My wife and I had outstanding experiences at Kia of Everett over the course of 3 onsite visits, many emails, and many phone calls prior to finally purchasing a 2021 Kia Telluride SX. We dealt with 2 managers (Kenny & Izzy), 3 salesmen (Doug, Xavier, & Jake), 1 mechanic (didn't get his name), 2 finance manager (Rob & Eugene), and 1 service writer (Nadia).
The great experience comes down to very basic criteria: Every single person was friendly, patient,commutative,flexible, open and honest. Sales staff was even willing to share proof of their costs to ensure that they weren't taking advantage of us. No aggressive sales tactics from anyone. It's really that simple, but if you want to read about our specific story, it's below:
Our first visit, we just wanted to look at a variety of different 3rd row SUVs and trim levels. We knew we were interested in a Telluride, but wanted to explore different options. Doug took plenty of time to answer our questions and show us around. He offered to let us test drive some rigs, but we were in the early stages of our search and just wanted to narrow things down. We didn't want to waste too much of his time. He did take the time to drive us a mile away to another location (It might have been their auto body shop but I'm not sure) to view a Pallisade that we expressed interest in. He knew that we weren't going to buy a car that day, but he took time to help us and we never felt rushed.
About 2 months later, We took a 2021 Telluride from Pierre GMC into Kia's service department for a pre-purchase inspection. We wanted to buy the one from Pierre, but also wanted to test drive a similar vehicle at Kia as a plan B. The service writer and mechanic allowed me to inspect Pierre's vehicle alongside the tech while it was on the lift, and he walked me through everything he found. During the same visit, Xavier helped my wife and I test drive the plan B vehicle on their lot. Just like Doug, he was very easy to communicate with, patient and friendly.
Despite having a poor experience with staff at Pierre GMC (I've got a more detailed review on them if you care to read it), we were proceeding with purchasing the car through them because it was a better deal (15K miles less, $800 less, and our preferred color). Pierre agreed to send the car back to Kia to fix some warranty related issues such as an oil leak, recalls and most importantly a pressure testing of the coolant system to confirm no leaks (it had low coolant). I offered to buy the car at an agreed upon price from Pierre that day if they would pressure test the radiator on site in front of me, and I found it odd that they refused to do that. Pierre ended up selling it to someone else while we were waiting for the problems to be resolved, and ignored most of our phone calls while we were waiting. They said they would return our calls and most of the time did not. I spoke with the Kia service writer Nadia, and found out that Pierre never even requested a pressure test on the vehicle while it was at the shop.
I only mention this to give you a comparable insight into the type of hassle that you might have to go through at another dealer, It also demonstrates how attentive and open the service department was at KIA.
My wife and I did some price negotiating with managers Kenny and Izzy through email and phone before meeting them face to face.
We returned to Kia of Everett for a third time to purchase our plan B option. After we agreed on a price, they gave us a further discount equal to the price of the inspection we paid on the other vehicle. We didn't even ask for it, they just gave it to us because they were empathetic to our situation.
Jake offered to give us a full tutorial on all the features of the vehicle we had purchased and made sure we had a full tank of gas in the rig before we left.
We hope to return when we have to purchase another vehicle in a few years. read more