Hyundai Mississauga
I bought in August 2007 a Hyundai Santa Fe. I noticed about two months ago a rust on my driver’s side door (inside of the car), which I took to the dealer to have it inspected. I first of all need to clarify that I have purchased this vehicle at the Hyundai Mississauga dealer, and since I had moved to the city of Oakville right after purchasing the vehicle in August 2007, I decided to start servicing the car at the dealer located in Oakville instead, just for convenience.
The first comment the dealer in Mississauga had to make when I took the car for inspection was that I had not been servicing the car at their dealer reason for why they could not deal with the claim, as it would required too much paperwork for them to justify this claim to the head office. I alluded to the fact that I had bought the car there as well as the rusting protection for the car at the time of purchase, however, they mentioned that this policy only covers for rust damages caused on the outside of the vehicle not on the inside. This for me does not make sense. I followed their recommendation to take the car to the dealer when I usually do service it, the Oakville dealer. The Service manager at the Oakville dealer, Mr. Steve Allum, ask if I had bought the rust proofing, and asked for me to show it to him. When he looked at it, he mentioned that his dealer does not deal with the Diamon protection plan, that they have a completely different plan and that therefore he recommended me to take the car back to the dealer where I have purchased it from. This immediately to me sounded incorrect, as I was felt that no one wanted to take ownership for the claim neither wanted to provide the customer service any client deserves, even more for a car that was at the time only 18 months old.
I took the time again to contact the dealer in Mississauga to update the service manager Mr. Kohli about the conversation that I had with Mr. Allum, of course he said that his statement was completely wrong and that he was going to call him to discuss.
Three weeks after I did not have any response from neither of the two, despite the follow ups. At the end Mr. Kohli mentioned that he had agreed with Mr. Allum that the Oakville dealer would take care of fixing the door. To my surprise, after dropping off the car on 6 Jul 09, I got a call from Mr. Allum on 7 Jul 09 indicating that they had determine that they can not fix the door properly but have decided to put some kind of patch on the rust, as it was felt that I had caused the rust with the scratches caused by my shoes by getting in and out of the car. I have to say that this is the lamest excuse they could have come up with. Since when the cars rust by the contact they have with your shoes for getting in and out of a car. The recommendation that Mr. Allum had given me is that I need to take the car to a body shop for proper fixing, which could cost in the range of the $300 dollars he indicated, and that they were not going to assume responsibility for paying for this repair as it was considered outside of the car warranty.
I decided to follow up directly with Hyundai Canada to seek their advice, and was unfortunately turned down. The customer service department rep at Hyundai Canada told me that they can only go with what the dealer is telling them, and if they say that I had caused the scratches, there is then nothing they can do about it. I told the lady that I can not believe that they would jut wash their hands and not provide the Customer Service that someone’s deserve. I even told her that if that was the case I would return the car to the dealer. The response of their rep was that I can do whatever I wanted to since the car has already been paid by the bank, so basically they did not care what I did with it. As you can understand this is extremely disappointing and frustrating, even more so knowing that I still have a couple of more years to go paying the car. If the car is going to start falling into pieces from the inside out and they are not going to be responsible for responding for this then I do not want this car. This is the reason why I bought a new car, if I wanted to have a car that falls into pieces, I could have easily bought a used car for that matter.
I am writing to you to seek your advice and look at the possibilities that I have for making them pay for the repair. The clean up work the dealer did its very poor, I even noticed that the rust on the door is coming form underneath a plate that is sitting by the door foot step, so how I can my shoes get underneath this plate and also cause this kind of rust? In case needed, I do have pictures that I took to show exactly where the rust it’s actually located and also for anyone to look at the quality of the job the Oakville dealer performed. I am very concern about the lack of service Hyundai Canada and their dealers provide, specifically post-purchasing of a car.
I thank you in advance for your advice and attention to this matter.
Lizbeth Carmona
Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for the post. I recently purchased a vehicle through Mississauga Hyundai. Now I am a bit wary of going back for service.
I suggest you file a complaint through OMVIC (we all paid for this when buying a new car)
http://www.omvic.on.ca
Hopefully they will be better equiped to assist you.
October 31st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
If you feel that HACC did not resolve your problem why don’t you take pictures of the rusted area and send them in?
I’ve been in the automotive business for over 30 years. There’s rules and procedures that have to be followed as well. The consumer also has reponsabilities. If, by getting in and out of the car you drag your feet against the running board, causing the paint to wear and expose the bare metal, the manufacturer can’t be held responsible. I assume you’ll understand that. No manufacturer out there will pay for repairs that are behond their control.
Hyundai’s policies are very simple.
March 4th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Hyundai Canada is completly useless when filing any concerns or complaints with them. In the end my dealership, Cooksville Hyundai in Mississauga came thru for me, the customer,because to them it is extremely important to have and keep unlike Hyundai Canada. Customer service is just a joke to them.
