Don Wood Hyundai — Local services in Athens

Found a car here and wanted to purchase it (out of state sale). From the start I was always the one to make initiative to push forward on the sale, salesman lacked ambition to get the sale done. Quoted "I'm busy with customers" and "people who walk through the door have priority". After finally getting things situated, I was sent paper work to "hurry and get back" so I could set up shipping. They made an over night envelope that I got on a Thursday, I hurried and filled everything out and sent it back Friday (UPS doesnt work weekends). While all that was happening, I arranged ALL the shipping, they told me they didn't deal much with shipping so I found my own transport. The shipping company was waiting for them to release the vehicle, where again I texted and called for multiple days to keep communication open. Vehicle wasn't released on time because UPS dropped the package off at another Don Wood dealership and after letting my salesman and manager that the UPS package said delivered that morning, they didn't look until evening where it was too late to go get it, so it waited until the next morning to be picked up. That lost one shipper and had to pay an extra 400$ to get a new shipper and wait 2 more days. I told them i don't need license plates because I have my own here I can swap on, they sent me license plates anyway and now I have to pay for the swap. Once I received the vehicle, there was a headlight out, barely enough gas to get me to the gas station a 1/4 mile down the hill it was sputtering to get there, and brakes were so bad I took time off work the next day to go to Firestone and they said the rotors were so bad they were the furthest thing from street legal, which I knew because the slightest tap of the brake the whole car pulsated. So had to get new brakes on a new car that went through "inspection" and a missed headlight missed through "inspection". Still to this day I have not received any of my paper work for the vehicle and I was told they were going to send me a 50$ check to get me the "convenience Fee" back...since I now have to go pay to have my license plates swapped....still haven't gotten that either. Bad communication, very unorganized, not a trustworthy dealership. And Ive bought ALOT of cars from dealerships....and this was one of the worst...

I purchased a 2025 Hyundai Kona from this dealership on July 19, 2025, and experienced serious customer service failures and legal compliance violations that lasted until September 5, 2025 - nearly 7 weeks.

Despite Ohio law requiring immediate temporary registration upon sale, I was forced to drive with dealer plates for weeks, creating legal liability. Despite providing my correct street address multiple times, all signed paperwork contained an incorrect placeholder address ("First Street"), making the documents legally invalid and delaying the entire process of receiving a memorandum title. Multiple attempts to reach sales staff and management went unanswered for days and weeks at a time. Temporary tags were promised to be "overnighted" that first weekend, then promised via "runner delivery" on July 28 - neither happened. Days passed without any response to text messages and emails.

Pattern of Problems: This is NOT an isolated incident. A review of Ohio Attorney General complaints shows this dealership has received multiple similar complaints over several years for identical title processing delays, missing temporary tags, and communication failures. This appears to be an ongoing systematic issue rather than an isolated incident.

Impact: This situation caused significant stress, legal liability, and wasted time. The complete lack of communication and disregard for customer concerns was unprofessional and unacceptable. The issue was only resolved after I prepared to file complaints with regulatory agencies. While I eventually received proper documentation, the 48-day delay and poor service were completely unnecessary.

Recommendation: I cannot recommend this dealership based on this experience and the documented pattern of similar problems. Future customers should ensure all documentation is correct before leaving, demand immediate temporary registration, and be aware of this dealership's history of regulatory compliance issues.

I hope this dealership improves its processes to prevent other customers from experiencing similar issues. Just responding to a phone call, text message, or an email would have gone a long way towards making me feel as if my issues were being taken care of, but that basic courtesy was only given AFTER the threat of...

They completely lied to me and told me they could beat the offer Carvana gave me to purchase my car. This was part of their trade in event up to $5000 on top of KBB. I was up front with them from the beginning that I was not trading but only interesting in selling. I even questioned what they were saying because it did not seem logical and they confirmed it again, claiming they were 100% confident they could beat the other offer. Only after I drove an hour did they tell me oh this deal only applies to trade ins on new vehicles. That was the first thing they said to me as soon as I told them why I was at the dealer. I have the screenshots that show in my comments I asked about only selling more than once. After my experience I went on the event Facebook post and shared my experience and warned other potential buyers. They went through and deleted all my comments on their event page as well blocked me from commenting. The work they are putting in to be unethical is alarming. They ended up offered me a little over $17,000 which is on the low end of KBB trade in value for my vehicle in Good condition after claiming they could beat my Carvana offer. The offer they gave me was not even close to Carvana’s offer of $19780 and they knew the amount of that offer before I came to the dealer and again after I arrived. If you do not want to buy my car that’s fine but why waste my time, mileage and gas with lies. It’s a shady and unethical business practice and I would be hesitant to conduct any business with a company that operates under such pretenses. They must think because I am woman that I am too stupid to understand what is happening. Steer clear of this place....