PalmBeachRider
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Hi All,
Warning: Long post to follow!
I purchased a 2014 Equus in September 2013 and allow me to say upfront, that I'm truly enjoying this vehicle. While there's no such thing as a perfect product, during my 4,000 miles of ownership, the Equus has lived up to my expectations.
For those of us who have owned other comparable luxury brands, it takes a leap of faith to made the decision to purchase a Hyundai. I'm not being negative with this statement, but as we know the Hyundai brand in the USA speaks more towards economy and value than it does luxury. It will take years for Hyundai to overcome this and to develop an image that is geared towards luxury automobiles. They are off to a good start with the Equus. I will say that the factory's program for at home pickup/delivery and that they provide a comparable loaner vehicle was one of the factors that made me comfortable with my purchase of a Hyundai product.
While there's some small bugs that hopefully will be addressed in the future, for the most part, the Equus is a world class car that is comfortable and easy to drive around town and on the highways. This statement is coming from a 60 year old who has a back that has seen better days and I have been know to trade cars after short periods due to the fatigue caused by the seats. With the Equus, I can easily drive for hours comfortably.
With that said, I did run into a strange situation this week and after further research, I'm a bit miffed and thought I would post my experience and see if others have noticed the same thing. My situation began Tuesday January 28th when I received my Bluelink monthly vehicle report via email. While the report stated that all systems were normal (green), at the bottom of the report was a Maintenance Alert that featured a red header. Within the email the description for the warning is as follows: "Attention, action required. Visit your Blue Link site for details and to schedule an appointment."
When I logged into the MyHyundai site, I could find nothing about what triggered this alert and understanding I was 3,500 miles from my first service interval, I called the Equus hotline to see if they could identify why my Equus needed service.
The Equus customer service representative was clueless about why I received this notice and confirmed there were no needed recalls and that the service interval was 7,500 miles. He decided that it was best to go on and do the initial service. As stated, at this point, no answers were provided as to why it needed the service ahead of schedule. The representative was friendly and did offer to make the service appointment and I took him up on his offer. He followed up a couple of times that day and confirmed my car would be picked up on Friday at 9am, a loaner would be delivered and the car returned the same day. I was happy! Fast forwarding to Friday, here's what took place:
At 9:30am, since no one had shown up to pick up the car, I called the Dealership and received the voice mail of the Equus Service Manager. I left a message, but didn't hear back. I called again an hour later and received a different service writer. His response was that I was not on the schedule. Luckily, the Equus factory customer service rep had provided a case number and I gave it to the dealer and was promised a follow up call which I did receive.
It seems that the factory did make the appointment and the answer provided to me was that the dealer operator who took the call did not realize it was for an Equus and while she confirmed the appointment with the factory, did not notify the Equus service manager.
What? After all, wasn't the appointment made by the Equus rep and confirmed by the Dealership? Wasn't the time and location of the pickup noted? Allow me to add that I was a bit miffed that the factory did not have my address, phone number or the name of the purchasing dealership in its database. I'll note that I have called the toll free number in the past and they were able to quickly locate my records. I'll add that in the past when calling the Equus hotline before and after the purchase, I've found them to be not as familiar with the car as I would have liked.
The Dealer's service writer then said he would get back to me to reschedule. When I didn't hear back from him at 4:30pm, I called again. Allow me to say the interchange was friendly and here's what I learned:
It appears that when I purchased the call and the salesperson was setting up my Bluelink account, there were some questions about my driving habits that needed to be added to the Bluelink database. My salesperson had asked about how I would be using the car and I answered a combination of city and highway driving. Since I don't know how to insert images on this site, here's the text of the selections from Hyundai:
- Repeated short-distance driving (less than 5-10 miles), or extended periods of low-speed driving or extensive engine idling.
- Driving on unpaved, gravel, muddy, rough, dusty or sandy roadways or roadways where salt or other corrosive materials are being used.
- Driving in heavy stop and go traffic, especially in temperatures above 90°F.
- Driving with heavy load or workload on the vehicle such as towing, mountain roads, or commercial use.
- Driving for a prolonged period in cold temperatures and/or extremely humid climates.
- None of the above.
I live in Florida and as you know, it's a warm climate and our roads are in good shape. Faced with these options, I advised the salesperson that while the majority of the miles will be on the highway, I will be driving this around town and many of my trips were within 5 - 10 miles of my home. So, he selected option number one. Here's where it gets strange...
The factory, the service manager and myself had no answers as to why I was sent an email maintenance alert at 4,000 miles, but the service manager did look into it and stated that it was based on the Bluelink questionnaire selection made during setup. It appears that if you select any of these answers (other than "none of the above"), the service interval is basically cut in half. Here's the text answer offered on the MyHyundai website:
If any of the first five options is selected, then oil changes are recommended at every 3,750 miles. If the "none of the above" option is selected, then oil changes are recommended at every 7,500 miles. See owner's manual for exceptions.
So, for normal, short trip, running errands around town driving the service interval is cut in half to 3,750 miles.
They will be calling me Monday to reschedule the service appointment, but I wanted to ask the folks on this site what you think about this? While the factory will be picking up the tab for the service, I found this to be a bit strange.
