Poor experience buying an Ioniq 5 | Happy with dealer, but a nightmare dealing with Hyundai India

Prologue:
Apologies in advance for the long Rant post from a disappointed buyer. The manipulation and shady practices from Hyundai parent company is a little unexpected, even for me.
I do not know if it should be a new thread or a post, so i am posting it here and will let the admins decide the rest.

I Want to share my Nightmare ordeal with the booking experience of Ioniq 5 directly from Hyundai and frustration to an extent that I am actually planning to cancel the whole thing and look for alternatives. (Not that there are many, especially at this lucrative price.)

Also, would like to thank my local Hyundai Dealership, however helpless they are with the Ioniq 5 booking process, they are trying to guide and help me the best they can. The booking and payment process until dispatch to the dealership is solely in (HMIL) Hyundai India’s control.

The Story:
It all began with me heading to Lamba Hyundai (Delhi) dealership right next to my office. Warm, knowledgeable and helpful staff, Took time to explain everything I had to ask and entertain me. Being new to EV, I had more than a few questions.

Showed 2 vehicles they had.
1st White TD vehicle, and 2nd gravity gold Matte Vehicle which was getting ready for delivery. Asked them for a test drive for next morning at my home address, since an approval from home ministry was required before I even considered Ioniq 5.
I was also informed that all the booking process is online and the parent company HMIL directly controls allocation, dispatch etc. of the vehicle. Payments done also will be in HMIL’s account directly, and dealership has little control over the same. But they will guide me the best they can with the booking etc. Reason according to the Dealer was that the vehicle being SKD/CKD is dispatched only on order.

The same day, I went on Hyundai’s booking portal and generated a quote for Ioniq. Promptly got a call from an executive Ms. Kushal who informed me she is calling directly from Hyundai India and looks after Ioniq customers only. On asking the waiting period, I was told that the car can be made available within 7 days since the colour I am interested in (gravity gold Matte) is available in Chennai plant and will be dispatched the same day I complete the booking and payment formalities. I asked for the VIN no or mfd. month of a vehicle, and was told that the same would be provided shortly.



Next morning, The TD car arrived at my home on time, the car was 7k run and in good condition. The TD experience was love at first drive for me and my wife. Look an elaborate 30km+ TD. Immediately Decided to go ahead with the booking.
Again, kudos to Lamba Hyundai, since I was booking the car in my company name, they sent a special team to my office for booking and loan processing along with a bank employee for loan document collection and guidance.


Now, this is where things started going downhill.
I had added iCare 50k kms package on the booking portal, costing 91K INR. But decided to opt against it. Apparently there is no option to remove iCare once you have added it, probably a bug. After discussing with Kushal, the SA assured me he will get it removed from the quotation and Performa within 24 hours, which they did. I ignored this issue thinking it’s a bug, got it in written that iCare will be removed post booking and clicked on pay now.



That is when I faced the 2nd glitch. Under net banking, there was no option of SBI- State Bank of India. Which is India’s largest bank. On informing the same to Kushal, We were provided with bank details of HMIL Chennai and IMPS transfer was initiated.



Shared the payment receipt with my SA and with Kushal and asked her to share the payment receipt and VIN/ manufacturing month of the vehicle. She told me she will do it shortly.



So much for automating and digitizing the booking process in the name of customer’s ease.
Anyway, this is where things got from bad to worse.
Next day, once my loan was approved, contacted the dealership and asked them for the manufacturing month and delivery within 7 days clause, I was informed that the car isn’t dispatched from Chennai before the full payment and takes up to 3-4 weeks for delivery after complete payment to HMIL. (Generic reply)
Called up Kushal, and was assured that the vehicle will be dispatched shorty from Chennai as she has already started the KYC etc. process for dispatch. Told her to hold the dispatch till I am shared the VIN/Manufacturing month, I was again told that it will be shared shortly. This is Day 3 of asking for the same. From an employee of Hyundai, nonetheless. Sent multiple reminders via call and WhatsApp, but was informed to wait.



