Update to my review of July 31, 2020
A few weeks ago, the hood of our Kia Cadenza started to rattle and bounce a little when the car's speed hit 60mph. We took the car to an autobody shop. The mechanic there discovered that the latch that holds the hood securely to the car had come loose at some point before we purchased the car. Someone had "repaired" the latch using electrical tape. The tape must have come loose recently, hence the bounce. The autobody mechanic told us that eventually the hood could have flown up or off while we were driving on a highway.
We don't know whether this "repair" was done by Yonkers Kia or by the car's previous owner. If the latter, I wish Yonkers Kia had noticed this potentially dangerous situation before selling it to us. I'd like to think Yonkers Kia inspects and repairs their pre-owned cars before putting them up for sale. Unfortunately our experience doesn't suggest that they do that. As noted in my review from July 31, 2020 (see below), shortly after we purchased the car, our mechanic discovered that the tie rod, the shocks, the rear tire treads and the cabin filter were all worn.
In conclusion, we still give Kia Yonkers one small star, no more.
7/31/2020
I've noticed that when people write bad reviews on Yelp, they're so angry that grammar, punctuation and clear writing goes out the window. Therefore, I will try to remain calm enough to write a cogent review of Yonkers Kia. And yes, it will be bad. We're grudgingly giving Yonkers Kia 1 star.
We rode our bikes the 10 miles to Yonkers Kia in the sweltering heat. Of course, we got lost, so probably rode closer to 20 miles. At that point, we knew we were going to buy a car one way or another just to avoid another 20 mile bike ride. That's on us.
We were looking for a used car and had a price range in mind. The salesman, Mohammed Bseiso, suggested a very attractive model with a beautiful interior that was a little above our price range. He told us that the dealership's mechanics had given the car a complete diagnostic prior to putting it up for sale and that the car needed no repair. He even told us that the car's tires had all been recently replaced. We decided that this was the car for us. After all, Yonkers Kia is a certified Kia dealer and, therefore, trustworthy. It's not like we were buying the car from some random person on the street.
We asked to see the Carfax report, which Mohammed promised to get to us. After many texts and phone calls, still no Carfax report. We finally found it online and called Kia Corporation to confirm the car's history and accident report.
When we received the final bill of sale, the total price was higher than we'd expected. When we asked why, Mohammed vaguely mentioned tax, administrative fees, the cost of the news tires, etc. We asked him to itemize the costs on a new bill of sale. This took several days. When we finally received the new itemized bill of sale, the total price had dropped approximately $1300. I guess we should assume that while preparing the itemized bill of sale, someone discovered an inadvertent overcharge.
After purchasing the car, we took it to our mechanics for another diagnostic, because, at this point, we were a little suspicious. Our mechanic told us that the tie rod was worn. A worn tire rod is dangerous as it can lead to an accident. He also told us that the shocks were worn, the wheels out of alignment and the supposedly-new rear tires were worn on the inside tread as a consequence. In addition, our mechanic told us that the cabin filter needed replacing. We called Yonkers Kia and spoke with manager Mike Romano. He said to bring the car back and they would run a diagnostic and repair any problems.
When Yonkers Kia's service director, Mikhail Kopilovich, looked at the car, he said that the only things in need of repair/replacement were the tie rod and the cabin filter. He said the wheels, the shocks and the tires were fine in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Our mechanic had shown us the shocks and they were clearly worn. The wear on the rear tire treads was also obvious. We insisted that he change the tires and repair the tie rod. Mikhail was non-committal as to whether his mechanics would be replacing the tires.
Ultimately, we didn't feel safe trusting Yonkers Kia to repair the car. We took it back to our own mechanic, who repaired and replaced everything. This cost us about $900 and a lot of time, but gave us peace of mind.
In conclusion, we're happy with our car and feel very lucky that it was basically in good shape. We believe we dodged a bullet. Yonker Kia could - and probably would - have sold us a real lemon. We would have had no recourse. Buyer beware. read more