City without a single piece of paperwork. I know, kinda dumb on our part but it was such a whirlwind experience, we felt like we didn't have time to think things through.
We got home and started looking at all the paperwork from the day and realized we didn't have anything from Kia City.
We immediately started to feel uncomfortable about our rash decision. We then took the bi-weekly Optima payments (from memory) and added them up, realizing the total purchasing cost of the Optima was quite a bit higher than what we thought we actually paid for the car.
My wife called Lori immediately and expressed her concern that we didn't get any paperwork after making such a large purchase, we felt mislead or even lied to. Lori apologized for the mix up and stated she did not intend to mislead us in any way. She promised to email us a full breakdown and would have Mika, the New Car Sales Manager call us in the morning to discuss our concerns.
Now I have to give Kia City credit, they stepped up immediately to resolve the issue. Many emails went back and forth and I chatted with Mika the next day as promised. He felt terrible about our experience, stated Lori was new and to make up for the confusion, he offered to lower the total price of the car.
Even after comparing all the extra charges, Kia City had the lowest ones (approx. $1200). Calgary Honda had the highest (approx. $2600). Kia City didn't charge us Freight and PDI which was Calgary Honda's highest extra charge.
When we arrived the following week to pick up our new car, everyone was there to greet us with friendly and apologetic faces. Mika was especially awesome, shook my hand a few times and thanked us repeatedly. Even though my wife didn't really want to buy the car any more and was not hiding this fact, Lori did her best to keep the atmosphere light while going over all the features of our new Optima EX.
In the end I really love this car. My wife? The jury's still out for her. All I can do now is hope the car provides trouble free driving for the next five years and doesn't turn out to be a lemon.
I would have given Kia City 2 stars but they really did their best to make up for the misunderstanding. A company's true measure is shown on how they deal with bad situations. The Sales Department came through with flying colours.
I would have given them 5 but they really need to look at giving a full printout of their sales quote so there is no perception that they are hiding something. They could back off a little on the high pressure tactics too.