Next day, no response from Kushal. Around 1 pm, I finally lost my patience, told my dealership to hold the loan disbursement till I get information on car manufacturing. Got a call from Kushal within minutes. Informed me that the manufacturing month is July, but they have billed and assembled the car in October. Which I was okay with. On dispatch front, she told me that the vehicle is parked with Capital Hyundai Noida.
Now That is where I started getting suspicious. And started asking questions. Words aren’t exactly the same, but the gist of it is.

Q: Noida dealership is not Chennai plant, I was told that I will be dispatched a new car from Chennai.
A: Sir, this car was dispatched around Diwali and is at dealership stockyard, it is a fresh vehicle.
Q: Why did you make me wait 4 days for an info as simple as manufacturing month if you knew the vehicle is parked at a dealership nearby and sharing it with me when I decided to stop the loan disbursement?
A: (Deflected my question.)
Q: I wish to PDI this vehicle at the dealer stockyard and I am willing to visit the dealership today itself for a PDI. Is that okay?
A: I will have to ask the dealership. I have a few pictures of the vehicle shared by the dealership, let me share those. and we will deliver this within 2 days.
Q: Please do, I will then decide if it needs a PDI.

Shortly after, received pictures of the Vehicle. Attaching 1 picture which will make things clear. The car was parked next to the charging port. No protective plastics or anything anywhere. Which I am sure should be there is it had not undergone delivery PDI. Pic attached.



Luckily, I saw a brand new pre delivery vehicle at Lamba Hyundai the other day and knew how a fresh vehicle should look like. White tape on pillars and edges, alloy wheels had transparent plastic tape. Pic attached.



The car was in Noida dealership Showroom from Noida dealership yard from Chennai plant within a few minutes, and I find it hard to believe that Kushal did not know about it.
I called Kushal back and subtly rejected the vehicle and pointed out the manipulation. The response was rather unpleasant.

Me: this looks like a display or TD vehicle and I will have to reject it. Please align me a fresh one from Chennai plant.
Kushal: Sir that will take 15-20 working days. (It changed from 7 days to 20 working days.)
Me: but, pre booking you told me that you have stock at Chennai plant and you can deliver the vehicle within 7 days.
Kushal: no sir, it will at least take 14 working days.
Me: please hold my booking. I will tell you what I decide. (I was in no mood to bicker)

Soon after, received WhatsApp message, sharing the same which is self-explanatory.



Epilogue:
Now, I am in a dilemma to go ahead with the Loan and balance disbursement or cancel it and look elsewhere. I do not mind waiting for even a month as I already have 2 vehicles in my garage (Innova Crysta ZX 2.8 AT and Mahindra ScorpioN Z8L 4x4 AT), and this was going to be the 3rd one. Replacing my 2016 Crysta eventually down the line (Thank you NGT).
But my major concern now is, what if after disbursing the loan amount, they still invoice me the same Noida dealership display vehicle I rejected, or something else alike. Since, they are not telling me what month/VIN vehicle will be allotted to me and it will be a challenge to reverse anything after being invoiced for the same. Especially, since I am buying the same in company’s name.
I have everything which has happened till date in written, but such manipulative and deceitful commitments directly from Hyundai India has left me in a limbo. And has left a very bad taste. Also, not to mention the 25k cancellation penalty.
On a separate note, a special thanks to Lamba Hyundai SA and complete Lamba team for being so helpful, warm and humble with us throughout the experience. This must be a rare occurrence, even for Team BHP where the shady activity is being done by the Parent company and the dealership is being applauded for being so helpful and dedicated, wish the dealership had more control and transparency over the booking process.

I hope it helps everyone else in making a well informed decision when buying the Ioniq 5. And not to repeat the same mistakes I did.

Thank you for taking the time to pen this. I have been victimised in the same manner.

I was delivered a display car with visible wear on the interiors and a small dent on the driver side door. I didn’t bother to do a PDI since Hyundai was delivering the car only after invoicing it and I was assured it would be a fresh one from chennai.

Blatant cheating from Hyundai wasn’t something I expected. I wanted to put this episode behind me but in the first month of ownership I realised there was more horror in store for me.

