A NIGTHMARE EXPERIENCE which still continues two months after the purchase! This was the most frustrating, horrible, stressful, experience I have ever had in my lifetime buying a car from a dealership. I should preface this by saying that I bought a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid from the same dealership about 4 ½ yrs. ago. It was not pleasant, but nothing could compare to this one. I am 68 years old. On Saturday, April 29, 2017, my wife and I walked in to the AutoNation Mall of Georgia Hyundai dealership to possibly trade in her leased Toyota Prius V for a new 2017 Hyundai Elantra. We do not live in GA, we live in Greenville SC, some 2 hours north, but since I purchased the Sonata there, and we were already in GA, I thought we would stop in on the way back home. From the very moment we spoke with the Sales rep, we told him that her car was LOADED with options and we were only interested in looking at the Elantra if we could get the SAME options. He said that was very doable. The main options she wanted were a sunroof, leather seats with both front and rear heated seats (as I have in my Sonata), and NAVIGATION. He looked up a car on the lot and priced it out for us. We told him specifically that we wanted to finance (not Lease) for 36 months with $0 down, and a payment of around $400-425 an month, and the dealership would pay the remaining balance of $3800 on the lease. So, we went to look at the car. I immediately noticed that it did not have a sunroof. The salesman said “Oh”. Since my wife was already interested in the car, thinking it was “doable”, she said she would consider doing without it. When I got in the back seat, I discovered that it did not have Rear Heat. So, again, the salesman said “oh” and again my wife said she would have to do without it. As she drove the car, we were both concentrating on the ride, feel, etc. never noticing that the car did not have NAVIGATION either. When we sat down to put the deal together, one of the many many managers came over to us and said they could not meet our financial criteria for this car. They asked us to put $$ down or add to the monthly payment terms. Frustrated, I told them maybe we could go 48 months with no $ down. Another Manager, Dan, came to us and said it was not doable even at 48 months for $448 a month, but he showed us an offer sheet that could get close if we put at least $1000 or $1500 down. I told him thank you but we didn’t have the $$ to put down. Then, the General Manager, Jeff, came over to us and sat down and explained that because of the negative position we were in with the lease balance he couldn’t do anything else. He agreed with me that we were better off paying off the balance over the next seven months on the Prius and then come back and deal when we had no car debt. I agreed,. We were already there for 2 ½ hrs. We waited for the sales rep to come back to give us our Prius keys and say goodbye. He came over to us with a smile on his face and said to me to write down on the bottom of the same offer sheet as before, and initial, the purchase terms I would accept right then and there. So, I wrote $448 a month for 48 months with $0 down, and the dealer pays off the balance of my wife’s lease, and initialed it. Again, he came back with a bigger smile this time and showed us the same offer sheet that I had written on and initialed, but he had written in big letters “ YOU WIN, THANKS!. So, we were happy that our terms were met (as we were led to believe) and began the purchasing process, and prepared the car for delivery. Then we sat with the Finance Officer (Matt) to sign all the paperwork, we discovered 2 major problems. First, the remaining months and balance due on the Prius lease were incorrect. The dealership was going to pay $3300 as the balance and not $3800, the true balance, leaving my wife responsible to SE Toyota Finance for the difference. So, we refused to sign until they verified the correct balance! When they agreed to pay the $3800, I got a note from them holding us harmless if the total balance was not paid. (not sure if what they gave us was even legally binding). They didn’t mention that there was a $350 Disposition fee when turning in the Prius that they would not pay!!! So we found out later, after the fact, that we were responsible!! Another problem was financing. The Finance Officer told us that the payment for 48 months were going to be $488, not the $448 that was on the offer letter that I initialed. Which, of course, I was never given a copy of in the final paperwork. Well then, Dan, the Manager whom we spoke with previously, came in and said to us that we AGREED to accept the terms on the original offer letter, totally dismissing what I was asked to write and initial. When I showed him the initialed offer he said to me that he had already told me earlier that they couldn’t agree to those terms, again, totally dismissing what I was asked to write and initial. So, yet again, we caved and agreed to go from 48 months to 54 months, an additional 6 months of payments……adding another $2600 to our loan. While I waited for the car to be delivered, my wife and the Sales Rep turned in the Prius to Toyota down the street, which was owned by the same dealership. While my wife was with Toyota turning in the car, she asked the sales rep if he could go back to the car and check to see if she had left any CDs in the player. He returned and said no. Of course, he was WRONG Again, as we discovered hours later, he had left her favorite double CD set of the Eagles, in the CD player. Gone, goodbye. FRUSTRATION, but par for the course. After 5 ½ hours of frustration, possible deception, and tremendous stress, we just wanted to get away from everyone associated with the dealership. BUT, as we got in the car to drive away, we discovered that the car DID NOT have NAVIGATION!!!. UNBELIVEABLE!!! After all this aggravation, the number one thing she wanted, this car didn’t have. After I marched into the General Manager’s office, the only thing he could “offer” me was to either “unravel the deal” go back to Toyota and get our Prius back, or sit down and negotiate a new, more expensive deal with a different car with Navigation….no other solution, take it or leave it.This is how you treat a repeat customer that has gone thru all of this? The bottom line was that yet again, my wife settled for using the Apple Play on her phone to get Navigation in the car. Also, we discovered last night, she doesn’t have Homelink on the mirror for the garage door opener!!!!! It just keeps getting better! What else don’t we have on this “LOADED” car. So, in the long run we settled for this car, and as you can read, I am still reeling from this experience because I no longer feel good about this car, this deal, Hyundai, and certainly nor the Dealership. I want everyone I come in contact with to know how we were treated by a dealership representing Hyundai!!! I don’t even know what can be done at this point. Hyundai has us “ Over a barrel”. Update today:: The dealership has not paid off Toyota yet…so, my wife can’t get her SC tag until it is paid. The Dearlership told us TWICE they sent the check overnight mail, but Toyota hasn’t received it as yet. Outright lies from every dept. in that Dealership!!!! Vic Sassano
Vic Sassano
Jun 13, 2017
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