So, here's perhaps a precautionary tale for anyone still awaiting delivery/VIN information. I will apologize in advance if this runs long. It's been a very frustrating couple of days.
SO - I was told by my dealer that "within 3 weeks" I would have my car. Week one - silence. No problem that's to be expected. Week two - silence. Odd, I thought I'd have a VIN or at least a text from my dealer saying that it'll be here on X day. This upcoming Monday will be exactly 3 weeks from when my dealer told me my vehicle would be in. I messaged her yesterday for more information. She replied promptly that there have been no updates, no information and they have received no vehicles for any of their orders. So I asked when I could expect my vehicle, to which she replied "It could be a while.." Keep in mind - I was completely open to colours so my order was submitted without any selection and therefore no VIN was ever assigned.
So I was a little disappointed. I had a trade in with an agreed-upon value on the line and I asked her if the vehicle took another month to arrive whether Hyundai would still honour the trade in value they'd appraised. She said she would have to speak with her manager. I called 3 local Hyundai dealerships within a 30 minute drive of my house. One had 5 units coming in on the 28th, 3 of which had been sold and 2 of which were canceled orders. The manager was happy to sell me one as they had no other orders on their books. The other had 3 coming in the first week of Feb, 2 of which were sold and one that was canceled. Again, he would be happy to sell me the canceled order if I wanted it. The third dealership I called had received 5 units already, 3 of which were sold, 2 of which were canceled orders that they decided to keep anyway. As the sales person was on the phone with me, one of the 2 available units were being test driven and would likely be sold. I told him I would be in tomorrow (today) to have a look.
I immediately texted my original sales person and told her to cancel my order because I'd found one available for sale TODAY. A couple of hours goes by and the GM from my original dealership called my cellphone asking me where I had found one and what would it take to keep my sale. I told them I was EXTREMELY disappointed that I was able to do my sales persons job in about 5 minutes on my drive home and that I was told they would actively look for a vehicle for me. He told me he understood and would speak to the dealer principal and regional manager in the morning to discuss our options. I told him I wouldn't make any decisions until I heard from him.
At midnight that same evening, I got a text stating that he had been on the phone with the dealer principal as well as the regional manager for the last few hours and that they show no available stock at any dealership in Ontario and that what I had been told was a lie because dealers are mandated to send all unsold stock or canceled orders BACK to Hyundai so that they could continue to fulfil confirmed orders.
I messaged him back this morning stating that I would tell him if it was true or not when I arrived at the dealership. I got to the dealership a couple of hours later and sure enough - there was the beautiful red Kona electric fully charged and ready for my test drive as promised. I told the GM of that dealership what my initial dealer had told me and he said he had never heard of that and that the vehicle available for sale within their stock system. So I test drove the car, canceled my sale at the initial dealer and signed with the new dealer. They were completely honest, honoured my initial trade-in value even though I had another 3,000 km on the vehicle and gave me a decent deal on all weather mats, cargo tray and tint.
When I canceled the original deal, the GM was livid and said that whatever dealership I was at (never told him) would face consequences for not following the rules. I told him that his regional manager didn't give him correct information because I physically sat in and drove a vehicle that he told me "didn't exist".
Moral of the story. DO NOT wait for your dealer to find you a car if you don't have one allocated to you yet. Do your own search, call around and if you find one but want to maintain a relationship with your dealer - tell them where it is and to bring it in for you. I would have done that with my dealership but they told me the vehicle didn't exist and that the dealership I was talking to was lying to me.
On a more positive note - I'm the proud new owner of a 2019 Kona Electric - delivery scheduled for this coming Monday!
