We have our car. Finally. In case you haven’t followed this particular saga, here’s a quick recap: A couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Lion wanted to run an errand. When she tried to unlock the car, nothing happened. The care is a 2023 Hyundai Tucson plug-in hybrid. It’s all electronic. The car was completely dead. No big deal, right? Well, it is. The parking brake and gear shift are electronic. No power and all of the wheels are locked. We called Hyundai Road Service, and they sent a flatbed.
The flatbed driver couldn’t get the car on his truck because the car’s wheels were locked. Duh! They sent a different truck to put a dolly under the front wheels and lift the back. The driver couldn’t figure out how to do it. Hyundai kept us waiting over 24 more hours until they said it was our problem and WE had to find a tow. It took me five minutes to do that. We had to call several dealers before we could find one willing to take the car.
This is where things got interesting. It turns out that someone published a trick on how to steal Hyundais and Kias that use ignition keys. As a result, all of the area dealers have full service parking lots of cars with broken ignition locks. I had to growl at the dealer who sold us our car to get him to agree to take it. More growling got me to the front of the repair line.
OK, that’s the story. We got the car back last Friday. It turned out that the 12-volt battery was a brick. Our car doesn’t have a conventional lead-acid battery. It uses a Lithium battery for 12 volts. That battery shut itself down. When the dealer replaced it, the car came back to life.
Happy ending, right?
Nope.
Hyundai brags about its wonderful warranty. We bought their extended warranty which is supposed to give us ten blissful years. We are only in year one. The car has 2500 miles on it. We also have their Blue Link service, which includes roadside service. Hyundai is supposed to tow the car and then pay for a rental replacement during repairs. They are also supposed to pay for Uber rides to the car rental place and from the car rental place to the dealer to pick up the repaired car.
Hyundai agreed to pay for the tow and the car rental, but insisted they would only pay $30 for each Uber ride. Whoa there Nelly! The Uber from our house to the car rental company cost over $40. The ride from the car rental place to the dealer cost $125. “Tough shit,” said Hyundai’s customer service case manager. They would only authorize $30 a trip.
Nuh Uh!
After all of this shit, I wasn’t going to let that bunch of Korean robbers fuck me over. Nope, nope, nope. I went online (Don’t ya just love the Internet) and filed a small claims lawsuit against them. I tacked on $500 to compensate us for all the trouble and grief they caused.
In case you wondered, any company that does business in your state has to give an address for legal service. If the company won’t tell you what it is (Hyundai did tell me), your state attorney general’s website probably offers a search for that information.
As of now, the car is still working, and we’re waiting for the papers we need to get from the court to send to Hyundai.
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