Thanks.
May 31st, 2010 at 8:33 am
I had a similar situation with my wife’s 2007 Santa Fe. Rust started to form around the rear hatch window. The vehicle is not even 3 years old and still under warranty yet they refused to fix it saying it is only covered to 60K for rust warranty (the vehicle has 74K). I have a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder with 155 K…no rust. We had considered buying a Tucson as a second vehicle to replace my Pathfinder, we are reluctant to buy another Hyundai. We paid $42K for our loaded Santa Fe, this vehcile was not cheap, I expected better service.
July 19th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
I was looking for purchasing a Hyundai Tucson at Mississauga Hyundai as well. But after I did some researches, I just dont see how much more value of hyundai you could get for the same money. Similar equipped Subaru costs the same plus it has more resale value.
I also heard a lot of bad story of Hyundai’s service department. For example, they tried to sell you other useless services that are not required and claiming that if you dont do it, you will void your warranty.
Personally, I think this rust protection packages is really a scam, and a pure profit for the dealer. They could make all kinds of reason to avoid your claim. You paid of fortune to get that peace of mind, but instead, you get stressed by arguing with these dealers.
Good luck on your situation.
September 21st, 2010 at 1:15 pm
We have a 2007 Hyundai Entourage which is a nightmare. It has been towed 16 times or more in the 3 years of our 5 year lease for failure to start. Hyundai Canada is no help in any problems whatsoever and the only recommendation I could give anyone is to stay away from Future Hyundai at Dixie and the 401. We cannot escape our lease without penalty and are stuck with an unreliable lemon.
January 12th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
My sister and I bought two vehicles from Northstar Hyundai in Alberta and we are both regretting the experience. I have been ripped off by being dole a used 2010 Sante Fe that was already registered with 1364 kms on it, at a NEW CAR PRICE WITH NO DISCOUNT FOR THE PRIOR USE (even though I was made to believe that it was discounted), and my sister has a 2011 Accent that started off the lot smelling like gasoline and two months later aftr they said it was fixed during a frustrating servicing visit to adjust the firing, it continues to have the problem.
January 12th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
My sister who is 65, was sold over $8000 worth of extras that she does not even understand.
May 24th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Unfortunately, after leasing/purchasing 3 Hyundai Sante Fe’s and one Vera Cruz in five year period, I will not get another. Each vehicle had an issue and I remained loyal to Hyundai and bought or leased another. I purchased (as opposed to leasing) my second Sante Fe (and third Hyundai)in 2009. I had to keep bringing it back for oil leak issues. Trying to recover from very extensive surgery, I could not be constantly inconvenienced by having to bring the SUV back and forth to a local mechanic (checking oil levels) and then to the dealership a few times to get the issue rectified. I decided to trade it in for a new Sante Fe. I took a huge loss on that trade in only to find out within a week of owning the new vehicle that it had a severe torque steering problem upon hard acceleration (when passing someone or getting on a highway). The vehicle would sometimes pull left, sometimes right and sometimes both. You had no idea which way you would have to compensate to correct the pull. This is a front wheel drive Sante Fe. Apparently, the engine horse power was increased in the 2011 Sante Fe and since they did that this problem began. I had four other front wheel drive Hyundai vehicles and never had this problem. This is a serious safety issue and Hyundai did not stand behind it’s product. Two independent mechanics drove the vehicle and deemed it to be unsafe to me,my passengers and other vehicles around me on the road. That meant nothing to Hyundai;they claim the other mechanics (both have 25+ years experience) are not “Hyundai certified”. The dealership is trying to work something out for me to get into an all wheel drive Sante Fe, however, if I wanted an all wheel drive vehicle I would have purchased that in the first place. Not looking forward to the additional monies I will be paying on this new, AWD vehicle nor the gas I will be spending for a heavier vehicle. DO NOT BUY Hyundai. They have also had this issue with other models which you can read about on many internet sites. Hyundai lost me as a loyal customer as well as several family members and friends who have been watching/listening to see what Hyundai would do to make this right. They did NOTHING;basically said tough S T! We’ll see what they say if someone is seriously injured due to their incompetence. I will be contacting the NTSB,IIHS,JD Powers,Consumer’s Digest and any other organization who can look in to this potential safety hazard. In the meantime, I will be blogging and writing to the above and on my vehicle windows “DO NOT BUY FWD SANTE FE. SEVERE TORQUE STEERING PROBLEM. UNSAFE!
August 5th, 2011 at 11:36 am
I so agree with Debbie. I purchased a 2007 Entourage from their dealership at 401 and Dixie and all I can say is, it was worse than a nightmare. I have been having problems galore with my van and every time they come up with different solutions but the problems still exist. To top it all, different service guys give you different quotes!! I have been back and forth practically every month and the problems continue to remain unsolved. The service department is a nightmare! I would never recommend anyone to go to this location!!!!!!!