Penske Hyundai

We have purchased three Hyundais from this dealership and have had them serviced exclusively here. Edwin Toro has been our service advisor on every trip to the service drive and he makes getting one’s car serviced easy and can be. He is reason enough to continue patronizing Penske Hyundai. The shuttle driver, Tim, is another outstanding example of the efficient professionalism that this dealership’s service department offers.

the Worst Customer service ever, don’t ever take your car to their service. they will rip you off with out doing anything to your car. I took a 2014 Elantra with 41K miles still under warranty. the transmission went bad it was shaking while driving. I took it to this place they checked it they said it has over fluid. I said ok go ahead and change it. they called again said your transmission is bad has to be changed. I said ok it is under warranty still it should be covered. they said we have to talk to Hyundai for approval. long story short they said you have to pay for the transmission cuz the Hyunda is not covering it. it doesn’t make any sense a 2014 with 41K miles not covered you gotta be kidding me. and worst of all the service manager is so rude, she yield at customers. she dosn’t know anything about customer service. they charged us more than 200 dollars for no reason with out fixing the car. I would stay away from these kruks. if you don’t want any headache go to a private auto repair to fix your car for much cheaper and respect.

I went in for the Santa Fe but was EXTREMLY happy we went with the 16′ Tucson from Penske Hyundai. I’m like everyone else, OMG jump out of the car here they come! No ma’am or sir, not today! Mike Gaffney salesman, simply approached us and asked what qualities were we looking for in a vehicle… We informed him of what we wanted and he helped narrow us down to a few selections! He wasn’t trying to sale us on this or that, he wanted to ensure that ALL of our requests were met and that we were happy!!! He was very helpful in finding me a car that fits my budget! We talked numbers and the Manager, Dave Avants came over shook our hand and didn’t finagle us back and forth, we told him what we wanted to pay and he made it happen! We thought, darn why can’t it always be this easy! I defiantly will be a repeat customer to both Salesman Mike Gaffney and Manager Dave Avants!

I will not return to Penske Hyundai ever again. Other than Dan, my sales man, the other people that work there lack social skills, problem solving abilities, and have no idea about successful customer service. The main culprits, oh wait, all of them. But to name names, Glenn, service adviser (he refuses to return multiple calls and is extremely rude), Eileen, the service manager (she doesn’t take care of the consumer and argues over the phone), Kaitlyn, service adviser (doesn’t even acknowledge your existence when you walk in the office), Gary, general manager (yells in front of other customers and raises his hands to you).
Basically, all of my experiences with the service department were horrible and left a bad taste in my mouth. I took my car in a few months ago, because the tire pressure light would not turn off even though all tires were fine. The first time, I took the car in, I had an appointment, and they still hadn’t taken my car an hour after my appointment time. I went to talk to Gary about it and in so many words, stated that he didn’t care. He raised his hands at me and his voice and made me very uncomfortable in front of other customers. After threatening to call corporate, he authorized a rental car and sent me on my way. They fixed the car after 2 days and a week later, the problem came back. I took my car in again and Penske Hyundai had it for 2 weeks and were unable to figure out the problem. They gave me a rental car and fixed the problem. When I came back to pick my car up, nobody in the service department could even explain what was wrong and what they fixed. After about 2 months, the issue arose again for the 3^rd time in 3 months. I called to let them know and asked if I could get a rental car and bring the vehicle in again. Eileen, the service manager, argued with me about it for about 10 minutes, stating it’s not their policy to issue a rental car, even though the issue was under warranty and they had given me a rental car the first 2 times. I explained to her that I am the consumer, that spent money on a faulty product and they should ensure the consumer’s happiness. She was not understanding and was extremely rude. She finally agreed to the rental car, but said if it was my fault, I would be charged. I never took my car in and I will never return. They need to fire the people that work there and start with a clean slate. After speaking to multiple people, including the rental car office, this is a common theme of their behavior. It is not acceptable.

I was sold a maintenance package on my new Hyundai after a hard sale in the sales office. The salesman Mike Gafney and the Sales manager convinced me to purchase a planned Maintenance package to cover the major 30,000 mile service. Last week I took the car in for the service and was told my service contract was not valid and that I had in fact been sold a Ford Extended Service plan and they were not going to honor it. I have paid out over $ 1000 into this just to be told that it not valid. Very upset. Talked to the service manager, the sales manager and the salesman. Who all showed no interest in resolving my issue and basically said, «you’re out of luck». What a scam.

Best customer service I have ever received with a dealership. I used to despise bringing my car to a dealership for repairs/​maintenance because of poor, overpriced service in the past. Penske Hyundai in La Mesa has changed my opinion. Over the past 2+ years, I have been 100% satisfied!