The car would pitch and roll violently upon regen braking and mechanical braking. They took over a month to solve this. The solution was to factory reset and firmware flash the relevant components. This took them over a week of testing and over 500 kms of driving to identify and resolve.

All this while, just like the presale attitude, there is no written communication from Hyundai. It is just like this issue is brushed under the carpet.

As you say, prospective Ioniq 5 customers should make it clear to Hyundai that they will not take delivery without PDI. Don’t do what I did folks.. I have been wary of dealerships over the years but ironically in this case my dealer has been most supportive.

Edit : Request the mods to please give the above post its own thread.

The car being delivered to you is definitely a car which was prepared for some other buyer and it was rejected.

Having said that I will say don't miss out on a car due to some bad sales experience. You need to live with the car, not the sales staff. You can start a fresh, use a different id/phone number to do a booking through a different dealer. Yes, the booking will go to Hyundai only, may be you will be assigned a different sales staff. Once the process goes through, you can ask for a refund for earlier booking.

Sorry to hear about your experience. To me, it seems like the basic problem is they made an impossible to keep promise of delivering the car from Chennai in 7 days, and then tried to make adjustments to keep that promise.

In my case, the process was similar. I did not do the booking online - instead had the dealer do it for me and take the initial ₹ 1 lakh by card. Someone from Hyundai then called and I had to share KYC docs with them - which was followed by my making the full payment by Bank Transfer to Hyundai. Took 2 days to get the KYC done, and then another 2 for me to set up the beneficiary and make the payment. The VIN was shared after that (turned out to be July manufactured - which seems to be the case for all Gravity Gold cars right now), and then it took a day to pay for the insurance, and another two for the temporary registration. This was followed by another two days for their PDI process, and then the car was dispatched. So overall it took 9 days for the car to be dispatched after the initial payment. They promised 7-8 days for the car to reach Bombay after dispatch - it took a full week.

Picked up the charger the next day, and got it installed. But the car was dirty (it has rained a bit and the dealer store yard was far from the best), and so I had to get them to clean it properly before I was willing to take delivery. Took another week to get the plates in Mumbai - so overall about 3 weeks between booking and receipt of the car.

If I were you, I would just inspect the car in NOIDA and take it if it is fine. Else it will likely take 3 weeks more given Delhi is even further away from Madras than Bombay.

And this is exactly why we should post our experiences.
thank you. Yes, went ahead and did the complete payment. Details below.
The issue here is not the 7 day delivery promise. It is the intention.
Committing a Fresh vehicle from Chennai plant, with the intention of pushing a questionable vehicle parked at another dealership, knowingly.

Update:

Dealership saves the day:
The dealership raised a formal complaint with Hyundai yesterday on my behalf. This is after i told them that i am reconsidering the vehicle purchase after this incident, and to give me a few days to ponder over the same.

Around 5pm yesterday, Got a call from a RM at Hyundai Command Centre. Told me about the complaint he received from Lamba Hyundai, and listened to my concern and ordeal with patience. Asked for some time till he looks into this and gets back to me.

Gets back to me within 2 hours, informs me that he has 2 Gravity Gold Ioniq 5 already dispatched from Chennai plant to NCR in a Trailer Truck. Further assures me that once it is offloaded at the yard, I can PDI them and choose 1, which will then be allotted to me. Granted I complete the balance payment quickly.

Being sceptical, I recorded the call and asked for all the commitments in written, and got the email within an hour. Confirmed the same over Email and completed the balance payment today to HMIL.

He assured me delivery by Dec 1st week end, which I am okay with.

Will surely update here once the vehicle is delivered. Hoping things to go smoothly here on.

Thanks for sharing, Lego28! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage later this week .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

Looks like Hyundai is trying to do like Mercedes's direct sales model on EV's. The difference seems to be invoicing only from Chennai which explains full payment and temporary registration from Chennai. Mercedes on the other hand has got itself registered at the dealership's address and has a local GST number. You pay only in advance and MB will ship the car. You can pay the balance when the car is in transit or after the car reaches the dealership. However, invoicing is done only after full payment is received, which is logical. If for any reason one does not like the car, MB will release the car from allocation after 14 days from dealer stocks.

