Alright, if you take a look back through my reviews, you'll see that I usually take to Yelp to inform the Orlando area of places that are worth checking out. Today, I'm going to give everyone an establishment to AVOID.
Let's start at the beginning of 2022, when my partner and I decided to trade in our older vehicle to buy new. No surprise, but they shorted me about $3k in the trade-in for the vehicle (they even had to adjust it after he low-balled me the first time, then went to verify it on KBB and saw even in the worst condition, my vehicle was worth more money than they were offering). Anyway, I could have declined, but didn't. The same model of vehicle in worse shape with 60k more miles on it was being sold for 200% of what they offered me, but again, I didn't decline. So take that with a grain of salt.
My biggest issue with them was recent. As I said, we purchased a brand new Hyundai Ioniq 5 from them in March of 2022. In December of 2022, the vehicle was involved in a minor collision with debris on the highway. As the car was so new, a smaller shop wasn't able to service it because they did not have the parts available, so we had it towed back to the Hyundai dealership.
Let me clarify: this review isn't about the shortage on a trade-in nor about the lack of supplies for a new vehicle - things like this can be expected. What was completely unacceptable, however, was how Universal Hyundai kept my vehicle for nearly four straight weeks without a single attempt to contact us after repeated requests.
Here's what happened: The incident occurred in December '22. We brought it in and they repaired the vehicle, but it was making strange clicking noises when turning and the alignment wasn't driving straight. Again, new car issues, perhaps. We brought it back in on a Friday evening. Mario, the service advisor, suggested we keep the car until Sunday night as long as we felt safe, as the vehicle wouldn't be looked at until Monday morning. With that said, we left it that same Sunday after-hours. From here, we heard nothing for almost four weeks.
Universal Hyundai has the right steps in place to keep the owner informed - there is a texting service where you can receive updates as the service member is able vs. needing to get them on the phone. With that said, we called and left voicemails for Mario, responded to the texts pleading for an update, and requested manager callbacks with multiple representatives. None of this happened. I proceeded to go to Hyundai after about the first two weeks they had our car again (I needed to remove objects from the car), and no one came out to talk to me as I requested. I asked to speak with a manager or for a callback and still have never received one.
So why would I caution to NEVER go here? I know convenience of a dealership is important, and there aren't usually a ton of options for a specific kind of vehicle, but... honestly, I'd take my chances just about anywhere else. After all was said and done, no one ever reached out to us, no one ever came out to speak to us in the waiting room, etc. They just charged us the money to fix the vehicle (of which they've had for nearly six weeks of the time since we've owned it), and never so much even issued an apology or a suggestion as to how they'd prevent it from happening again.
So, with all of that said: I'm hoping I just had the worst luck. The gentleman on the phone sounded as though he wanted to help, but he seemed to be the first POC when you call the dealership and routes you to the correct party, not an individual who could remedy the situation himself. This, to me, appears to be a lack of leadership vs. a lack of employee communication. How someone can request a manager callback almost five separate times over the span of this time and NEVER having received a callback, either the employees are hiding the callback requests or management just doesn't care. read more