Turning Vehicle Ownership into a Full-Time Research Project
*** Additional Feedback (July 3) – Thank You Hyundai for Turning Vehicle Ownership into a Full-Time Research Project***
First, I'd like to congratulate Hyundai on turning what should be a simple ownership experience into a treasure hunt.
1. Tire Rotation: A Recommended Mystery
The owner's manual clearly recommends tire rotations. Great. However, Hyundai seems to have forgotten one minor detail: when owners are actually supposed to do them.
The manual tells me to rotate the tires, yet the maintenance schedule completely omits any tire rotation interval. One page says "do it," while the maintenance table says absolutely nothing about it. See attached screenshots.
In every vehicle I've owned previously, tire rotation intervals were clearly specified. Apparently, Hyundai has taken a more adventurous approach: customers are encouraged to guess, search forums, call dealerships, or perhaps consult a crystal ball.
I'm genuinely surprised a major manufacturer would launch a vehicle with such basic maintenance information missing. So, Hyundai, the question remains: Rotate the tires—but at what mileage? Where is the official recommendation?
2. Recall Parts: The Waiting Game Championship
Let's review the timeline of this outstanding customer experience:
May 22: Vehicle serviced and concerns related to poor (now worst!) Service experience reported.
June 2: Service Manager Zee finally connects with me (10 days later).
June 26: After multiple follow-ups and 25 more days of waiting, I finally receive an ETA for the recall replacement part.
ETA for Part: August 21!!! Hurreyyyy we are getting replacement part after 3 months! That to for a recall repair 🙂
Amazing.
So after more than a month of chasing updates, I'm informed that I need to wait nearly another two months for a recall-related part. By the time the part arrives, this issue will have been dragging on for roughly three months.
Meanwhile, my vehicle is due for Service B, meaning I now have to make multiple trips because Hyundai cannot provide recall parts in a reasonable timeframe.
Should I consider this normal? Am I supposed to be impressed by a process that turns a recall repair into a quarter-year project? If Hyundai representatives put themselves in a customer's shoes for a moment, would they honestly think this experience is acceptable?
3. Reaching the Service Manager: Another Recall-Worthy Experience
Attempting to contact the service manager deserves its own section.
Phone calls typically lead to voicemail. Emails seem to enter a holding pattern where responses arrive 7–10 days later, if at all. In most cases, I have to follow up on my follow-ups just to receive basic updates.
At this point, obtaining information feels significantly more difficult than maintaining the vehicle itself.
Final Thoughts
The vehicle ownership (Worth $70K) experience shouldn't consist of:
Hunting for missing maintenance information.
Waiting months for recall parts.
Repeatedly chasing dealership staff for updates.
Making multiple service visits to address a single issue.
So my question to Hyundai is simple:
What exactly is the customer experience strategy here for a $70K vehicle? Because from where I sit, it feels less like customer care and more like a masterclass in testing a customer's patience.
