Aloha Kia of Hilo

Philip and Andrew have taken care of us once again! Time for a new car and the only place we even considered was Aloha Kia Hilo. We already love our new Forte5. Thanks for all your hard work helping find the right vehicle for our needs and our budget!!!

Let me start off by saying I am a first time car buyer. I showed up at the lot not knowing what to expect. I was afraid that the moment I stepped foot on the lot, salespeople would have smelled my inexperience and pounced on me like a lone baby gazelle that stumbled upon a pride of lions. I was pleasantly surprised when our salesman, Ray, took the time to explain the process of purchasing a car and explained what to expect. I was even more surprised when Ray was able to set me up with a brand new car with payments within my budget. I feel he really went above and beyond to make sure I was satisfied and confident in my purchase. I am very proud of my brand new car and will definitely go back to Aloha Kia and Ray to purchase my next car!

The service manager there will straight up lie to you if you are a woman. They will not do the work promised when you set an appointment, instead they’ll give you the run around and try to get you to replace expensive parts instead of doing the simple fix.
I called and asked if they could perform an ECU update and provided a technical service bulletin number which the service manager looked up and said they could. When my girlfriend took her car in to get the ECU update, the service manager suddenly said he could not find the technical service bulletin that he pulled up the other day and instead insisted it was probably a $ 1400 repair rather than the $ 50 ECU update.
After my girlfriend insisted on the ECU update, they told her the ECU was already updated and refused to perform the update. I come in and ask the service manager for an update and he lies to my face and tells me that it’s already updated and that he could provide me with a screenshot as proof. I accept his offer of a screenshot, and suddenly his tune changes. He can’t give me the screenshot today, but will provide it tomorrow if we leave the car overnight and allow them to do a $ 60 test drive tomorrow. I accept.
The next day they say nothing is wrong and don’t provide the screenshot. They probably did not drive the car because right after we get it home the check engine light comes on with the exact same error as before. Most likely they just cleared the engine code and did not want to admit to lying about the ECU.

This story is going to be a little long. The team at Aloha Kia in Hilo has deserved this review before today but with some other new developments added it makes this review even more important. Often the measure of a company what they do when something goes wrong.
We moved here a month ago from the mainland. We sold our cars because one was a 2 seat convertible sports car with a big V8, and the other car wasn’t suited for here.
The company I work for sent me to Oahu for a week so I thought I would buy a car there since there is more inventory. I don’t like buying new cars because the deprecation hit, I have had great luck buying slightly used cars. I went car shopping after a work a few times. My husband would have been better suited for car shopping, I usually pick a car, sign papers and leave. My husband is worried about mileage, blue book, etc. Many of the cars I found online did not look great in person. After some frustrating encounters my husband finally convinced me he found a perfect car in Hilo. I told him there better be no hassle because I was tired of wasting my time at dealerships and driving cars.
We arrived at Aloha Kia in Hilo after I came back home. My husband set it up for first thing in the morning. I saw the car, it looked fine, a very low mileage Honda Accord with 30,000 miles, one owner, etc. The experience was flawlessly smooth. I signed all the paperwork, everything was ready like they said it would be. The car was nice and clean and in immaculate condition, everything went great. I drove away in less than a half an hour.
The story would end there with Aloha Kia getting 5 stars, but they did more…
A week ago we drove over to the other side of the Island. While driving Saddle road we noticed some shaking of the car when you touch the breaks if going fast, as you do on a highway. My husband said the rotors were warped and it happens sometimes, in all cars. It probably had that for a while but you don’t drive fast in Hilo so you wouldn’t notice it.
We thought it was still under warranty because warranties are usually 36,000 miles and a few years, we thought 4 years. It just missed being under warranty by a few months, which we found out while at Honda. My husband said dealerships usually have a little wriggle room if a car is still well under the mileage. He asked the Honda dealership if they would check if it could be taken care of. The guy said no. In the first interactions my husband had at Honda he saw a service guy arguing with a customer about an issue saying they guy was imaging it, and the guy my husband had spoken to didn’t even know how the warranty work process works on this first conversation.
My husband took the car to Kia and spoke to Andrew (there are 2 Andrews, both are great). We had the car 20 days and technically they didn’t need to replace anything, or do anything, we bought it ‘as is’. But Andrew told my husband they can sometimes take care of small things like this. They now have my car and are doing the work for free, even though I would have just paid the small amount to have this fixed.
I know this is a long review. But until today I loved my Honda, I would have bought a Honda after my house in Georgia sells and I need a newer car. I may have even bought a new Ridgeline, one of the cars I really like. But you know what??? I am SO IMPRESSED with the 2 Andrews and the entire group at Aloha Kia I will probably only go there, FOREVER!!! I will also tell everyone I talk to about this story. When something goes WRONG that is when a company’s true spirit shows. I will find a Kia I like, and they have a very impressive warranty and are obviously willing to stand behind their product. A lesson other companies could learn.

