Dear Kia,
A number of years ago I purchased a new vehicle that was the first Kia I'd ever owned. Having been looking for a minivan for some time I'd stopped at a new dealership in my area, liked the Sedona and bought the first one I looked at. After several years it was paid off and I continued to drive it, liking the features and handling and along the way, telling other people how surprised I was to have fallen in love with a "new" brand. We bought another smaller Kia shortly after purchasing mine and had it for several years before needing to upgrade to a larger vehicle.
Fast forward a lot of years. My Sedona like me, finally has some age on it, and along with that age came this thing where I hate shopping. When I HAVE to shop I gravitate to local businesses first and avoid roaming around as much as possible. Thus the discussion with the other half about replacing "Maybelline" often went as follows. Him: "You need to think about replacing that van". Me: "I KNOW. I hate going shopping. And looking at vehicles after all these years....? Yuck." Him: Sigh.
I successfully avoided having to replace Maybelline for quite some time but after finally narrowing down my preferences to three vehicles over the last year I decided it was time. That was a few months ago and I've been dragging my feet, a lot. Today I had to go run errands and finally decided this might be time to go look for and find my new ride. Stopping at the same dealership from years ago, I was excited to tell someone what I was looking for, eager to see all the new and improved features and hoping that when I sat in a new Sedona I would KNOW it was the right vehicle. After all, if I loved it then I wouldn’t NEED to go drive the other two on my list!
I got out of the car and walked over to the cluster of what looked like 40 Sorentos lined up in rows. All the same vehicle…..loads of them in every color and trim option. I figured with this many of one type of automobile to choose from that I’d be able to at least look at a couple of different Sedonas also. Then the guy walked up and I found out that wasn’t the case.
For starters, he said he didn’t think they had any Sedonas but he’d go look and ran off. A few minutes later he returned and told me there were none, none of the 2018 models and definitely not any of the 2019, and THEN he informed me there wouldn’t be ANY Sedonas to look at until 12.24.18. Christmas Eve? You are waiting to restock your inventory until Christmas Eve?? Disappointment set in as I realized I wouldn’t make our goal of wrapping this buying process up by the holidays, but then I asked if there are other sister dealerships in the area, and might one of them have any Sedonas on their lots. He said no, that NO ONE has any minivans at all. Not until 12.24.18. But did I need a vehicle right away? Because if so he could put me into a Sorento without any problem. Only problem there is that I don’t want a Sorento, I want a damn minivan.
He then asked me what I was looking for and I started with the model (SXL), and managed to mention I wanted a moonroof and leather interior before he interrupted me. “Oh, so you want the top of the line fully loaded van then” he said, “because you know that’s going to be like 50k”. Nooooo, I didn’t know that. After all I’m buying one car, not several, and I own a smartphone AND a computer and we already did our research. Please don’t assume your customer is stupid and has no clue whatsoever about pricing. That’s just a really dumb way to start off a relationship.
Secondly, people who FINALLY drag themselves out to buy something don’t like hearing “No”. Why isn’t there at least one vehicle of what you sell anywhere on this lot? Couldn’t you have swapped a couple of the endless rows of Sorentos for a Sedona? You must only have a certain number of vehicle models so wouldn’t it be awesome to show people one of each? If I could have looked at one and sat in it, ooohed and aaahed over the new car smell and gadgets and dashboard, maybe we could have started a conversation. I didn’t need to drive it off the lot today but without even catching a glimpse of my new bus I couldn’t even get excited about buying. My other two choices are sitting about 40 minutes away, where I guess I will visit later this week. Remember, my list was only three vehicles long - but if I’d got to SEE my first choice today I may never have needed to drive the other two.
Third, kind of bummed out, I texted the other half on my way to an appointment, saying there were no Sedonas for me to even look at anywhere around here. He firmly believes he has identified several in the nearby area, so perhaps salesman guy was wrong. Maybe there minivans around here, but it was easier to just tell me there are none? If I have to drive 40 minutes to the next city area I’m going to be comparing the Sedona to some pretty stiff competition, and FYI none of them are in the 50k range.
Kia Motors, I waited a long time to start this conversation. How long? Fifteen years and 154,207 miles, to be exact. That’s a lot of time when we could have chosen to buy another car and hadn’t felt it was necessary, but TODAY I wanted to start the process and you didn’t. I wish you’d had a vehicle I could have been excited about, and I wish you’d had a person who wanted to show it to me.
Sincerely,
Disappointed in Delaware
A customer since November 2003
