My Grand Hyundai Experience

My Grand Hyundai Experience

I had a Hyundai i10 for a few years, that my parents and I paid for. In late June 2017, I went to Hyundai to trade in my Hyundai i10 for another Hyundai, because I very much trust the brand, and I feel they are very reliable cars. I wanted to pay for it myself , and it would have been the first car I had ever bought. I was assisted by Ryan the salesman, who had helped my parents buy their car previously. We liked him because he had energy and seemed really interested in helping me find the right deal. The trade in value of my i10 was R60 000. I originally wanted another , newer model of the i10, because I liked the car so much. Ryan told me there is no way I could afford that, with my budget of around R1800-R2000 per month. He pushed me towards buying an i10 Grand, and even though we thought this was cheap for a better car, we thought we were getting a great deal. I got the car after the finance was approved, which was at the end of June. I didn’t get the license disc for about a month after that, and Ryan kept telling me that It’s nearly here, I must just be patient. I didn’t have the plates and the jack was only half correct. It was the correct base, but was missing the handle part of the jack, which fits together with the tire spanner the make the jack work. I had been replaced by a bent piece of steel, which I only realized was not correct when I had a flat tire in the middle of Chatsworth during rush hour. I couldnt manage to jack my car up and was terrified. Luckily a passerby came to help me. I had complained to Ryan about this multiple times over the phone, so after this incident I phoned him and said that I needed this sorted. He asked me to drive to Hyundai Pinetown, and park outside, by the taxi rank, where he snuck the correct jack into my boot. He asked me to “please not tell his manager”. He then asked me to drive to the front of Hyundai where he could put on my plates. I probably should have reported him then, but I felt bad for him, he seemed like a nice man who was just having a hard time at life. I didnt have a spare key either, and it only arrived when Ryan delivered it to my parents house, about 3 months later or so. I left all these issues, because I didn’t want to get Ryan fired and the car seemed lovely. I moved to a farm area close to Dundee which is 4 hours away 4 months ago. While driving on the farm roads, I noticed dust was getting into my car, even with the air vents and windows closed. The plastic body in the boot came apart slightly, and I thought that maybe the boots sealing was just faulty. I took it Hyundai at the end of February for its 60000km service, and told the floor manager Salome, about my issue. After the service, she said I must take it to a panel beater just to get a quote to say what is actually wrong, so that they could fix it, as the mechanics couldn’t find the fault. I asked to speak to Ryan, and she said that he no longer works at Hyundai Pinetown. I took it to their referred panel beater (Body Rite) right away. The mechanic said that the car had been in a major accident. He confirmed the following faults • The air vent covers in the boot were missing, hence the dust. • There was a large crack in the chasse in the boot area. • The bolts used on the top of the boot were not original as they weren’t painted the same colour as the car • There was a ***** missing that held the top frame of the boot to the chasse. • There were patches of metal blobbed around the boot. • The rear bumper was not in line with the rest of the body, and nor was the right rear light. • There was so much body filler in the back of the car, that a magnet struggled to stick to it. The mechanic that looked at my car was shocked that they could sell me a car that had been in such an accident without telling me before the sold it to me. I took it back to Hyundai, and spoke to Robert and Venesh, who assured me they would replace my car, even get me a new one if they could. I said I would be happy with a newer second hand i10, as that’s originally what I wanted, and I didn’t want to make their job more difficult. It turns out that the i10 Grand didn’t even have a COR, and Robert seemed unsure of how it was sold without one. Within a week, they chose a car for me, and my dad went to see it as I am 4 hours away. The paper work was relatively smooth, and the next day I had my white i10, which I assumed was a swap for the faulty i10 Grand. I was very happy. I got a call from a financer on 12/03, confirming my payment schedule, and all seemed right until he mentioned my “balloon payment”. I hadn’t known that I signed up for a balloon payment scheme, because I made it very clear to Ryan the first time that I hadn’t wanted that, as I couldn’t afford that. Surely, if I paid R60 000 towards the i10 Grand, then that R60 000 was to be taken off the amount of the new i10? I gave the i10 Grand back to Hyundai because they sold it to me after being in an accident, without COR, with massive body defects. My dad went into Hyundai to ask about it, and he was told I had “traded the car in”, which is not correct, because I gave their broken, un-roadworthy car back to them and asked for a new one. Overall, I’m really unhappy with the service I have received from Hyundai Pinetown, and at this stage, I’m happy to take my deposit and buy from another brand, even though my family and I do really like Hyundai.

No one has gotten back to me for over a week now, and we are one step from taking this further than it actually needs to.

When I do phone in, I'm told that because I drove a broken car for 9 months that I have to pay for it.

The Manager Mark has never rep**** to my emails, and Venesh, the floor manager is rude, condescending and probably the least helpful manager I've ever come across.