Wow at least it makes me feel somewhat better I'm not alone after reading this thread!
I've been to service a few times and have had the same stuff happen:
- Cleanliness: I've mostly had Mustangs since I started driving with one BMW and a GTI mixed in and nothing has prepared me for this level of service. Ford is not a premium brand, nor is Kia (as much as they want to pretend with us with the "VIP" Stinger line) but Ford has the "devils in the details" straight in terms of techs working on cars and keeping them clean. Whether I went to dealerships in NJ, NY, PA, FL, VA, even overseas in Bahrain, the same cleanliness standard applied. The Kia dealership here doesn't use any paper
floor mats, no plastic on the
seat, no nothing really, and even a simple oil change the car is a total mess! Greasy prints on the exterior, dirt ALL over the carpet (how can there be that much on a shop floor!), slimy steering wheel, etc. That was never even something that I thought about in previous oil change services in any of those 3 brands I previously owned new. My local Ford dealer even put the Mustangs GTs in a separate garage, vice outside, with an appreciation that some Mustang GT drivers were probably meticulous in the care of their cars. The Mustang is not titular "flagship" but a GT Convertible is an equally expensive car to a Stinger GT2, yet Ford offers basically the same clean level of service when doing an oil change for a base Ford Escape to a $50k+ Mustang GT Convertible. My mom owns a base Escape which was less than $20k and her car isn't a mess after an oil change! And yet my Kia GT2 is... But we are the Kia "flagship" and get treated like garbage. It's sad. I have to go home and spend time cleaning up after taking it to service, which is pathetic. Didn't have to do that with Ford, BMW, or VW with new cars at the dealership. I thought it was just my local dealership but you guys are encountering the same lack of attention to detail. Next time I will try to get money from them so I can go to a car wash and get it vacuumed afterwards. I can't believe I have to even have those thoughts buying a $50k+ car. I made a huge mistake. It's not that Stingers should get preferential treatment, it is just the standards need to be raised all together for simple stuff like oil changes where the person isn't cleaning up their car afterwards. It's UNSAT for any car let alone an expensive one.
Warranty 1: It is just a challenge getting an oil change with this car at a Kia dealership, without your car being messed up, so of course any warranty work I've encountered is just as much fun. My Stinger had alignment issues around 6k miles. The Kia warranty clearly states that "service adjustments" are including in the warranty up to 1 year / 12k miles, which includes alignments, tire rotations, etc.. Of course, the dealership would not recognize that. Kia doesn't stipulate in their warranty if it caused by potholes or driving methods, it just says you can get an "adjustment". So I just wanted an "adjustment," as my $50k car was already out of alignment in less than 10k miles. Of course I was accused of driving the car too aggressively or hitting too many potholes - but that's not the terms and conditions we bought the cars with from Kia (and I didn't - I can hardly get up to the speed limit where I live let alone drive aggressively). Just like another poster mentioned, what good is this "amazing" Kia warranty if the dealers don't honor it or don't have a clue what the terms and conditions are? Kia Corporate made a very reasonable term and condition where if your brand new car less than a year old and 12k miles needs a tire rotation or alignment they'd honor it as an adjustment because that sucks to have a brand new car that needs one. That's a great perk from a manufacturer. But when you get forced to charge it to your credit card instead, that's not what was advertised when we bought this vehicle. My Mustang I had from 2011-2018 maybe needed 2-3 alignments in all those years in wayyy worse road conditions and 19" wheels vs 18" and many more miles than the Stinger has dealt with. Did Ford offer alignment in their warranty? No, I don't think so. However, their product did not go out of alignment anytime as soon! So to have to align a car 6 months in is not cool and then pay for it when the warranty says otherwise is just pathetic. So it has really made me distrust this corporate Kia and this brand that they pretend to offer services that they really don't give and their vehicles can't hold up. I've called the "VIP" line multiple times in regards to this and my "case manager's" voice mail is full, never answers the phone, and she gave me her email once and I tried that and to no avail. When you call her co-workers they claim to leave "skype messages" for her but never any contact back. I mean WTF. Don't have warranty terms to entice buyers if you aren't going to abide by them!
Warranty 2: This is an unfinished warranty issue but something to mention regardless. As I have the dreaded Stinger brake vibration/pulsation/shimmy, whatever you want to call it ,and brought it in to the dealership. They went on a test drive with me and the tech def noticed the issue when he was driving so after that they were a little more amenable to bring it in for further analysis but what is shocking/irritating is before that I was accused that it was my fault because I was too aggressive with the car. Which I was taken aback with because that should not be the standard response for all Stingers as that's the 2nd time I got it too aggressive reservation from them. First off, Kia markets this as a "grand touring" vehicle so a hot rod it is not according to their corporate bosses. It also just isn't that type of car as well. This is no Mustang. I bought it to be practical and have 4 seats and a hatchback for storage yet still have some pep. I just had a 412 hp Mustang before which is much more visceral than a Stinger and yet I was never accused of anything when I brought it to Ford for warranty work. Ever. This accusation process against customers owners of a "premium" that's a "grand touring" vehicle is so sad. It's far from a hot rod for owners to be accused like that. If I didn't getting accused of that from Ford when driving a muscle car, why am I when driving a refined, grand touring vehicle? Why do the dealerships even have that in their vernacular?
Overall, though, the car itself is still REALLY good (besides the brakes). In my commute, and it still makes me smile how smooth and elegant it can be but also has healthy torque to make things enjoyable even if you're stuck in traffic. Well, until I have to brake of course. But even that braking is a small issue in the big scheme of things (just give us proper pads and rotors) if the dealers and the corporation really cared. That braking issue can be solved so simply by them caring. They don't. This is a quite a good car being stymied by lack of corporate oversight of dealerships (or dealership standards overall) and lack of true customer service. The pretend "VIP" line is a joke and I've tried over and over again for it to be a conduit for hope that they care but they really don't after many calls.
Any prospective buyers that read these forums, caveat emptor.
Kia claims to have stepped up their game but it is nowhere near that yet. The Stinger is still overall a great vehicle itself (besides the brakes) but nobody should have to dread an oil change for any car, or have to fight for a warranty item, at an official dealership let alone for a $50k+ car as their car will need a detailing afterwards with the standards in place at Kia dealerships. A Quick Lube at a car wash is a better alternative than a Kia dealership. So sad...