I make appt the quote me one price. I receive 4 reminders to come in all within minutes apart. Come to appt kaitlyn doesn’t greet just keeps typing never looks at you. Got quoted double than what was told. Gave coupon was told when made appt they could get done in 1 hour as I had to get to work got to kaitlyn and she said not possible. So I get no car wash or rotate of tires done cause it takes over and hour to do oil change rotate tires and wash a car???
Another reason why you don’t go to dealerships not customer friendly or accommodating.
Another day at dealership kept ny car for 5 hours to tell me they don’t have part in stock went to pick up car and of course Kaitlin was asked were Edwin was she said don’t know I just got back not asked how can I help u nothing
Got service Mgr he couldn’t find Edwin and told Kaitlin to help us and then she was super nice. Little to late !!!
What part of this dealership don’t they get about customer service 7 am appt and there own people are not even checked in at work yet? Now I have to wait for Edwin to log I. Get coffee etc Training is needed or new people

Awful customer service and reliability. My engine failed on the freeway causing the rear wheels to lock up and slam into a curb. They looked at me like I was a joke. Awful customer service. All they offered was a one day car rental. A catastrophic engine failure causing in possible injury or death, and they offer me a car rental for one day! After some hassling. This is on a brand new Genesis coupe! Obviously a manufacturer defect causing in some major safety malfunctions, and I get one day free car rental. The only thing that kept me from flipping out was Michael Gaffney (he sold me the car in May). He reassured me that he would follow up with this case and figure out what’s happening.
The next day I didn’t receive any call. I called them and they said they couldn’t figure out why the engine failed so they weren’t going to do anything about it.
Not to mention the fact that I had brought the car in for some interior work. They said they completed the interior repairs, and when I picked up the car, not a single thing had been done.
Piss poor customer service and no loyalty. I will not be looking to this location for any further services.

Anthony and Bill have been awesome. Bill was polite and not at all pushy. Anthony, the sales manager, really was sympathetic toward our needs and really worked to meet our goals. He even got the remainder of our other car loan paid off for us. Highly recommend these two guys!

Great service, great prices! My brother and I took our mom here to test drive a used car. She loved it when she drove it and our salesman, Tim, was very knowledgeable about the vehicle. The process was smooth and we enjoyed our experience. I would definitely recommend this dealership to my friends and family.

New update!!! As promised Gary called me and made good on his promise to make it up to me. I was offered a fair price for my trade and am now the proud owner of a 2014 Hyundai Veloster! Bill the salesman took great care of me. Also, a shout out to Victor in finance. He worked some awesome magic for me!!! I will look forward to the awesome care and service when I need to bring my new car in for servicing. When the time comes to get a new Hyundai down the road I will definitely be returning to Penske Hyundai! Thank you to everyone who took care of me!

Pay particular attention to the man selling you the car you wanna buy. Then turn around and run away.
If i could give this dealership a «no star» rating i would. Embarrassingly enough, i do believe that i was hoodwinked. maybe i should have done my homework.. .not on the car itself, but on the people doing the dealings there. especially in the maintenance/​garage area.
unless you go in there with abso-​fucking-​lutely no idea on what you are talking about, then you are in for a no-​go on getting quality customer satisfaction. i mean, they’ve already got you on the hook because you purchased the car, so why give you good service when something goes wrong with it?
i will continue more later, but in the meantime, do not be fooled with the smiles and handshakes and the way they make you feel important.. .because you’re not.

I would never again touch Penske with a ten foot pole. Here is why. We were loyal and satisfied customers of Drew Ford/​Hyundai in La Mesa for many years. In late 2014, I happened to buy tires for my 2006 Hyundai Sonata from them, as I had done for over 10 yrs for other cars.
A few weeks later, early 2015, I had a flat tire on the freeway (due to a loose balancing weight on the rim, which came loose; dealer fault). I did not realize Penske had bought out Drew in the meantime. Penske continues buying out former family owned businesses up and down the coast. The homespun Drew family business is gone, replaced by a huge and heartless corporation. Penske Ford and Penske Hyundai are located in the same buildings and owned by the same corporation.
The first problem was that Penske refused to honor the warranty on the tires, which were almost brand new (a few months old). It took over ten days, dickering with the old managers from Drew, until someone slipped me a new tire on a cash account, bypassing Penske management. Drew would have fixed the tire free, no arguments, in an hour. My nightmare with Penske went on for ten days and was only resolved despite Penske, not because of them.
But get this. While the car was in the Penske shop, I asked them to check into a slight rattling noise that persisted every time I pressed on the gas. During the 10 days, they did check the noise and told me it was the oil. They put in a quart of oil, charged me for it, and told me to keep the oil topped off.
About 3 weeks after I got the car back, the noise turned out to be the oil pump, which blew all over the highway, turning the engine into scrap. I had the car towed to another Hyundai dealer, and amazingly because of Hyundai’s bumper to bumper warranty, I received a new engine from Hyundai, installed for free by the other dealer. The manager there showed me the paperwork – it cost Hyundai about $ 7,000 to replace my engine.
Dealing with Penske is like dealing with North Korea. I will never go there again in my life. Mr. Penske is a billionaire for a reason. He has a huge mouth full of teeth like a shark, and he lusts after your wallet. They just don’t care about warranties, noises, or your life – just whatever money they can squeeze out of you.

