Just a brief hello from a returning previous Hyundai owner

[Indalo]

After almost 5 years with an i40 Tourer during which time I was a member of a Hyundai forum, in 2016 I changed to the KIA Optima Tourer which is now approaching the end of its 7-year warranty period.

Around the end of this month, I expect to take delivery of a new Tucson Hybrid model and I look forward to gleaning information from the experiences of others. My first choice for a replacement vehicle was the KIA Sportage as the exact replacement for the Optima model didn’t make it to the UK. Sadly, KIA pitched the price of the top-of-the-range Sportage at over £40K which is ‘luxury tax’ territory and I am ill-disposed to paying the extra VED to the current government. To make matters worse, the typical waiting time for delivery has been around 12 months. Indeed, just last week, I read of one KIA forum member keenly anticipating the forthcoming delivery of his new Sportage later this month, ordered in April 2022!

After much vacillating, I settled on the Tucson range and received a series of ‘offers’ from CarWow’s friendly Hyundai dealers around the country. Frankly, I was disappointed by the quotes and decided to revisit the Hyundai dealership from which I purchased my previous Hyundai in 2012. I spoke with the salesman who actually sold me my i40 and asked a few questions, the upshot of which was that I expect to collect a brand-new Hybrid Ultimate model as I said, around the end of this month.

I have to admit to being quite stunned at the deal I was offered as it was better than any of the CarWow offers, the icing on the cake being the fact that I was offered a better part-ex price on my KIA (seen and evaluated on the day of my visit) than I had received from those online dealers via CarWow. The best bit for me was the fact that the ‘all-up’ price meant that the car slips just under the £40K threshold for VED purposes.

Much as I have enjoyed my time with KIA, I am not at all sorry to be back with Hyundai......apologies for what turned out to be a not so brief hello!

[Berty]

I'm not for being brief myself when expecting to say one thing. I must say "sorry, that was a long answer to a short question" many times a week.

I had a Kia Optima myself, it was a company car and about 4 years old. It was very creaky and squeaky on the interior which annoyed me. I was told it was simply the way the plastic and trims pieces age. When I considered a Sportage, bearing in mind I'm in Ireland, the sportage PHEV here isn't available as a GT and at the time not even a K4(top level like Ultimate) so I didn't even research the lead times. My wife just sees going to dealerships an absolute chore so I'd point out cars on our commute. We'd often see the same cars, same people driving them so I ran a little test without her knowledge. On a Monday I'd say "what do you think of that Tucson" "ooh, I like that" yet on a Tuesday she'd say "no, I don't like it". It was the same car, same registration etc. One one day she'd say the Tucson seemed too big(coming from a Hatchback) and on another day she'd say "Oooh, I like that" whilst pointing at a LandRover DIscovery.

All she said was I want a black car with heated seats, and of course that we could afford it, I wanted leather seats and electric boot at least and no missing spec from what I had already which was a 7 year old car(In Ireland N-Line cannot be ordered with an electric boot and of course didn't have leather so although nice to look at they are currently €51,795 before dealer charges so £45,000 before charges and paint - "Yeah, I know, madness"). Choice came down to a Cupra Formentor and Tucson(Executive Plus - aka in the UK as a blend of Premium and Ultimate). Cupra messed me around on price and their finance rates doubled overnight and the lead time kept changing. My Tucson itself also arrived 2 months early which was a surprise. One month after I ordered Hyundai Ireland told the entire dealer network to stop selling Tucson PHEVs for 2023. Cupra dealer who promised me last on the 23rd December to update me on my final price for a Feb/March delivery never did. I saw him the other day driving his Tarraco demo, he locked eyes with me and immediately lowered his head and looked away. COWARD!! haha

I paid £43,000 equivalent for my Tucson which doens't even have Krell, sunroof, adaptive cruise, cooled seats, memory seats, side assist cameras, alarm. If you think that is bad, the Diesel Automatic in Denmark is £52,000 starting. Another one for you so you don't feel stung on price, the Mercedes GLC(I considered one pre facelift and pre ludicrous price increase) is today in the UK starting with a 220d at £52,880 and in Ireland it is £67,000

Also Hello haha