The Etch Scam

After an almost one year wait, our Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV came in. I'll do a review of it once I have a bit more time behind the wheel, but first impressions are terrific. I'm very pleased to be an EV owner as the novelty of paying over $200 to fill up our Range Rover has worn off.  Electricity for the Ioniq will cost one tenth of the Rover's fuel expense.

I can't really say the same about the dealer experience, even though my expectations were very low. I ordered the car on-line and after configuring it, the website asks you to pick a dealer. I picked the one close to work. I really just needed a place to pick the car up, and if it was clean and undamaged and the paperwork correct I would have been perfectly happy.

I don't really expect anybody at a volume dealer to know anything about electric cars (and they don't). I have never received a single email from my assigned 'salesman', either before or after the purchase. I don't really care, as every bit of EV related information that he tried to give me was wrong.  But if the guy earned a commission I would have thought that he would have at least followed up the sale with a thank you and email address!  I got a single phone call from him well into the evening on August 2nd - the first communication from the dealer of any kind - telling me the car was here and would I mind expediting the paperwork so they could get the car out for July. Really? Start the warranty early just so you can get paid on your next cheque, even though I've never even talked to you about this car before?

The shine was further rubbed off the sale by the F&I office who, while competent and nice enough, are under huge pressure to sell you a bunch of stuff that is either marked up beyond reason, or complete nonsense. No surprise to most people who have bought a car.

There is a 1 - 2 year wait for Ioniq 5's and used ones are selling for more than MRSP, meaning there was equity in the car just by taking delivery. I was actually concerned that if I didn't buy enough stuff from them there might be a 'communication error', and they might sell the car to somebody else for more money, despite my order. I felt I should be nice about it at least.

The one thing that I was adamant about and made clear from the very first telephone conversation and every subsequent conversation was that I didn't want them to put any stickers on the car. These are the etch stickers that are sold as a theft deterrent. I told everybody who was involved with the car that I didn't want any extra theft protection and hated the stickers.

When the time came, I was summoned into the 'Box' as it is still called, so I could decide 'which protection package(s) I wanted'...

We had the sticker conversation again:

Me: "Please don't put any stickers on my car. I really don't want them. They are completely valueless to me. I wouldn't take them if they were free."

F&I: "This is part of our PDI and our process can't be altered - the vehicle has to be registered."

Me: "The only place the vehicle has to be registered is Alberta Motor Vehicles, please don't put stickers on my car."

F&I: "We can't alter our PDI process"

Me: "Look, I'll give you the $500, just put the stickers in bag, and you can throw out the paperwork. I don't want stickers on the car, please don't put stickers on the car."

We continue....

I declined the pre-paid maintenance package, as there is not that much to maintain with an EV.

Not wanting to sit through the whole pitch I intervened:

Me: "Look, I know that you are under big pressure to sell me a bunch of stuff and I get it, and I don't mind spending some money in here, but can we try to come up with some items that are useful to me?"

F & I: "Like what"

Me: "I'd be happy to buy a set of rubber mats."

F&I: "Oh, well you'd like our Alberta Winter Protection Package then?"

Me: "Sure, what's all in that?"

F&I: "You get the mats, the mudguards and the block heater for $995"

Me: "I don't really need a block heater considering there is no engine block to heat!"

F&I: "We'd make an adjustment"

Me: "Well, this is an EV and I need to charge it, and you have have a couple of EV Wall Box chargers on your website, so how about one of those? And I'll need winter tires."

F & I: "Those are from the parts department [and I don't make anything]"

Me: "I'll buy a Hyundai extended warranty if one exists. [one doesn't for this car]"

F & I: "Are you at least going to buy some film protection?

Me: "Sure, I'll buy some film from you"

We go on for a while and wind up with $500 for the 'sticker delete', a winter wheel and tire package ($2,900), Two pieces of PPF on the front and rear bumper ($600 x 2), and a set of mats ($700). So $5,300 in adds. Not too bad for either party I thought.

