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Kona Saga, it draws to a close. (Or not who knows)

48K views 483 replies 69 participants last post by  mikeiow 
As you may be aware, we went through similar with Kia over an e-Niro delivered in November with no heating. Delay on parts. Car off the road for over 3 months. Had to push really, crazy hard for a loan car which came from Kia GB.
We delayed rejecting ours as it suited us to keep the loan car until we were clearer about the impact Covid would have on my wife’s new hybrid/working from home commuting mileage.

We rejected it formally once we’d bought something to replace it as a stop gap, a 2017 Leaf Tekna 30.

The consumer protection act does state that the supplier should return you back to the financial state you were in prior to taking delivery. If the car is leased or on finance, they have to refund you all of the rentals/payments to the point the fault was reported which in our case was within 2 weeks of delivery, so that’s all rentals including the initial payment.

However the act also makes provision for them to charge reasonable depreciation for the time you had use of the car.

Our e-Niro was leased. I chose to see it as reasonable that their settlement offer was:

Refund of all rental payments made (including the initial payment, less a mileage charge for that covered in my wife’s car, plus that on the loan car.

They charged 35p per mile if I recall correctly.

I think the deduction totalled around £1,000 after it was pro-rated off against the mileage allowance included with the lease

Whilst the way in which Kia GB dealt with us and the local dealer trying to fix it was utterly appalling throughout, and whilst I believe the supplying dealer knowingly delivered a faulty car, I didn’t expect to have use of my wife’s car or put mileage on their loan car for free. I did expect some compensation over and above given the poor customer experience. There was nothing.

If it were me, I’d keep hold of the loan car until I were happy with the offer. But they know it’s doubtful you’ll take this to court no matter what you might think now.

In the end I chose to accept little old me was not going to be the person who’d ever make Kia GB recognise how utterly appalling and unfair they are at customer service. Once I got there I realised the stress and wasted time just wasn’t worth the cash or fighting a principle.

Appreciate yours was purchased and the WBAC offers will be at current mileage. Personally I’d be inclined to go back with a figure somewhere between your abs theirs and if that doesn’t work, take theirs, walk away as fast as possible and forget this ever happened. It’ll eat you and your time up, time which is worth much more than a bit of money. Life’s too short.

That said, If you’re not going to give in just yet, I’d definitely suggest logging this with the FCA/Financial Ombudsman. Once you do that a clock starts ticking with key points where Hyundai have to have taken actions or they get fined repeatedly until they do. It definitely got BMW FS moving when we had to reject another car back in 2012.

Good luck with this - It reads like you’ve got good sound legal advice.
I understand that the Ombudsman will only be interested if it is a dealer as Hyundai UK are not registered with them!

I think I would be tempted to await their full and final offer and then if there is still a significant price difference go to the Small Claims Court for the difference - simpler, quicker and less expensive.
 
Well we heard back from SMMT (ombudsman)

was not expecting a lot of help, was advised that they would most probably tell us to take up rejection with the dealer as this is the correct route

but they have come back and said they will take in the complaint via Hyundai direct as the importer as they have said in writing they are dealing with it

so now waiting for it to be assigned and willgo forward from there
Great news.
 
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Well we heard back from SMMT (ombudsman)

was not expecting a lot of help, was advised that they would most probably tell us to take up rejection with the dealer as this is the correct route

but they have come back and said they will take in the complaint via Hyundai direct as the importer as they have said in writing they are dealing with it

so now waiting for it to be assigned and willgo forward from there
That makes me wonder that as many of us have a letter from Hyundai UK from Apr 21 stating there is a manufacturing defect and a subsequent letter stating that it may be 18 months from the first acceptance that there was a safety defect before a repair is attempted (Oct 22) whether the Ombudsman would get involved with the broader issue.
 
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After months of effort and more than 80 emails I now have the money from Hyundai after rejecting my Kona owing to the battery safety fault. With no clear idea when it would be fixed I wanted rid of the car. They paid me £3k more than I could find anywhere else for the car if it had non faulty battery.
 
I really feel for you. Hyundai UK’s response to anything awkward always appears to be to delay and prevaricate. Took me around 8 months to get my car rejected. However, that turned out to be of benefit as my replacement should now only be about 4 weeks away! At the moment they are still struggling to collect it as they appear unable to tell me to who the V5c should be transferred. So it would appear their delay and prevarication is inability as opposed to any malicious intent.

Intereresting what you said about the MG. I also contacted 2 local dealers. One responded with a generic email and when I replied with a few questions I got no response. Never heard from the other one. Therefore, like you I would be concerned about their response once they had my money.