First of all, I want to say that the Kia product line isn’t bad. The cars are decent and handle great but are, in my opinion, too expensive when taking into consideration their 5-​year value and questionable quality. Although Kia has come a long way since their inception, the quality of their parts are still subpar. They do look good on the road and is a viable option for those looking to own long term with its 10-​year warranty. For those looking for a vehicle with a similar feel and options, look to Hyundai. Both Hyundai and Kia are made by the same team although the designed are not worked on at the same time. The parts are interchangeable. In my opinion, Hyundai has more options at lower prices. Both are good though.
That said, let’s talk about this dealership. If you’re willing to overpay, you may like what Kia has to offer. However, if you’re looking for a good deal, this place is not it. In fact, if you’re looking for a good deal, stay away from Kia completely in Hawaii. The mainland offers better deals for Kia even with shipping. Other brands such as Honda, Toyota, or Mazda in Hawaii have different dealerships competing with each other but all of the Kias in the whole state are under the same owner, so they have no real Kia competition that will drive down prices.
You would think that since Aloha Kia has a captive market, they could sell cars the honest way right? They don’t. Not in my experience. Plus bad customer relations skills. Aloha Kia as a whole doesn’t listen to customers.
If you have a trade, do your research first. The general manager, proudly showed me a used car that was newer than mine with less miles and said that he has to pay me less for my trade due to its age. He left out that my car was a specialty model with high local market demand and that, even with its age, would Blackbook more than his car Bluebooks. If you don’t know the difference, Blackbook is the auction value and is generally lower that the Bluebook value. He would have stolen my car by at least a grand.
During my first negotiation visit, I was introduced to a super pushy finance manager that kept saying that the selling price was final, but oddly enough raised the value of my trade in. Does that make sense? If you offered to give me more for my trade in, why couldn’t you lower the sale price instead? Obviously, there was something not right, so I walked out. The sales rep basically begged me to buy a car saying it was for «his kids and family.» That’s just unethical. They couldn’t respect the fact that I wanted to wait a couple of weeks and run numbers.
The sales rep sent me a text later saying that the General Manager would give me the numbers I wanted. When I came back, he did he whole song and dance about how my trade wasn’t worth much (mentioned above) and broke his promise about the numbers I wanted. I walked out and told him to contact me when he changes his mind. He said he wouldn’t contact me. I said thank you.
I contacted the Aloha Kia in Oahu and said I was no longer interested and described the Hilo team’s deceptive, bait and switch procedures. I told them not to have the Hilo manger contact me but a few days later, I received an email from Hilo’s General Manager asking me to come back in. So much for not contacting me. I emailed back with proof that I would receive a better deal from the mainland. The Kia on the mainland offered me a fully loaded version of the same car and, after shipping and taxes, would still cost about the same as the half loaded version from Aloha Kia. Half-​loaded vs fully-​loaded, which one would you go for?
Anyway, these guys are nice as long as you buy at factory MSRP or higher. Any lower than that and they get nasty. We’ve also had problems with their service department two years ago with our Kia Soul, which we bought from Oahu. Overall, my experience here has been extremely negative. I don’t care how much I like the car. Once they lied about my trade-​in, broke their promises, used pushy tactics, and started begging, I decided not to do business with any Aloha Kia location ever again. We’re taking our Kia to Honda or Hyundai for servicing.

I have had 2 Kia’s now; one bought at Aloha Kia and one bought used elsewhere. The Kia service department was ok but on my second (used) vehicle, they were either mistaken or really shady and told me the warranty was up when in fact I still had a year left. I started taking my car to Lex Brodie’s for maintenance and they informed me that I still had warranty. Kia work is super expensive, slow, and a couple of times other problems happened immediately after getting the vehicle back.
The sales department on my first buying experience was willing to negotiate and fair. Recently, I went in with some interest in getting another Kia. Name removed called me obnoxiously 4 times in one week trying to get me to set an appointment to see a car. When I went in and test drove, I found one I liked and put an offer down later on. They were charging 30% more than the regionally adjusted MSRP. I tried to negotiate. She flat out said no, and did not negotiate lower at all. Then she proceeded to leave messages and emails claiming she would offer a better deal, but it was only $ 1000 off of their sticker price. She claimed that they are so popular that they couldn’t keep then on the lot, so they didn’t need to go any lower on the price. I left and am planning on buying from a different car company. I do not want to support greedy rip off car dealerships with inflated egos, or terrible sales people. I guess there is no such thing as negotiating the price at Aloha Kia.
To Name removed I say: If the cars sell themselves and fly off the lots, why exactly does KIA even need sales people? Couldn’t the cars be cheaper if your «sales commission» wasn’t tacked onto the price? If the cars sell themselves, then halleluya no more cars salespeople needed! That would make car shopping infinitely better!
Update: We ended up buying a Honda on Oahu, and not from a KIA dealership! I removed the salesperson’s name due to a personal request from the person. Nothing personal, just a review!