A day later I get this email,

"Hi Lawrence,

I’ve been informed that the stickers have already been placed into the car. The car PDI process has already occurred, and the technicians place the stickers on as part of the PDI process. The request has been made to have them removed; however, this may result in any additional shop labour fee as the car has already been through the shop and is now in the process of the 3M application. Our cars have a strict PDI process that cannot be altered."

Really?

Next day I get another call saying that they can't install the film on the rear bumper. I tell them to delete the charge for the rear piece of film, and just install the front piece.

The day after I go in to sign the paperwork and pick up the car with stickers. On the Bill of Sale I now have one charge of $1000 for the single piece of front film which replaced two charges of $600 for the front and rear piece - they credited me $600 for not installing the rear piece but then increased the other one $400. Nice. Their cost on the single strip of film on the front bumper was probably $50 for material and 45 minutes of $25/hr labour. You can see why they try so hard to sell it.

So I get the car and everything is otherwise fine. They did make an accommodation to let me pick it up earlier as I couldn't align myself with the salesman's evening schedule. The car was presented well enough, though some of the parts were backordered.

In the end the dealer stuck me with an extra $900, but the car is probably worth at least $10k more than I paid for it.  I'm sure I could get the $900 back if I made a big fuss about it, but I really just don't want to go back there. They sold me *one* car, but I'll select a different dealer for my next on line Hyundai purchase. That's if I don't buy a Tesla which takes two minutes on my phone and eliminates all the dealer BS.

These stickers really bug me. The premise is that cars get stolen to be parted out, and that the parts get sold to bodyshops. If the body panel has a sticker on it, the bodyshop won't buy it. Therefor, the thieves won't steal the car because they won't be able to sell the parts.

This is all ridiculous. Bodyshops don't stock random body parts. Thieves send cars to Asia or Africa where nobody cares about stickers. Anybody can get some sandpaper or lacquer thinner and wipe off the etch. No thief is going to care if the cars have stickers or not. You don't get a discount from your insurance company if your car has stickers. If you really want stickers you can buy a set from Amazon for $25.

They bundle the theft deterrent premise with some insurance:  If the vehicle gets stolen and is unrecovered or a write off in the first few years, they will pay $5,000 to the selling dealer who will then give you a credit on the price of a new car.  What is this really worth?

If you take the odds that your car will be stolen and is a total loss in the first 3 years and multiply that by the payout, that gives you an idea.  The fact that the $500 premium doesn't change depending on what vehicle it is, or where it is driven gives you a hint that it is near worthless.  But, to attach a number to it, Statistics Canada reports about 200 vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents, or a  .2% chance that your vehicle will be stolen.  Adjust for the theft being in the first 3 years of ownership and you can see that this is going to be a very small number.  Multiply, say, .1% times $5,000 and you get $5.  Maybe somebody could argue with my math, but this Invisitrak Theft Deterrent scheme is worth, to me,  $5 for the insurance plus $25 for the stickers, or $30 total.  I don't want evidence of a cheesy warranty scheme visible when I open the door of my car, and I certainly don't want to pay $500 for it.

Dealers can charge anything they want and add anything to the price of a car that they feel like.  We have a free enterprise economy.  But they have to disclose it. When I ordered the car from Hyundai Canada and selected my dealer which populated the Freight/PDI taxes and fees, $500 for Invisitrak wasn't in there.  If it was, I would have selected another dealer.  Consumer protection legislation, which the dealer management should be well aware of, is very specific when it comes to hidden 'mandatory' fees.  They should really know better.

I would say, based on buying about a dozen cars from multiple dealerships, that 2/3 of all car dealerships in Alberta are engaged in this practice. To the owners of these businesses I would say that when the time comes - and sooner or later it will - when you at you are at your dealer meeting and the manufacturers tell you that they will start selling cars direct to consumers, to not complain about it.

Lawrence Romanosky, Calgary, Canada

Lromanosky@me.com, 403-607-8625