TLDR: Bought a Genesis GV80 2.5t Prestige and had an accident the next day. The car is still being repaired after 8 months because they cannot program the radar module. Genesis corporate and the dealerships are doing nothing to help me. My insurance agent is frustrated. Has anyone else had a similar issue?
I bought a Genesis GV80 2.5t prestige in March of this year, and after a day of driving it, I had an accident, which damaged the frame rails (wasn't my fault, uninsured driver crossed the red light and I hit his car. He initially denied crossing the light but luckily, a doorbell camera caught the accident. Got myself a dashcam afterwards, please get yourself a dashcam, it will come in handy one day).
After the accident, I tried getting dealerships around my area (Greater Philadelphia area) to repair the car, because I preferred a Genesis dealership repair considering how new the car was (165 miles). I made a bunch of calls and the earliest appointment time was 3 weeks away, so I spoke to my insurance repair agent and he told me that I can use their in-network bodyshop to repair the car, then after the repair, the car can be sent to a Genesis dealership for validation. I agreed and the body shop started the repair in April (I am glad I went with the body shop, I will explain why).
The mechanic at the body shop explained to me that there are certain parts that are back ordered with no availability (belt buckle and wiring harness for the sensors), so he advised me to call the dealership and trade-in the car. He explained to me that many clients with expensive cars do it. The dealership assesses the damage and values the car based on the price of the car minus the cost of repair and depreciation due to the damage. The insurance then cuts a check for the repair, then the trade-in can happen. I called around and asked, but none of the dealerships around me were interested. The salesperson who sold the car to me agreed to give me a trade-in value. The sales person valued the car at $5000, lol. (I paid $70,000 for the car, and the car sustained about $40,000) in damage. I decided to wait for the repair. While waiting, I got myself a Genesis GV70 Advanced because I really wanted to drive a Genesis. I figured it was cheaper than renting, and Genesis cars seem to hold their value so I will just sell it as soon as the GV80 is repaired and ready.
It took 6 months for all the parts to arrive, and I am glad that I went with the insurance body shop rather than a Genesis dealership. The body shop mechanic was very communicative, calling me 2 times a week, which dropped to once a week when it was no longer necessary to constantly communicate the progress with me (we were waiting on the 2 parts I mentioned earlier). After 6 months, the final part came and he put the car together, the only problem was that the mechanic could not program the radar module, so the lane keeping assist warning was on. The mechanic had a specialist try programming the sensor, but could not so told me that he was going to make an appointment with a Genesis dealership to program the sensor and validate the repair.
I had the same problems as I described earlier in getting an appointment date, but luckily I found a dealership (same place I purchased my vehicle) that was willing to accept the car immediately, but start work on it when they can. This is where the fun part started.
I had not heard from the dealership in about a month, so I called them to inquire, and they told me that apparently, they cannot program the radar module because they usually get the data from the old sensor. They contacted the body shop to try to get the sensor but it was either damaged, or they realized that they wouldn't need it so threw it away. The dealership told me that without the old module, they cannot program the car, so they are working with the Genesis engineers in Korea to figure out the issue. Two weeks later, I called them again and this time the service rep told me that they just can't figure it out, they simply cannot, and there is nothing they can do about it. I told him that I work in tech (I am a Data Scientist/Software Engineer) so he should explain what is happening. He explained to me that there are multiple variables used to program the radar. you have to pair the variables together, to get the correct one for your vehicle, if not then you have to try them each time in pairs, and drive the vehicle for a bit to test that it worked, which is practically impossible to do. He advised me to contact Genesis corporate to see if they could help me.
I called Genesis corporate and they opened a case. They asked me what I wanted. I told them that I will accept a buy-back or trade-in. The agent said she will get back to me (did not). I had to constantly call her in order to reach her (she was always busy). After 2 weeks, she told me that she has talked with the dealership and that they will trade in the vehicle, and she has also received an answer on the buy-back request so she is emailing the letter to me. The buy-back was denied in the letter because it was not covered under lemon law. Mind you, I never filed a lemon law claim, I spoke to the customer service agent in good faith, about how I am a customer who has not 1, but 2 Genesis cars, and they might want to buy back as a sign of goodwill. I called again, very angry and told the customer service and threatened to out them for their utter incompetence because it is not my fault that they sold me a car which apparently cannot be repaired. She said she will get back to me. It has been a week and I have yet to hear from them.
Now on the dealership side of things, the dealership experience manager called me, being very apologetic, and said that they want to assess the repair before giving me a trade-in value. After that call, I received another call from the service department, the rep told me that they have spoken to my insurance and authorized the purchase of another radar module to see if they can program it (maybe the issue with the old one was because it was programmed before). This happened last week and the module was supposed to arrive last week Thursday. The customer experience manager from the dealership then called me again, and told me that without the radar module programmed, he could not give me a value of the car as it is considered a total loss and not repairable. I called my insurance to check, they were all stunned at how incompetent Genesis could be, and the told me to wait for the result of the final try, so that they will figure out a way to help me.
I called the dealership on Monday to check the progress. The service rep told me that my case was unique so Genesis sent in a field tech to come program the vehicle, and the field tech came in to get my car's vin number and information last week Friday, and that he will come back in a day or 2 to try to program the radar module. Called them today and they said that they would return my call, but they did not.
I am sorry for the long write-up, but I needed to explain the situation in detail. Is anyone having similar issues like this? According to the service rep who advised me to call corporate, he mentioned that he has seen customers with issues who called corporate to have them resolved.
