Complaint Review: Stevenson Kia - Wilmington North Carolina

I'm sorry for your troubles. I wish I could offer you something more constructive but the only real lesson is - never, ever under any circumstances should you buy a Kia. It took us years to et over the financial mess that our Kia made for us. Transmissions, brake systems, electrical - all replaced on multiple occasions. There is one good part of owning a Kia - you end up learning a lot about cars. We have very few problems in our two present cars (Infiniti and Chrysler minivan) but when something does go wrong, I cna usually diagnose it based on something that happened in the Kia. Your hopes of getting Kia dealers or Kia corporate to do anything are minimal. In my worst case, they replaced the tranny (2nd time). Less than a week later, the brakes locked up - cause: tranny fluid in the brake system. The entire brake system had to be replaced ($1800) and Kia claimed that they had no fault in the matter. Like I'm pouring tranny fluid in the brake system. Right, sure. Kia corporate basically knows that their cars are crap and service is worse so they are not proactive about complaints - at least in my case. Their answer to me was "prove it". Do the best you can with your car. Get rid of it as soon as practical. And never buy a Kia again. Kia stands for killed in action. DOA - dead on arrival - would probably be a better name for the heap of trash they sold you.

I stand by my statement that people who work for car dealerships are uneducated, untalented scumbags. I have a 4 year old with better spelling and grammar than you. If car dealers could only get chimps to keep a tie on, you'd all be unemployed. Secondly, you're presumptious and arrogant like people who work for car dealerships. You have absolutely no idea of what my income, education or occupation is, so how could you surmise that you make more? I wouldn't even counter this statement because any statement I countered with would be mere hearsay, correct? I do know that people with lousy jobs try to play them up some how. People don't sell cars because they want to, they do it because they have to.

This is in response to Joe Rockhead. from the great state of New Jersey. I do agree with you that there are a lot of bad Car Dealers out there. You can find them all over this sight as well as the news. But I take great offense to the fact that you think that the people that work at a car dealership are un-educated scumbags. Here is a little bit of info for joey. I realize that you live in New jeresy which does have more than there fair share of scumbags I no because I lived there for 8 year before I retired. I work a a dealership and I make good money, I would hazzard a guess I make a lot more than you. But I work at a small family owned dealership. I could not and would not work at a Larger dealer where there are no morals and the name of the game is make as much as you can on every deal. AS for the poor customer with the KIA. Try you lemon law, and start a complaint with KIA themselves. The dealership where you bought the car should fix it. But if you have a dealer that does not like warranty work because they do not make as much, then you have a problem and will need Kia's help.

Joe, my suggestions were clear, respectful, and the best place for her to begin her efforts to try to resolve the situation. Attacking me was simply childish. Lets look at what I said for a moment, shall we? 1. I suggested she try to keep her relationship with the dealership amicable. This is just common sense! She has to try to find a solution to her problem, and the dealer will be the one to try to help her first. I commented about who built the car to attempt to direct her anger to the right company- Kia itself, not the dealer. Many times people are simply angry and that anger lashes out without direction. If she creates an adversarial relationship with the dealer she will get less assistance. Remember, the dealer is in a bad position as well. They spent money to buy the product they sold her and now after all thier work selling it, the product itself is ruining the sale. The dealer has to act on the customer's behalf to get satisfaction from Kia. The dealer didn't create the problem, but now they're left with the unenviable job of trying to fix it. 2. I further suggested if the dealership isn't helping her, she should try another Kia dealership. Again, this is common sense. She can't very well go to Korea and knock on the corporate office doors (Haven't a clue if they're actually IN Korea, mind you), so she needs someone to help her. If the first store is unwilling or unable to assist her, then another store might either find the mechanical solution or have a better idea on what Kia could do to help. Perhaps she and the first dealership are just knocking heads over this and they don't want to try to help her anymore? I don't know, but it seems to me it's a pretty good idea, regardless. Joe you seem to have a lot of anger towards either car dealers in general or me specifically. You suggest I 'troll' this site and 'defend' car dealers. Nothing could be further from the truth. A 'troll' would be someone who reads a messageboard or something similar and adds nothing to the community except useless spam or inflamatory posts. I do neither. I read the threads and respond with what I think would be appropriate actions for the consumers to take to resolve issues. More often than not I'm explaining what the dealer did which was illegal or unethical. You further suggest I 'defend' car dealers, and again you're incorrect. If the car dealership didn't do anything wrong, of course I'm going to defend them, conversely if the customer was wronged, I'm going to defend the customer. It would be the height of stupidity to simply take one side or another based on who one party was, rather than who I believed was right and who I believed was wrong. As for your last comment, I'm neither 19 nor stupid. I work in the car business because I choose to work in it. I make a good living for myself and my family by being honest and upfront with my customers. One of the great dangers of the internet is you have the ability to say anything you want pretty much without consequences. See, I try to approach what I say here just as though I was having a verbal conversation with someone. I'm sure you wouldn't talk to me the way you have here were you standing in front of me; I'd like to think you'd attempt to respect me as I've attempted to respect you.