Taking a deep breath and buying an interim ICE may well be the best option for you.
 
QUOTE="stageshoot, post: 3117301, member: 7508” regards the V5. Make sure you do an online notification to the DVLA.

That is my intent. However, when I asked them which section of the V5c I should complete?
“Either: Section 2 'Selling or transferring my car to a new keeper (not a trader) or Section 4 'Selling, transferring or part exchanging this vehicle to a motor trader'.
They first said Section 2. so I asked for the names of the new keeper inc First and Second name! Hyundai then said just post the V5c to them! No said I. They then said lock it in the car! Again I said no. Had to explian that when they take the car away it must be in another name so that if there were any problems such as speeding or parking fines they would not come back to me. They said ‘but it will be on a low loader to Tilbury” Again, I explained that once the car is at Tilbury I would have no idea who may have access to it.

My last statement was to either get someone at their end to transfer the title online or tell me precisely who to transfer the title too.[/QUOTE]
 
I am surprised you are even considering a Kona given this thread, and several others about the 12v battery going flat,
The 12v issues are not limited to the Kona.
 
Sorry but most EVs don't have 12v problems, maybe Koreans EVs do.
The reason is that the BMS is supposed to top up the 12v battery by monitoring 24/7. Only if the HV battery is too low would it not charger the 12v one. Leaf's do this and I@m pretty sure many others do too.

It's clear from the many posts on here, that Hyundai have failed to implement this for some reason otherwise no owners would ever have this problem. The fact that they cannot issue a firmware update to fix it suggests that there is a hardware flaw which prevents it. (e.g the BMS can't activate the DC-DC supply when the vehicle is powered down)
No it is not true that Hyundai have failed to implement the battery top up as my 2018 doe sthis about every 4 hours and I am on the original battery. So, some Konas have had this problem, not all and not the majority. Maybe because the 12v battery has been deeply discharged owing to boots not being closed, or the car electrics being used without fully switching on or because the techs when working on the car have not connected a booster pack…...
 
No they have gone radio silent.

Grinds my gears that they send (or don't send) letters and demand a response in 7 days

But dont reply or even confirm receipt of communication sent to them

It's rude and disrespectful
They go silent even on things that would seem to be to their advantage. I got the money in my account on 28 Oct for my rejected Kona. However, I still have the car as they have yet to contact me about the collection.
 
Dealers charge manufacturers a standard storage fee in such circumstances. A dealer friend of mine ended-up being given the car because the storage fee had gotten so high the manufacturer offered to let them keep it instead of paying the outstanding storage!

You could send Hyundai a quote for future storage : £15/week sounds reasonable :)
The car is going to be taken to Tilbury via low loader so I am not sure there will be any storage fees.
 
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I know its crazy I still keep coming back to Konas on my search to replace, have to bang my head on desk to instill sense, at least the MG is a close run for features so will give that 6 months and see,
Will be really interested in your MG experience.
 
I think we all are.
Noticed a new review here…
Been looking a bit more at this and a little disappointed by the expected range:
However, for 2022, MG added new battery sizes to the ZS EV line-up, with the Long Range version capable of covering 273 miles on a full battery, which we found was easy to come close to when we drove the car. When we picked our test car up it had 98% charge and showed us a predicted range of 267 miles, which rose to 280 miles if we switched into Eco mode. Over 127 miles of motorway, B-roads and city streets the ZS EV Long Range averaged 3.7 miles per kWh, which translates to a real-world range of around 252 miles.

The Ioniq 5 AWD boasts 267 miles.
 
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Yes, I thought that there was a 6 month minimum requirement but my nearest Dealer tells me that he is keeping his EV6 Demo for 2 years. Presumably there is no maximum time limit.
Which version of the EV6 have you gone for? Do you know that the servicing intervals are?
 
Seems odd if the Air is their demo model as I thought all the dealers had a batch of GT line S models delivered as demo cars. At least thats what seemed to be happening.
Anyway its a great drive and I was well impressed with the afternoon test drive I had. Seemed a possible replacement for our i-Pace if we decided to swap it.
The dealer I spoke to also said all the demo cars were GT S Line.
 
DPA Again they wont release the details.
Just ask them to give the previous owner your contact details and ask them to phone you. No DPA...
 
It is a pity they do not offer those seat sin the higher spec models as I really hated the suede seat on offer - one of the things that stopped me going for the EV6.
 
I don't. You have been careful all the way through to make clear that your beef is with Hyundai, not with the car. Like I said, thanks for the tale, and I really hope you enjoy the EV6 - it looks like a great car.
I also really liked the KONA but the Hyundai customer service (SIC) and especially the Executive Team were woefully inadequate.
 
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