My wife and I purchased a 2009 Kia Borrego from the Paramount Kia of Asheville North Carolina dealership for $35,782.00 on October 16. We returned to the dealership on Friday, December 4 to sell the vehicle back (due to our dissatisfaction with it) and we were given a ballpark figure of $21,000 as its value and were told that the used car sales manager would have to approve any re-purchase of the vehicle and also approve the amount.
We made several attempts to contact the used car sales manager (Dean Blanton) over the course of approximately a week and were not given the simple courtesy of a call back for approximately a week. We have since been informed that the vehicle will not be re-purchased by this dealership at any price. We had specifically asked the salesperson (Tonia Burleson) during the purchase process if this vehicle would retain its value well and we were both told by her that it would.
The vehicle at present has approximately 2300 miles on the odometer and the vehicle has no damage or defects whatsoever (other than those which may be inherent to the Kia manufacturing process itself.) When I remarked about the vehicle apparently not seeming to hold its value very well the only response I got from Ms. Burleson in the way of explanation was simply "it's not my fault". I'm not only troubled by the seeming lack of quality and thence value on the part of this almost brand new vehicle but also by the apathy and discourtesy shown by this member of the sales staff.
We also asked during the sales process if the vehicle was front wheel drive and we were told that it was. We have since discovered that it’s not. We would never have purchased the vehicle had we been truthfully informed that it was not front wheel drive. We also were due a balance on our trade in and we were not told that our check would not be available until the following week until after we had signed the sales contract. The person who had to sign the check had somehow “conveniently” just left the dealership.
We have since found the vehicle to be woefully underpowered and that it has an overwhelmingly “cheap” and exceedingly light feel to it and lacks traction and stability under any and all driving conditions.in summary, we are both completely dissatisfied with the sales experience, the vehicle, the dealership, and Kia Corporation as a whole. Based on my experience in the legal field I feel that these actions on the part of the dealership and Kia Corporation constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices and are just downright bad business as well as some of the worst treatment by a car dealer we have experienced in the last 20 plus years. We both felt as though we were told whatever would serve to get us signed off on the sales contract and out the door with the vehicle.
We would respectfully request a meeting with the general manager of the dealership to attempt to resolve this matter before resorting to arbitration or legal action to seek an appropriate remedy. If we could simply sell the vehicle at a reasonable portion of its original price after normal depreciation we could possibly walk away from this situation with some semblance of fairness. I wish we had done our homework and discovered beforehand the numerous complaints and lawsuits against Kia of America and their product line. Had we done so we would never have purchased the vehicle.
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