Hyundai Is Ending Future Free Maintenance to Save Money

[u/hi_im_bored13]

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64380000/hyundai-cutting-free-maintenance-plans/

[u/Halofieldfan]

Weird choice given that it was only oil changes and tire rotations. Regardless, not thrilling to hear.

[u/hi_im_bored13 → u/Halofieldfan]

I feel by "unsupportable levels" it is not purely a cost issue rather Hyundai/Kia dealerships not adequately staffed and often backlogged. Was selling my old hyundai, had an outstanding recall, took 3 visits over the span of months to resolve, couldn't believe it.

Still, I feel its a bad move. Pretty much the only reason hyundai makes sense despite their reliability & theft track record a. its cheap b. 10yr warranty c. 5yr maintainence. Remove 1 & 3 and you sway to the japanese.

[u/trivletrav → u/hi_im_bored13]

This is true. I worked at a hyundai genesis dealer and we are a small store. We had no space and Hyundai couldn’t make recall kits fast enough for some campaigns. Lots of upset people (understandably) plus sales dept. did a horrible job explaining the “free maintenance” program. They would say “oh yeah it’s all free for 3 years” when that’s not true. People would come in expecting free brakes, free coolant flush, etc. and that’s not the program. Lots of upset people again (understandably). Hyundai and Genesis are getting better, they’re like Chevy and Cadillac: you can get some good cars and some bad cars. It really depends on which engine you get in which car and which year, I think their main issue is they try to get ahead of the curve too quickly and the quality suffers.

[u/tugtugtugtug4 → u/hi_im_bored13]

Hyundai must pay or treat their mechanics like absolute dogshit. I've been to 7 different Hyundai dealerships in 5 different states and have never once been able to book a service appointment sooner than 3 weeks out. Never. The longest was 10 weeks out. And whenever you do show up it takes an hour to get checked in and if you show up after 8am say goodbye to getting your car back that same day even for just an oil change and inspection.

And its not even like they have a lot more cars than other brands. My Lexus dealer is dealing with double the number of cars per day and I've never not been able to get same or next day appointments with them.

[u/orangutanDOTorg → u/tugtugtugtug4]

Iirc they usually pay straight hourly instead of by book time, I don’t remember the term for it.

[u/TurkeyBLTSandwich → u/orangutanDOTorg]

I think hourly is better for warranty work and other long jobs. Book time is great for routine maintenance because it's usually more hours than necessary and an experienced tech can crank out multiple jobs in a period.

The absolute worse would be book time pay for warranty work, where you get less than minimum wage for multi day repairs.

But I remember going to a Toyota dealership, seeing both the sales and service shop PACKED on a weekend. Then going over to Hyundai next store and it being an absolute ghost town

[u/TurkeyBLTSandwich → u/orangutanDOTorg]

I think hourly is better for warranty work and other long jobs. Book time is great for routine maintenance because it's usually more hours than necessary and an experienced tech can crank out multiple jobs in a period.

The absolute worse would be book time pay for warranty work, where you get less than minimum wage for multi day repairs.

But I remember going to a Toyota dealership, seeing both the sales and service shop PACKED on a weekend. Then going over to Hyundai next store and it being an absolute ghost town

[u/Signal_Ball4634 → u/hi_im_bored13]

Yeah I've heard horror stories from Hyundai mechanics I know having a massive backlog of engine replacements.

[u/Careful-Combination7 → u/hi_im_bored13]

You're not wrong but 5 years is way too long.  This should be a program that encouraged dealership loyalty, but given your experience with the recalls that sounds like a losing proposition!!

[u/stav_and_nick → u/Careful-Combination7]

Yeah; encourage dealership experiences if they're positive, because if they're not then you lose customers

But in my experience, most economy brands are awful to work with. You get a few that are okay, but especially service is just bottom tier. Probably because with their pay it makes no sense to work from them; get hired at a dealership, cut your teeth, move to an indy or luxury brand is the career path for like, 3 mechanics I know

[u/Ibotthis → u/hi_im_bored13]

In Canada it’s only 5/3 year with one free oil change but the brand doesn’t seem affected.

[u/markeydarkey2 → u/hi_im_bored13]

Still, I feel its a bad move. Pretty much the only reason hyundai makes sense despite their reliability & theft track record a. its cheap b. 10yr warranty c. 5yr maintainence. Remove 1 & 3 and you sway to the japanese.

Some of the cars are pretty good too, particularly the EVs. They've been recently attempting to move away from being just the good value propositions of their respective segments, though I don't know if I'd say they've been successful yet. Like someone may buy a K4 over a Corolla because it's cheaper, but they may also buy it because it's (in many ways) a better car. If anything the domestics now play in the value-first segment where Hyundai/Kia used to sit; the Trax isn't as good as the Kona but it's much cheaper; the Escape isn't as good as a Sportage but it'll have a bunch of discounts, etc.

[u/orangutanDOTorg → u/hi_im_bored13]

3 year maintenance on mine. 10 year warranty is just powertrain. 5 for bumper to bumper. At least on my ‘22 Santa Cruz. Which has been very reliable despite my abusing it off road often.

[u/orangutanDOTorg → u/Halofieldfan]

They tried to upsell me on intake valve cleaning starting at my first oil change (despite the Santa Cruz having a secondary showerhead injector so not having the same issues as pure DI motors). Having people come in for the free oil change I always assumed was just a way to upsell profitable stuff. Though I guess that’s mostly at the dealer level, not corporate. Also assumed it makes it more likely for the cars to actually get oil changes so people don’t run around blaming the motor when they have 30K mile oil in it and it blows.

[u/TheBettyBandit → u/orangutanDOTorg]

You’re supposed to do a valve cleaning on the first oil change.

[u/NCSUGrad2012]

I’d be curious to know when they all started offering it. I remember when it was only BMW and it was a big deal. Now it seems like most offer that.

[u/Brave_Specific5870]

I mean it's convenient for leases, I think that leases should be still available.

[u/ThickIndication5134]

Personally I've owned two N cars (and several performance cars from other brands) and I always did my own routine maintenance on them (while keeping copious records). I just don't trust some rushed dealership tech.

But this sucks for the average Hyundai/Kia buyer certainly.

[u/Lit-fuse]

This will probably be the first of several manufactures that will move away from free maintenance programs. This will probably also mean the end of 10k mile oil change intervals and intervals being suggested at 5k miles.

[u/RustyNK]

Not unexpected. I think every company out there who is not 100% in the USA will be finding a bunch of small areas to save money.

[u/BloodDK22]

Hyundai is just.... I dunno. Very iffy. Thats all I got. And yes, they are always backlogged for service from what I've heard from owners. Even though you have that terrific 500 year warranty its as useless as a football bat when the next available appt. is 3+ months out.

[u/DisconnectedDays]

Capitalism = non-stop record profits

[u/Secksualinnuendo]

Odd choice. Because I always assumed these programs were set up as a revenue center. For example, you come in for your oil change and tire rotation, they up sell you on a new air filter and alignment etc. My mom recently almost of got suckered into paying $50 for a new key fob battery when she took her X5 in for service.