BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Got a few updates regarding my Equus experience.

2 weeks ago, the Equus specialist at Hyundai corporate that I talked to called me back and told me Hyundai haven't forgotten me, the cars will arrive at the dealer in 2 weeks. As soon as the cars arrive, the Equus specialist at my local dealer will call me to arrange the test drive. She was extremely nice, friendly and professional. It was an impressive call

The Equus specialist at my local dealer just called me and told me the 1st car arrived yesterday, exactly 2 weeks after the corporate girl called me, so that is nice. But the only thing the local salesman wants to know is what color combo I am looking for and if I am buying one as soon as he got one for sale......yeah that's a huge turn off. I was like this car is brand new to the world, so you think I want to buy a $65k Hyundai without even ever seeing one?

As soon as he got the feel that I am not ready to buy, he changed his tone to a typical low level car salesman. He just told me he will call me as soon as he got a car that is available for test drive.

Strike one for Hyundai's attempt for trying to be high class

I am losing interest to test drive the Equus already, I don't enjoy talking and dealing with low level car salesman type.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

^^^

Sounds unfortunate that you got a call from a dealer instead of the Specialist that first contacted you.

I hope you have a more pleasant experience when you do get a chance to look, feel, and drive it.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Well, call up corporate and tell them your story.
Just b/c of that salesman, they lost a potential customer and what's worse is telling the forum your experience. Most dealers hate that

Also, I would express if this is sales, I wonder how service is going to be.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Well I scheduled the personalized demonstrations with the corporate website, corporate then pass the list of interested people's info to the local dealer for them to contact. Supposedly only selected dealers are trained to sell the Equus with a highly trained Equus Specialist.

With that phone call I just got from the local guy, he is not highly trained enough to sell a highend luxury car because he is sure not very pleasant to talk to.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah I will be sure to let Hyundai's corporate know my disappointment after my test drive, if I even go thru with it. That salesman tone of voice made me lose interest of even test driving the car. Me, as an owner of a 05' LS430 UL and a 06' SC430, is target demographic for the Equus.

The service will be a bunch of 18 years old lot boys picking up your $65k car from your house and joy riding it, street racing, doing burn out from light to light and drifting it all the way to the dealer for another 18 years old kid to work on it. The service will be wonderful. They will bring the car back with burning smell and dripping oil under the car And if you are not satisfy with it, they will come back and do it again. Best of all, if you complain about the kids, they know where you live!

The idea is so the Equus owner will never have to visit the crappy Hyundai dealer for anything. It is a wonderful idea, it would work if they hire a bunch of highly pay professionals. But you know they will hire a bunch of minimum wage high school kids to do it. The Ferrari salesman I got a test drive in a few months ago was extremely careful and professional, I fully trust that guy. A bunch of low paying kids hired by Hyundai, not so much.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

From talking to the local salesman, it doesn't sounds like they will have a demo car just for test drive, every Equus they get is a brand new one for sales only.

That is why they don't want all the random people to test drive it, they only want you to buy the few cars that they are getting.

This would be ok for Ferrari, but for Hyundai trying to break into the highend market, is a major failed. Everyone is already skeptical about Hyundai being able to make a high quality highend product and they are not letting the general public to try it 1st..........wow this is worse then I thought.

Even my local Ferrari dealer had a demo "California".

So for Hyundai:

Strike 1: Not having a separate brand and dealer network for their premium line.
Strike 2: Having low level salesman selling high level products.
Strike 3: No demo vehicles for test drive.

Even AMG is having a bunch of free test drive events, anyone with a driver license can abuse their fleets of demo C63, E63 and SL63. I thought that is crazy.

Time is changing, any Joe can test drive a $150k AMG SL63 and Hyundai is reluctant to let people drive their 1st attempt $65k luxury car. This is a funny world we live in.

vipism

not to knock on the ls460 and equus, but I think the biggest sleeper in the luxo car segment is the 2010+ buick lacrosse. You can get a fully loaded 6 banger in the 35k range, has about the same presence as the ls and equus, great looking, nicer interior.

mikez

I have been reading this and its funny how your reaction changed from the beginning of the thread to the end.

Hyundai seriously needs to read this.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

I was thinking Hyundai would bent over backward to ask people to test drive the Equus, I guess not. I guess the success of the Sonata and Genesis is making them arrogant now. Is funny when you walk onto a Hyundai dealer now, their salesman make you think they are selling Bentleys.

They would know why the Equus failed after they read this

I don't think the car would fail though, after all it should be decent and it is cheap. Especially when you can buy a used one for $25k-$30k after 2-3 years. Umm a new Sonata or a slightly used Equus

G Star

iTrader: (2)

Dang, there is some haterade being passed along for consumption in this thread. I'm not a personally interested by Hyundai but I have been in an Equus before and I was impressed by the quality and their boldness for going about this. Half of Hyundai's current line up is now new and improved that competes with Toyota and Honda-with more to come.

As for the salesman trying to be greedy, he needs to get checked. Who knows how many greedy salesmen already turned off potential buyers.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Well to be fair this is not Hyundai's fault, but rather the individual dealers fault. However, when dealing with whats still is arguably a second rate automaker, you cant expect professionalism from their dealers.

msgs350

iTrader: (2)

I can't believe i read this thread from start to now! Interesting that like alot of you said, Hyundai Corporate wants to give high end personal service but with low end employees....not gonna work for me. As for the car..no thanks! Can't see myself spending 65k on a Hyundai (although i know there isnt a Hyundai badge on it) nor would i buy on for 30k used in a couple years. When shopping luxury...i never consider value!

TRDFantasy

Sad to hear what happened. Looks like Hyundai is trying to take shortcuts in offering a luxury service experience, similarly to how they take shortcuts in engineering their vehicles.

Unfortunately for Hyundai, shortcuts won't work in the luxury market, no matter how many times you come to a person's home or how many iPads you offer to them.

I know this does not directly apply to the conversation at hand, but I recently read a review of the Equus that mentioned high speed handling and stability in the car was "scary" at speeds above 100 mph. Not exactly a good thing given the price segment the Equus will be competing in.

Yes this is not directly Hyundai's fault, but to an extent, Hyundai still has responsibility for their dealers. At the end of the day the customer doesn't really care who's fault it is. They see the Hyundai logo at the dealership, and a bad experience can turn them off the brand in general.

mikez

Yeah their dealers are getting cocky, I took my parents in to check out the Gensis in our 400h and we heard an earful about how much we over paid for our car because whatever SUV they had cost so much less, gets about the same mile and handles better.

My dad almost got in a verbal fight with the sales manager if I didnt drag him outta there lol

LexFather

Wow thanks for the update. Hopefully for them this is an isolated incident but I doubt it. This is exactly why I say any comparisons to the original LS are silly. Lexus/Toyota studied the wealthy and those consumers for near a decade. Lexus completely raised the bar on not just automotive customer service but customer service for all industries.

Hyundai is still a brand that has low rent dealers and sells to low rent/ bad credit consumers. I just don't see how they could sell this car with the same personnel. I think a value Genesis buyer can overlook it but a buyer like the O.P?

This sounds like the VW Phaeton all over again