[St00k]

I'm curious what everyone's dealership experience was like. It seems like some folks it's been pretty brutal.

For some reason I was under the impression that when Genesis broke off from Hyundai that they had to have their own dealership. As it turns out, they just need their own dealer licenses and have to abide by some rules and some investments.

I've seen all sorts of reports about Genesis dealers selling the cars next to accents. And this story below might just take the cake:
- There was no trained Genesis sales staff on the lot, so they basically couldn't help this person
- Selling the cars next to crappy Accents
- Crazy dealer markups

I honestly don't understand the dealer markups. Is this dealer trying to get back his investment? Or is demand for the G70 so strong (because of the limited supply and limited dealers) that they can get away with this???

What do you say? Does Genesis NEED to have its own, unique dealers?

Here's a quote from Reddit that inspired me to write this:

My wife is looking for a new car as her lease expires soon. As she's not a car person, I'm trying to convince her to move away from a crossover into a sports sedan. We saw a Genesis g70 on the road and she really liked the looks of it so we decide to go check it out. Immediately we see 3 g70s on the Genesus dealer (see:Hyundai) lot. A salesperson comes over and explains to us that their only Genesis certified salesperson is out so they really wouldn't be able to help explain anything about the car. And then we see it...the $7,000 dealer markup on all 3 g70s sitting there. My wife proceeds to ask a couple of generic questions and then salesperson said he didn't know and she should just look it up on the internet. We left very shortly after as she marked the g70 off her list of potential options.
What really confuses me is why is a dealer representing a struggling new brand with a good car in a very competitive but shrinking segment is acting this way. A $7k markup on your car when the biggest competition of a new BMW 3 series just came out? A disinterested salesperson who did the exact opposite of what a luxury car buyer would expect when first being introduced to the brand? If Genesis is going to make it in the luxury car realm they have a lot of work to do with their dealers.

 

[Roderick]

There needs to be a much larger separation between Genesis and Hyundai products for sure. Even if demand is strong for the G70, there is no way dealers should be doing markups, considering how sales have dropped off for their other sedans.

 

[FastG]

If Genesis launched new SUV's instead of sedans I can bet you we'd be seeing dedicate dealers. Till that happens it will be slow sailing. They launched new sedans in a dying sedan market, who does that? My guess is they're realizing the potential consequences and reassessing.

 

[St00k]

Good point. They definitely need SUVs. Very slow to market on that. Apparently the GV80 is coming this year though. But I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.

 

[Garypsu]

There needs to be a much larger separation between Genesis and Hyundai products for sure. Even if demand is strong for the G70, there is no way dealers should be doing markups, considering how sales have dropped off for their other sedans.

I purchased my G70 from a dealer in Marlton NJ. They have already purchased a separate building for Genesis. It was a former Oldsmobile dealership. The Genesis sign is already up, but it will be a while before they move there.

 

[jaa]

It's a "massive" problem because many are just Hyundai dealers with no separate dedicated sales people or staff.

Here in N. California, the local "Genesis" dealership is just a small sticker on the door of a large Hyundai dealership. The experience was all stereotypical used car dealer tricks. They let the newbie salesman show me the car to take me for a test drive followed by the "I have to check with my manager" routine. In case you're not familiar with the playbook, this is when the "manager" comes over to squeeze money out of the customer. At this point, the paper with "four squares" came out. Within 2 minutes, I figured this is going to be ugly. So I walked out. I wonder how many sales were lost this way.

They wanted sticker price for a 2019 model which several have been sitting in the lot for about a year. The one I test drove had paint chips from all the exposure.