If you are looking for a car Tim Brown is your guy. He doesn’t try and jerk you around or sell you useless crap you don’t need. Just wants to get you into a car for the best deal possible. On top of that he is super nice and very straightforward, made the car buying experience a breeze. And after I bought my car he called me a couple days after to see how I liked it, if I had anymore questions and make sure everything was working great. I would highly recommend him to anybody who is looking for a car salesman that wants to actually help you not just rake you through the coals.
It was my first time buying a car and I am only 20 so every other salesman I had dealt with at other dealership saw me walk on the lot and told me all about how they can get me in a car today with no money down and low payments but the truth was their deals had me paying twice as much for the car in interest and paying for the next 8 years on a pre-​owned car. When’s Tim talked to me on the lot he told me exactly how much I needed to put down to get a decent interest rate and affordable payments. Instead of trying to take advantage of the fact that I was young and inexperienced with the car buying experience he explained to me exactly what to do to have the car I wanted without paying through the nose in interest.
Next time you go to buy a car make sure you stop by Penske Hyundai and ask for Tim Brown, you wouldn’t regret it!

This review is about the service center. It’s a shame about this experience because you would think with what the dealership charges, they would have better customer service.
1. I made an appointment online for my 7500 mile checkup, they confirmed that I would be with April — even received an automated email from her desk. I called ahead as well to see how long it would take (30 – 45 minutes is what the girl said)
2. When I arrived, there’s no greeting from anyone, no «we’ll be right with you» or anything of the like. A random guy comes over, doesn’t even introduce himself, and asks why you’re there and your mileage. I told him I had an appointment with April, he got my mileage and walked away. I had no inclination of what I’m supposed to do.
3. April walks around the corner and asks if she can assist me — rather, if I’ve been «helped» (personal opinion for customer service — that should never be asked). I told her I had an appointment with her at 10:00 am. She seemed confused and said that I didn’t have an appointment, then informed me I would be with another technician.
4. When I asked how long it would take, the woman said «about an hour» — an hour for oil change, tire rotation, and car wash. I asked why, and she told me it’s due to the fact that there were 2 cars in front of mine.
WHY BOTHER TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT?
5. Unfortunately I have to skip the car wash because I have another appointment elsewhere at 11:00 because of what some girl told me over the phone.
The only reason there is an additional star is for the coupons they send via email. I like those.
Very disappointing, Penske. Don’t know that I’ll come back now, even with a coupon.

I was baited and switched that they had the Walking Dead 2014 special edition Tucson here. Of course, they didn’t. The sales person treated me like I was an idiot– multiple times tried to explain to me «what the three credit bureaus are» and I explained back to him that I work for a loan center, plus I wrote an in depth piece for my company on the difference between FICO and Vantage scores. He tried to tell me a car that’s been sitting on another lot somewhere over a year could not have the price modified at all from MSRP, telling me it would cost them the exact invoice price of $ 28k to ship the car to their lot. No thanks. I’m not that dumb.

Requested a quote online was texted within 15min by John. Said he would have a car ready for me to test drive when I arrived.
Got there about 7:30 pm and sure enough there was the exact car I wanted to test drive. I was met with smiles and thank you for coming. After the test drive I was sold. No need to negotiate since that was done online. I was out with a new car within an hour! The manager came out to congratulate me on my new car and welcome to the family.
Very nice, honest and straight forward!

Bought a car there a few days ago.
I had looked all over for a specific color, specific mileage range and I had a price set in mind, not willing to compromise on any of those a tiny bit. So when I found what I was looking for, it really wasn’t that hard for the salesman to «sell» it to me.
John did his job well — smiled a lot, cracked jokes and made me feel comfortable with my decision. He was also very attentive and considerate with his arrangements to get me picked up the next day so I could get to the dealership to get the new car. I appreciate this «extra mile» to please.
I paid cash so I didn’t really have to go through a lot besides signing a bunch of stuff. The finance manager is a bit stiff, not sure how to explain. Definitely not a people person, maybe that’s why he’s not on sales. Either way, my only contact with him was when I was paying him, thank God.
They are yet to contact me to schedule an appointment to fix some scratches on my car, and John promised me it won’t take long, which I’m counting on. Other than that, I have no complaints on how the process went, quality of car and my shopping/​buying experience.
I’d recommend them.

Came in today for an oil change and Glen Foster is by far the best service advisor ever!
I called in about half hour before I came in and he was able to get me in right a way! I have been to many dealerships for service and Glen and Penske Hyundai are by far the best Service Advisor and Dealership on the West Coast!
Good work guys! Keep it up!

Okay … so now there’s new ownership at this place. I’m imagining that Bill Drew realized what a hole his father’s business had sunk into and decided to just get out.
I went to give them another try with the new Penske ownership and after having several warranty items done, my conclusion is that things are not that much different there since the change.
Maybe that’s because (according to several employees I asked) most of the old crew is still working there. These people should feel privileged to have a well-​paying job in this economy but from what I observed, they still feel «entitled» to their job based on longevity.
We are buying another Ford this summer, and likely another Hyundai in the next couple of years. (we LOVE our Sonata!). But we’ll be shopping at another dealership for these purchases.