Hyundai Now Provides Complimentary 3-Year/36,000-Mile Basic Maintenance with New Purchase

I stopped by and took a look at the 2020 Sonata. Beautiful car imo. Might be worth getting one just for the "smaht pahk" jokes.

 

I'm pretty sure they're doing this to get the car in the garage and sell other maintenance items that are not covered. Air filters, cabin air filters, fuel filters, flushes, worn parts etc. Oil change interval and tire rotation interval of 7,500 which is normal for most Hyundai amounts to 4 free changes and amounts to what 1-1 1/2 cases of oil and 4 filters. Sale and installation labor on any one item will probably put them back ahead. We all know when that 15K or 30K mile scheduled maintenance rolls around they're going to say you need this, this and this along with your free service then you're going to be hit with a bill for $300+. Yes, you could say I don't want anything else but probably 95+% of the people will say OK do what it needs. It's also probably intended to get people in the habit of taking the car back to the dealer for everything. In the past when I've bought new cars the only time they ever went back to the dealer for anything was either warranty work or recalls. I do my own oil changes. My Versa holds 3.2qts of oil plus a filter. At current local prices I can do the oil/filter changes for under $10. and don't have to drive 35 miles to a dealer. Here's the maintenance schedule. https://www.hyundaiusa.com/maintenance-schedule/index.aspx Plenty of opportunity for up sales. I had a cousin that owned a Kia that had over 100K miles on it when she passed away. She took it to the dealer for everything and seldom came out with a bill under $300 and often $800-$1000 or more.

 

It's to best Toyota, who has been giving 2 years of maintenance for, well, years now.

 

America’s Best Warranty: 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty, 5-year/60,000-mile new vehicle limited warranty.....
It's to best everybody, which they have done for decades.
The problem with Hyundai 10 year warranties: I only used it once for our Accent. Our two Elantras, after a total of 10+ years & 148,000 miles, have never needed a repair. What good is a warranty when you never get to use it? ........... Oh..... Now, I understand!

 

My cynical nature likes Fordman's thinking.

I thought the excellent warranty by Hyundai was initially to get people to try a lesser known brand of car that presented with great value propositions to its buyers. Hyundai has proven itself to be a builder of cars as reliable as any other, and they still have a value proposition though possibly not has apparent as when Hyundai entered the US market. They now cover the full range of cars from economy to luxury and features in the mainstream that push ever higher.

As with everything, economics is at the root of all things related to business. If the reliability wasn't there, they wouldn't be able to offer the warranty and stay in business. So then it becomes a matter of marketing and one-upmanship and when everyone offers a minimum standard, a matter of survival to offer that base level. So Fordman's thoughts make perfect sense for the car dealerships to capitalize on the traffic being brought to their garage bay doors. I, too, would not go to the dealership were it not for the included service.

 

The service department doesn't check the items the say need replacing I have found. Last time the truck was in for a recall it had around 100,000 on the odometer. Dealer said I needed a new cabin air filter, I had changed it the week before. They said I needed my trans fluid changed, and I had just done the trans fluid and filter too. Yes, they're are going to go off their book telling you what's 'needed', and I agree many will do it no questions asked.

 

Similarly, when I had engine coolant replaced in November by the Toyota dealer, they gave me a print-out of things supposedly needed---including replacing drive belts, which do not exist on this model. That insulting document included scary photographs of things going awry---but not on my car, or even the same model. Their estimate to do all that mostly unneeded work was near $2k.

 

Decades ago, KIA had better repair statistics than Hyundai. So, Hyundai bought KIA. Ever since, Hyundai reliability has increased, to the benefit of both KIA & Hyundai. So much so, that KIA has mostly purchased itself, out of Hyundai.

 

Stealership wasn't coined on a whim.

 

I think it was originally aimed at VW dealers. But even my local Toyota dealer tries HARD to reach into my wallet.

 

I would have forwarded that to Toyota and my local news station.
This is pure and simple fraud.

 

Unfortunately , this is standard operating policy for most dealerships. They've been following this model since WAY
before you and I started buying cars. And as cars become more expensive and complex , so do car owners become less informed
and/or more gullible. It ain't gonna get better any time soon , so we just need to educate ourselves about our cars and keep our
eyes open. I follow the Toyota owners manual , and ignore the dealer's recommendations.

 

You should see the oil change offers I get from the Chevy dealer where I bought the vehicle, and the other, more local Chevy dealer where I get the Bolt EV serviced.

 

You can smell the desperation of ICE vehicle makers. Their real problem is their right hand never could tell what their left hand was doing.

 

In that vein, I've been noticing more attempts by my local Toyota dealership to sell tires. All cars still need, them, right? But there are so many places to get tires these days...

 

Like I've said, I get good tires from people just wanting to empty their garages. Also, like I've said, I have higher percentage, American-made tires than people get at new tire stores.

 

Yes , my Toyota dealer claims to have "competitive" prices on tires.
And they would never "lie" to me.

 

When I bought my first car in 1977 I started trying to learn something about mechanics from friends and family and how to do my own work on it when needed. I've done pretty good learning and keeping up with MOST aspects of newer cars. Other than alignments and tires I don't think I've took a car of mine to a garage but 2 times in about the past 25-30 years. Once was on a road trip when I had an alternator problem, I had an extra used alternator and tools in the trunk but one of the bolts was so tight it rounded the head and I couldn't get it loose with hand tools. I had it towed to a garage and he had to remove the bolt with an air chisel. The other was when the clutch wore out in the '88 Escort I used to drive. I'd never replaced a clutch so I wasn't sure whether I could do it or not. The weekend it needed doing I had to work that Saturday morning too. I had a friend that worked as a mechanic for a Ford dealer through the week and did some side jobs at home on the weekend. I took the car to his house on Friday night and he started working on it on Saturday morning. When I got off work at lunch he had it finished and only charged me $125. + parts. When the weather gets warm again I've got a few projects. One car I'm not using is leaking brake fluid so I need to see about fixing it. I think it's probably just a leaking wheel cylinder and a couple others need timing belt changes. I could do them on a warm winter day but I'd prefer to just wait a couple months and do it when I know it's going to be warm that way if something unexpected happens I'm not stuck with a car that's disassembled where I might lose parts before I got another nice day and the chance to finish it.