What do you think of this?
Warning: Long post to follow!
I purchased a 2014 Equus in September 2013 and allow me to say upfront, that I'm truly enjoying this vehicle. While there's no such thing as a perfect product, during my 4,000 miles of ownership, the Equus has lived up to my expectations.
For those of us who have owned other comparable luxury brands, it takes a leap of faith to made the decision to purchase a Hyundai. I'm not being negative with this statement, but as we know the Hyundai brand in the USA speaks more towards economy and value than it does luxury. It will take years for Hyundai to overcome this and to develop an image that is geared towards luxury automobiles. They are off to a good start with the Equus. I will say that the factory's program for at home pickup/delivery and that they provide a comparable loaner vehicle was one of the factors that made me comfortable with my purchase of a Hyundai product.
While there's some small bugs that hopefully will be addressed in the future, for the most part, the Equus is a world class car that is comfortable and easy to drive around town and on the highways. This statement is coming from a 60 year old who has a back that has seen better days and I have been know to trade cars after short periods due to the fatigue caused by the seats. With the Equus, I can easily drive for hours comfortably.
With that said, I did run into a strange situation this week and after further research, I'm a bit miffed and thought I would post my experience and see if others have noticed the same thing. My situation began Tuesday January 28th when I received my Bluelink monthly vehicle report via email. While the report stated that all systems were normal (green), at the bottom of the report was a Maintenance Alert that featured a red header. Within the email the description for the warning is as follows: "Attention, action required. Visit your Blue Link site for details and to schedule an appointment."
When I logged into the MyHyundai site, I could find nothing about what triggered this alert and understanding I was 3,500 miles from my first service interval, I called the Equus hotline to see if they could identify why my Equus needed service.
The Equus customer service representative was clueless about why I received this notice and confirmed there were no needed recalls and that the service interval was 7,500 miles. He decided that it was best to go on and do the initial service. As stated, at this point, no answers were provided as to why it needed the service ahead of schedule. The representative was friendly and did offer to make the service appointment and I took him up on his offer. He followed up a couple of times that day and confirmed my car would be picked up on Friday at 9am, a loaner would be delivered and the car returned the same day. I was happy! Fast forwarding to Friday, here's what took place:
At 9:30am, since no one had shown up to pick up the car, I called the Dealership and received the voice mail of the Equus Service Manager. I left a message, but didn't hear back. I called again an hour later and received a different service writer. His response was that I was not on the schedule. Luckily, the Equus factory customer service rep had provided a case number and I gave it to the dealer and was promised a follow up call which I did receive.
It seems that the factory did make the appointment and the answer provided to me was that the dealer operator who took the call did not realize it was for an Equus and while she confirmed the appointment with the factory, did not notify the Equus service manager.
What? After all, wasn't the appointment made by the Equus rep and confirmed by the Dealership? Wasn't the time and location of the pickup noted? Allow me to add that I was a bit miffed that the factory did not have my address, phone number or the name of the purchasing dealership in its database. I'll note that I have called the toll free number in the past and they were able to quickly locate my records. I'll add that in the past when calling the Equus hotline before and after the purchase, I've found them to be not as familiar with the car as I would have liked.
The Dealer's service writer then said he would get back to me to reschedule. When I didn't hear back from him at 4:30pm, I called again. Allow me to say the interchange was friendly and here's what I learned:
It appears that when I purchased the call and the salesperson was setting up my Bluelink account, there were some questions about my driving habits that needed to be added to the Bluelink database. My salesperson had asked about how I would be using the car and I answered a combination of city and highway driving. Since I don't know how to insert images on this site, here's the text of the selections from Hyundai:
- Repeated short-distance driving (less than 5-10 miles), or extended periods of low-speed driving or extensive engine idling.
- Driving on unpaved, gravel, muddy, rough, dusty or sandy roadways or roadways where salt or other corrosive materials are being used.
- Driving in heavy stop and go traffic, especially in temperatures above 90°F.
- Driving with heavy load or workload on the vehicle such as towing, mountain roads, or commercial use.
- Driving for a prolonged period in cold temperatures and/or extremely humid climates.
- None of the above.
I live in Florida and as you know, it's a warm climate and our roads are in good shape. Faced with these options, I advised the salesperson that while the majority of the miles will be on the highway, I will be driving this around town and many of my trips were within 5 - 10 miles of my home. So, he selected option number one. Here's where it gets strange...
The factory, the service manager and myself had no answers as to why I was sent an email maintenance alert at 4,000 miles, but the service manager did look into it and stated that it was based on the Bluelink questionnaire selection made during setup. It appears that if you select any of these answers (other than "none of the above"), the service interval is basically cut in half. Here's the text answer offered on the MyHyundai website:
If any of the first five options is selected, then oil changes are recommended at every 3,750 miles. If the "none of the above" option is selected, then oil changes are recommended at every 7,500 miles. See owner's manual for exceptions.
So, for normal, short trip, running errands around town driving the service interval is cut in half to 3,750 miles.
They will be calling me Monday to reschedule the service appointment, but I wanted to ask the folks on this site what you think about this? While the factory will be picking up the tab for the service, I found this to be a bit strange.
What do you think of this?
