Some Thoughts on Buying a Kia Soul Yesterday

[Hassin Bin Sober]

87. LG used to be "Lucky Goldstar"... a maker of crapola cheap electronics. They "re-branded" themselves

Their appliances are junk.

I have a 5-6 year old LG washer and dryer. I just had to replace the dryer drum last year because the welds crack - Apparently LG denies the problem exists and refuses to help out (according to all the stuff I read online). Fortunately for me, I'm pretty handy and adventurous so I fixed it myself for the cost of the $100 dollar part. Others paid in excess $300 dollars for the repair and now some are on their second drum.

Warranties are great if your product breaks in the warranty period. A lot of appliances have 1 year warranties. Even extending the warranty to 2 or 3 years doesn't help if the product is crap in the first place and going to break at 5 years needing repairs costing nearly as much as a new unit. At that point they become disposable appliances.

Hyundai had to "re-brand" themselves as a leader in the warranty department because they were, for a time, leader in the JUNK department.

I worked in the auto finance business in the 90s and early 2000s. We were one of the first Kia dealers in the nation. We were literally GIVEN the ticket because we were a high volume dealer. We sold the Kias next to our Buicks (which turned out to be a mistake).

We had a hard time getting financing for the Kias because the stigma placed on Korean products by Hyundai. Hyundai poisoned that well.

So many banks were all hot to lend money on $6,000 dollar "new" Hyundais they all crawled over each other to get that market. I mean, what could possibly go wrong. A new car for $6k? Well, the car taking a shit after the 3 year warranty was up is a big factor in how the loan performs. Now, some of our more "sensible" DUers will claim the borrower should STILL make their payments on a non-running car worth $300 bucks in need of a $5000 dollars worth of engine repair. But the reality is, working stiffs scraping together a living can't have two car payments but they still need wheels to get to work. So they call the bank to come get the car and go buy something else. Now they have a repo on their credit.

Hyundai literally ruined a few banks and COUNTLESS people's credit. Those working people with repos got shuffled off in to the wonderful world of sub-prime auto loans. Not to mention wage garnishments judgments and bankruptcy. Can't have your wages garnished for that last loan while paying the new payment - HELLO Peter Francis Geracy (famous BK attorney).

Now along comes Kia. Most of our lenders wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole but we manged to find some lenders.

The quality was sub-par to say the least. After a while, General Manager used to laugh when a Kia would go off the lot. He would wave good bye and mumble "see you in three days on the tow-truck." They had tons of electrical problems.

Our biggest mistake was selling Kias to our good Buick customers. Buick customers are a bit more affluent and established and used to GOOD quality. We had several customers buy Kias for their kids or grand kids or even as second cars. Nothing but trouble. "How can you sell such junk in a Buick store" was a common refrain. It got so bad, Buick demanded we construct a wall in the showroom. Eventually they made the dealer remove the Kias all together (it was moved to our Chevy lot after I left). Our poor service manager nearly had a breakdown. Imagine spending 20 years in the Buck business dealing with a quality product and then having THIS thrust on you.

Hyundai has since purchased Kia. Birds of a feather I guess. Both re-branded junk as far as I can tell.

Aywho. You can tell I'm not a big fan of the Korean junk. Too much experience with being personally burned, seeing other people's lives fucked up and hearing from lenders burned.


Oh and Hyundai buyers beware:

You have a timing belt that needs to be replaced @60k or that oh so lovely warranty is void. It's an expensive maintenance item but the alternative is a trashed engine with no backing from Hyundai.

Don't know how up to date that info is. My boyfriend's co-worker was added to the Hyundai repo pile over that item a few years ago. $5k for an engine. This was AFTER Hyundai was a re-branded as a good car with a swell warranty.

I'm not an engine expert but what OTHER manufacturers require such expensive maintenance that would cause such catastrophic consequences in the event it's not performed. I mean, everybody knows you need oil for the engine not to blow up. But my Ford truck doesn't blow up if I skip a tune up. It just runs rough.