Today I finally got to test drive the 2023 Ioniq 5 SEL AWD. It's a pretty amazing car. Unfortunately, the dealership was far from amazing. I'll get into that later, first let me talk about the car

The Good:

Comfortable, roomy interior
Plenty of room in the backseat, including legroom
Spacious trunk
Well thought out tech, lots of buttons for those who like them
Extremely smooth ride, suspension is setup really well
Smooth, powerful acceleration that is very linear
Quiet interior, lots of road isolation
Very efficient motors

The bad:

Lane assist is very intrusive and annoying
The shifter is on the stalk which is fine, but it's next to the Windshield wiper stalk and I kept accidentally grabbing the wiper stalk
The dealership experience (I'll talk about that later)

They let me have the car for as long as I wanted, so I drove it for about almost 30 minutes. It's among some of the best EV's I've driven, smooth as silk, very relaxing and no matter the how the bad the road, the suspension handled it with no issues. In fact I would dare to say that the suspension setup felt better than my Model Y's. Power and torque were instant, and the power comes on very linear and smooth.

The steering was very good, except the lane keep was annoying and would start to pull if I drifted too much in the lane. Turning radius was very good, I was able to execute a U-turn easily. One Pedal braking worked very well, you can change it to four different settings.

The screens were nice and clear, and the buttons easily reachable





Overall, an excellent car, my wife would love it.

OK, lets talk about the dealership. The ripping off started the moment we began to talk lease. The lease specialist (finance guy) presents me with a $5K down and $400 a month payment. LOL waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? I showed him the email I got from their dealership, for $1,999 down and $299 a month, and he kept saying stuff like we don't list the tax and license, and how there is no way you could make a $2K down payment and pay $299 a month, and some other BS I can't remember. So I pulled up the ad and showed him that Hyundai is adding in $7500 bonus cash, plus my $1,999 a month means an almost $10K down payment. He repeats again that there no way I could put down that amount and get a $299 a month. So ask him point blank: are you telling me the ad I got in my email is deceptive? He's a little shocked, I can't remember what he said but he was basically talking circles, so I pointed to my Tesla that was parked right outside where we were sitting and told him when I bought Tesla, I knew to the penny what I was paying before I even put down the deposit. He was a bit speechless after that, and then asked me what I was comfortable paying. I told him including tax and license, no more than $350 a month. So he tells me he needs to talk to the "sales manager" and disappears for almost 20 minutes.

When he comes back, he tells me if I put $3K down, my payment would be $360 a month, but I would need to put it down "right now" to keep the offer. So from $5K down and $400 a month to $3K down and $360 a month. What a bunch of of BS. This is just reinforces to me that dealerships need to go to away forever. How the heck did they come up with this nonsense, do they make it up as they go along? Anyway, I told the sales guy and finance guy that I have to go, and when you come up with a better offer, let me know and I left. These jackasses are just trying to hold on to as much of the Federal Tax credit as they can without passing it on, although they send out emails on the contrary.

Anyway, here are some more pics of the Ioniq:















Also, they had a lot full of them, including a truck that was delivering more of them

 

Thanks for the review! Such a shame about the dealer experience.

 

Pretty much the same experience I had a couple months ago at my local Hyundai dealership. I loved the car, hated the dealer games. I hope they come to their senses soon.

 

DGDG are terrible. Always have been always will be. Had some terrible experiences with that particular dealership group.

 

great review, dealer experience doesn't surprise me at all. pretty similar to my (initial) santa fe experience... initially it was something like $550 a month with a sheet of numbers that made no sense at all. as i untangled the numbers with questions i later came up with my own number... $342 a month. i was long gone when a week or more later the 'sales manager' calls and says 'i understand you're working with xxx here on a santa fe purchase. what will it take to close the deal?" i said $342 a month, no surprises. he said ok. i went back, paper was as agreed, and i was out of there pretty quick.

 

Basically if they want my business, it's $1,999 down and $299 a month plus any applicable tax and license. Any more bs and I just move on

 

i would have asked to speak to this 'sales manager' and ask why isn't this ad being honored?

 

I should have done that for sure, but I felt like that would just be a waste of time. I sent an email to the sales person with screenshot of the ad with a simple demand: $1,999 down and $299 month, take it or leave it

 

If you haven't done so, check out the leasehackr forum for some real world data points.

 

Got a call from the sales person....they are going to work very hard to get me the deal I asked for. Think about it. They are going to work very hard to get me a deal the dealership sent out advertisements on. Wow! And why do dealerships exist? Anyway, I will update this thread once they get back to me

 

You mean the deal that's literally on their own website? That one?

Keep us posted!

 

Yes...literally on their website. That one

 

You are far more patient than me I would have straight up told the dealer to go eff themselves permanently.

 

LOL I'm giving them a chance to make it right. If they don't than I'll tell them to eff off

 

I would email them back with a lower offer. When they respond I'd lower my offer again.