John inherited the whole cluster of dealerships from his Dad a few years back. You will find him at one opf the dealerships every day. Which one, I donot know. He is like John Darvish of DARCARS...goes from lot to lot checking on things. I would suggest calling them and asking for him. He's bound to be at one. Get the phone numbers from www.stevensonautogroup.com. This may seem like a big pain in the a*s, but it will get your complaint heard by the top guy. As for KIA's being great, or being garbage...it's like anything else. If you get a good one, and take care of it, it will last a long time. If you get a bad one, and abuse it, it will last a very short time. If you get somewhere in between and do likewise, it will last a moderate amount of time. That 100K mile warranty is a joke though. It is pro-rated, like a battery. All makes and models have good, bad, and in-between. You may also want to start looking into NC's Lemon Laws. When Mike Easley was Attorney General, he was very good at making businesses conform. Try and contact John himself first. Keep contacting the KIA Dealership about the issues with your Sorento. Keep very detailed notes about the conversations with the Dealership personnel. Make sure you come off looking and sounding like a reasonable person. I cannot emphasize enough that obnoxious behaviour will not get you anywhere. Good luck.

Did you really think that she thought that the dealer actually built the car you arrogant piece of crap? And why do people who work at car dealerships think they're smart? Remember, you work at a car dealership because you have no skills, education or talent. She bought the car from the dealer scumbag, why should SHE have to go to the manufacturer. The dealer should handle it. And why the hell should she try another dealer? And maintain an amicable relationship?! With a car dealer? I see that you troll this site defending the actions of car dealers. It's really sad that someone could actually think that working at a car dealer is decent job. You must be 19 years old, or really stupid, or probably both.

Look, I have owned US cars of every company and some foreign ones in my life. Let me make myself clear, I own my SECOND KIA IN A ROW now !! That's right. Nothing but problems every month with the Fords and Dodge Chryslers. But Kia,............... Low Low Price for a good reliable vehicle. Sure Kia had some negative press in past few years but so did all of its Japanese Rivals once upon a time and instead of sticking their heads in the sand like the YUGOS, they toughed it out, increased their warranty, and built today far superior autos than most competitors priced under 30 thousand, especially anything made just a few years ago. Sure you can get a state of the art anything else, but why? Unless your Net Income is Big Enough to support it. I'm not paid by Kia nor affiliated, except for the part of being an honest customer. Thank you.

You do realize the dealership in question didn't actually build the car you purchased? The dealer acts as an agent on behalf of the manufacturer to facilitate the sale, but they aren't the ones you should be blaming. Kia is a less expensive vehicle for a reason - comparable to vehicles in the same class they are a lot less money, but they aren't of the same quality as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Chevy, etc. The dealer is now in a position where they are going to have to attempt to help you resolve the issue you're having. I would suggest you write a few letters to Kia itself, I'm sure Thorn or Stick have the addresses if they get around to reading this. I would suggest to you that you attempt to keep your relationship with the dealer as amicable as possible. If they're not meeting your satisfaction then perhaps another Kia dealership could help you.