Also, if something happens in transit, what happens to the customer's money? I will personally not take such a risk. Am sure Hyundai will have to change about this sooner or later.


Agree with OP. Hyundai, as a manufacturer, should have been transparent beforehand. What if the OP was not so vigilant? If he had made the full payment, Hyundai would have got the car invoiced too. As a customer, the company has to respect my needs and they should have offered the alternate as an option at first instance.

Dont trust the dealer or RM at face value, do your due diligence. My past experience with a different brand Renault is that the RM and Dealer work in cahoots.

Read this thread to know more.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238638

They basically edited a PDF of a pre-invoiced (but new) car and sold the car to me. Basically my Triber was invoiced (and Renault India master ERP still has the other customer name) but the RTO and RC Book was registered in my name. It was a fact hidden from me and I will never touch that dealer with a stick ever again.

Caveat Emptor

Glad to know that the issue was resolved and many congratulations on the new ride. Wishing you hundreds of thousands of trouble-free motoring!

Maybe you could have considered doing a PDI on the car that was in Noida already, it could have been a new car with the protective covers peeled. I understand this wouldn't be the experience one would be expecting when dealing directly with the OEM and they shouldn't be offering unrealistic delivery timelines. But however, as long as the car available already with the dealership was new there's no harm no foul. And you had every right to reject that and get another one too.

Most car manufacturers are experimenting with the D2C model. It seems to me EVs are their target to begin with simply perhaps because volumes are low. They are making a complete hash of it.

My understanding is that unless full price is paid to Hyundai, they would not dispatch the vehicle. If the Delhi vehicle was dispatched, why was it not delivered? Was it returned back due to a reason? While it could very well be a fuss free brand-new car, the process they have does not support that logic.

I would not accept this vehicle by a country mile.

Congratulations. Am glad things worked out for you and hope the car you receive is to your liking and you have many miles of happy motoring with it. Also glad to see they are being proactive to resolve complaints.


Agree that Hyundai has not got their process right yet. I was very worried about paying in advance, having a vehicle invoiced to me, and having it temporarily registered in my name without having seen it.

But to your point and that of the OP, very clearly Hyundai is dispatching some cars at least to Delhi without invoicing being complete. If that were not the case, how can they allot one of the two cars that are in the truck to the OP. To whom have those cars been invoiced?

Agree fully with the OP that the sales person should have been clear and transparent, and have stated upfront that they could offer the OP the choice of either a car in inventory in the NCR or from the Chennai plant. If so, the OP may not have had the same apprehensions. Hence my view - that he could have inspected the car, and taken delivery if it seemed ok. Without some level of trust, one can’t live.

Reading through the post and replies from others who have bought the same car, I have a question:

Buyers were asked to make the full payment even before sharing the VIN or dispatching the car from the plant. Is this new trend or something exclusive to Ioniq5?

Usually, we don't pay a penny above the booking amount before a PDI. What's up with this car or the sales model?

Can you please share a ballpark amount / discounts as to what the offer was, if it is ok with you.

Come to think of it, yes, You are correct. I would have definitely inspected the car. Maybe finalized it too if everything seemed fine. Now, i wont trust them till i see the car offloading from the trailer myself.
No discounts whatsoever. ZERO .
Ballpark Pricing:
46.4L for the Car incl GST and TCS
50K for the EW
4.2k Road tax
1.35L Insurance from Hyundai.
i asked them the exact same question.
According to HMIL, they dispatched surplus vehicles during Diwali/Navratras anticipating high demand and people do not wish to wait.
According to HMIL, Ioniq 5 is sold via SKD route. so they dispatch the vehicle only on complete payment.

The booking website displays that the insurance amount is Rs.2L. Was Rs.1.35L the quote directly given by the dealer or did you negotiate? Is the insurance from HMIL directly (similar to BMW Secure) or is it a 3rd party Insurance provider?