Share your service experience at non EV-certified dealer

inphoenix · Oct 16, 2015

Looking for some feedback from folks who bought their SOUL EV from out of state (or from a different city) and have no EV-certified dealers in their state/city. How was your experience when you took it to the dealer? Were they able to help you or was there a lot of run around? I know of one case where someone was refused service even for a simple tire rotation. Looking for some more feedback.

JeroenE · Oct 17, 2015

I'm not in the USA, but local KIA dealer is not EV certified. Before I got one I did not know you can only get the car at some dealers. The local dealer told me that he did not sell the car. When I asked him about maintenance he said he would also not be able to do any maintenance on it. I did not ask if that also meant he couldn't change the tires. If he doesn't want to do it I don't want to force the car on him anyway. I'd rather ave someone who's happy to work on my car.

The dealers that are EV certified are further away, but not so far that is was a no-go for me.

notfred · Oct 17, 2015

Tyre rotation should be fine anywhere. The problems start as soon as you do anything more. Changing the rear brake pads requires the diagnostic tool to back off the electric parking brake. Changing the coolant requires the diagnostic tool to run the water pump to get the air out.

inphoenix · Oct 17, 2015

JeroenE said:
I'm not in the USA, but local KIA dealer is not EV certified. Before I got one I did not know you can only get the car at some dealers. The local dealer told me that he did not sell the car. When I asked him about maintenance he said he would also not be able to do any maintenance on it. I did not ask if that also meant he couldn't change the tires. If he doesn't want to do it I don't want to force the car on him anyway. I'd rather ave someone who's happy to work on my car.

The dealers that are EV certified are further away, but not so far that is was a no-go for me.

Thank you. I agree that you are better off finding someone who's happy to work on your car.

notfred said:
Tyre rotation should be fine anywhere. The problems start as soon as you do anything more. Changing the rear brake pads requires the diagnostic tool to back off the electric parking brake. Changing the coolant requires the diagnostic tool to run the water pump to get the air out.

How often do you need new brake pads and coolant change? I am assuming that non EV certified dealers may not have this diagnostic tool in my state and shipping car out of state for every service may get cost prohibitive. Would like some more insight on the scheduled maintenance please.

inphoenix · Oct 23, 2015

Update: I spoke with multiple KIA dealers here in town. None of them are EV certified and they have no clue how soon would that happen. They said they could help with small service related stuff and tweaks etc., but for anything that would need to be billed to Kia would be a no go as they are not allowed to invoice anything for that car. Also, should anything go wrong with EV system my only recourse would be to put it on a truck and send it back to California which would be a $600 round trip.

SOUL EV seems nicely built but two of the service manager recommended not to buy the EV version in AZ at this time. Based on the feedback I think I will wait till they officially sell/service this car here and go for a different EV at this time.

P.S.: One of the service guys was gracious enough to tell me that he would "accommodate me" for an oil change but nothing more than that. Not sure if I was more amused or scared about their lack of knowledge about Electric vehicles in general.