Empire Hyundai of Jamaica — Local services in New York

As other reviewers said, my recommendation is that if you plan to buy a used vehicle from this company, that you bring it to another dealership to be checked out before purchasing it. I purchased a certified pre-owned car from this company in April of 2024 and I should have walked away before finishing the transaction. Another customer who had recently purchased a vehicle came in screaming and live streaming about how Empire Hyundai sold him an unsafe car. I still proceeded with the purchase of the car which was significantly over the KBB value on April 13th, 2024 from LaJune and Anthony. Issues with the car were not fully disclosed. The service notifications were shut off on the vehicle.

Empire has deceptive purchasing practices with their online prices in the fine print where to get the price you must finance it through them. Please be prepared to watch your credit suffer as they will do several hard inquiries (6 in my case). Though I had already been approved by my bank, so this was an unnecessary hit to my credit score.

At the time, I paid the full price that was asked, as they wouldn’t budge. They convinced me to sell my existing vehicle at a significant loss and I purchased the Extended Service warranty and the tire warranty. I was told I could change those within the next few weeks should I change my mind on that warranty. That turned out to not be true. Once ordered, you can only cancel the warranty not modify the term duration and that money goes back to the loan, allegedly.

Problems with the car started almost immediately on the ride home. I was not able to resolve anything by phone, and it was hard to get support from the staff. Over the period of more than 3 weeks, I had to proactively follow up with this dealership (sales and service) and only ended up with a voicemail each time. Bringing it to a local dealer, I discovered that the rims, tires, breaks all needed to be replaced and the rear differential seal was damaged. I reached out to the Empire Auto group to file a complaint with the service manager, general manager, eventually up to a managing partner of the entire auto group.

I had been promised a resolution from the service department, by the sales department, the GM but this never happened. After several weeks of back and forth, the car sat at a local dealership, and I drove over 3 hours to address things in person again. When I came in, it was to have a discussion, instead, I was cornered with a heated discussion with finance and the GM in the room and one on the phone denying what I had been told by service and finance in the past. This was incredibly disheartening, but they've promised to work with a local dealership to have my warranty cover what can be addressed.

On May 6th, I drove down there again to speak with Vito and Anthony about these issues. As my main concern was unblocking the warranty repairs at the BMW during it month long stay. It was at this time they denied that any agreement was made, in a very confrontational conversation (on their end) between Vito, Elliot and Carl - they blamed their tech Jason for promising any repairs. Vito also said I should deal with the BMW dealership going forward on the repairs. Left with no other option, I purchased the parts on May 2nd, paid for the service when my car was complete on May 30th

Regardless of the lemon law in NY states, the only covered repairs were managed by the extended warranty at another dealership. Empire fraudulently pushed to utilize the warranty to cover the rim and read differential seal, rather than lose profit. More than a month later, I picked up my car at the local dealership with $16.9k of repairs, a portion of which was covered by the warranty $5k.

After putting in my initial online review, Sam the GM contacted me on May 13th, where I was told my repairs would be covered again and to submit the repair/parts bills to settle reimbursement of this upon completion with New Country BMW (as I did in early June). It’s been a year w/o resolution. Please see their F rating...

This has been the worst experience ever when buying a car. I purchased a Mazda cx5 with the representative named Lejune. Let’s begin. I was at the dealership for two days before getting my car. First day I spent more than 6 hours there back and forth and she barely taking care of me because she was taking care of 5 customers at a time. Nothing was pretty much done and at the end she says the service center is already close for the car to be ready and that also we have to go thru the finance information next day with the GM. Which ok I wanted my car so I came back next day. Mind you she never asked me for finance info. She just assumed I was going to do my car in 72 months, same thing with the GM because when we spoke and I signed everything all he said was to call the bank and they’ll fix it. At the end before leaving I give one of the sales person the feedback saying she really didn’t pay attention to me and he claimed she was the best sales person there which off course, lying to people and rushing them and making them wait after, anybody will sell a car like that. I even left everything paid for on the first day there. A 4thousand down payment!!

