Without a car for over two weeks

<p> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 115%;">Well I've seen other people use facebook to get some sort of traction in the face of corporate apathy, so let's see if this helps. If nothing else at least I'll spreading awareness so others can maybe find a way to avoid finding themselves in a similar situation. On the 27th of April my Hyundai i20, 3 years new with only 53000km on the odometer suffered what now appears to have been a catastrophic engine failure when the timing belt became stretched, and in the course of half an hour of driving it went from struggling to idle to bring completely unable to s**** the engine. This in turn had led to the valves being bent , requiring major engine repair work. Since it was under warranty it was towed to the workshop of the hyundai dealership. First the issue was under-diagnosed, only the problem with the timing chain was identified and I was told they had to wait for parts. Once the mechanics had the parts a few days later, only then was the larger damage discovered. Then they had to wait nearly a week for more parts to arrive, before they could s**** working on it again. I've now been two and a half weeks without a car, and have just been informed that I'll only be able to expect the car back on Monday, although I've been receiving similar promises for weeks now, so who knows? I understand that bent valves are a large repair, but between Hyundai's decision to apparently keep all their spares remotely (Korea?) and the slapdash first diagnosis I can't help but feel the repair service to under-warranty cars by Hyundai is underresourced and poorly managed. <br /><br />I've been asking for Hyundai to provide me with an alternate car (certainly nothing was ever offered), but despite repeated statements from my sevice adviser that he'll look into it and try his best, "maybe tomorrow" etc nothing has been forthcoming. Fortunately I've been able to borrow my mothers car or gotten lifts into work as needed, but the burden for this has fallen on my family and I'm sad and a little ashamed to say it has inconvenienced her greatly. What s****ed out as a simple request to borrow the car for a day or two has now become a huge continuous favour and I'm going to have to find some way to make it up to her. <br /><br />In addition to all this getting through to the service personnel working on the car is always a mission through Hyundai's answering system yesterday afternoon for example my call was cutoff twice before I could speak to anyone (but after having waited for several minutes) , and the one time I did speak to someone I was "put through" and my call was promptly dropped again. This was unfortunately not that unusual. <br /><br />Sadly I have a suspection that part of the problem is that up until now I've done my best to be polite and understanding as the excuses s****ed piling up. I don't enjoy yelling at people especially the workers of an organisation who doubtlessly have little control over their work environment or priorities. However I suspect that my calm demeanour might have encouraged Hyundai to place me on a lower priority than if I had say, thrown a temper tantrum right from day one. Or perhaps it's just because I'm young, they feel I'm not worth any effort of respect. Either way I'm not going to s**** yelling at people, and I'm getting old as fast as I can, but it is a sad incitement on the way businesses operate in the modern world of that's what you need to do to get treated like anyone else. That is to say, I assume not all Hyundai customers have an experience as bad as my one, but who knows? <br /><br />I can't express enough how disappointed I've been with the service I've received from them. When I bought the car I assumed the 5 year warranty was a mark of confidence by Hyundai in the quality of their vehicles, but now it's clear that instead this is simply part of a strategy where cars are sold with inferior and fault-****e parts and the warranty is used to shield Hyundai from the consequences of their poor engineering. Once the customer has made the purchase they are clearly not a priority, and if you purchase an Hyundai it seems you can and should expect to shoulder the financial costs and practical difficulties if anything goes wrong. If you do have a Hyundai vehicle it seems you need a significant support structure or additional reserves of cash on hand at all times to pay for car hire, as there's probably a flawed part in your vehicle and when it breaks you'll be left to fend for yourself. Warranty or no, you'll still have to pay for Hyundai's failings.</p> <p> </p>