Next day I get there and I tell her to please not to make me spend hours again and she said no worries the car is ready. You just have to speak with the GM. I waited again 6 hours for this man to talk to me, make me sign everything in a rush and barely explain things. I asked my questions but I was definitely not satisfied because since the day before I was asking a lot and their attitude was not the best after all my questions. I didn’t even test drive my car.

After other 6+ hours at the dealership I finally get my car only to find out the right mirror was not working. Lejune tells me that I can bring it to the service center next day. Next day when I’m driving my car (BARELY ONE DAY AFTER BUYING IT) it started smoking a loooot and I was very concerned. On a picture yall see what the car had. It also had a lot of lights on the board that it didn’t have the first day!!!! How you’re going to sell me a car that’s leaking oil and smells like burn. And also the right front tire was not good. So now we have mirror, tire and motor not working on a car I purchased a day before everything happened.

When I take my car to the service center everything was a problem. Even to give me a loaner car was a problem and they assured me the next day was going to be ready.

It’s been two weeks and my car is not ready. Every time I call the female operator transfers me everywhere and it’s very rude and the two times I got to speak with somebody they lied to me saying it was almost ready and that somebody will contact me back.

I haven’t been contacted, still don’t have my car and I’m about to leave for training with the military and I don’t have anybody else to pick up the car for me whenever you guys decide that’s ready.

This is unacceptable and if I could put NO STARTS AT ALL I would because this is by far the most unprofessional experience I’ve had in my whole life. As of today nobody has answered me for anything and I really wish somebody will do something because even the General manager statewide is being informed and nobody has...

i been a client with this dealership since I bought my car it was ok in the beginning but lately since they changed management and ownership it’s been horrible, most recently I went to get my complementary maintenance oil change tire rotation, and Multipoint inspection and I was told that 3 of my tires had no more thread on them which is strange because the tires are less than 2 years old and less than 25,000 usage which normally tires last for 50K miles especially Michelin Tires which were suppose to be brand new on the car and I was given a quote for 1200 dollars for 3 tires and Fuel injection Cleaning service for 399 and HVAC Service for 299 which mind you I have no problem for my fuel system or Heating ventilation or Air conditioning system. After leaving the maintenance garage I looked at my tires I still had a good amount of thread on them I consulted 2 other mechanics and even a tire shop that all stated my tires were in good standing so I did not like that they tried to take me as a sucker, the maintenance shop attempted to charge me services that were unnecessary for my Vehicle since my car is still new less than 2 years old and low amount of miles. As well the overcharge for things that are approximately 25 to 30 dollars parts trying to charge 100 dollars more than market value was outrageous. I will not be returning to this Hyundai anymore. As well I was scammed by the dealership when I bought my car paying an additional 10 to 15 thousand dollars more than retail price which is outrageous since it was first time buying my car which was my fault partially yes but first time buying from a dealership usually I lease my cars. I am very dissatisfied with Hyundai empire of Jamaica. I also had an issue with a service advisor on the phone when I asked about a oil change service being done before the next service was due since I’m going to be traveling far at the end of August and I wanted to know if I can come early from my scheduled time for an oil change before my trip so I don’t run into problems. the service advisor was super unprofessional, disrespectful, talked to a client as if they are stupid and had the client call Hyundai customer care team for the issue stating if you can’t read and understand the Hyundai complimentary maintenance program information call Hyundai corporate which I did call to confirm what I read was correct and even I informed him that my car is a 2023 model not 2025 model he said you don’t know how to read which is beyond disrespectful and demeaning towards a client. As well he said that I am only entitled to 4 oil changes after that 4th oil change I have to pay which is not the program guidelines. I am able to get complementary maintenance for up to 3years or 36.000 miles whichever one...