Do yourself a favor and stay far away from the finance - pricejordan41
Do yourself a favor and stay far away from the finance and management team at University Kia Waco, especially Finance Manager Brandon Burnell and New Car Director Tanner Connot.
I bought a new 2027 Kia Telluride Hybrid X-Line SX-Prestige AWD here. My sales rep, Tony, did a great job and gave a very thorough presentation of the car, and he was the only positive part of the experience. Everything went downhill the second I stepped into the finance office.
I specifically asked only for GAP coverage and a direct Kia extended warranty, not third-party plans. I did my research pre-visit and knew it should have been around 2k for a 100k miles/10yr service contract. While negotiating the sale, I was told my payment was right on target with my requested amount, including the two contracts. Instead, I found there was a large jump in my monthly payment when I got to the finance office. It was presented to me as the bank coming back with a higher interest rate, rather than four separate third-party add-on plans being packed into my loan. When I asked for details in person, Brandon barely flashed the iPad screen at me and acted like me asking questions was a problem. Turns out, he got me for a 6 yr/100k plan for $4.5k (on a car that already comes with a 5 yr/60k basic and 10 yr/100k powertrain warranty from Kia), plus three other plans I never asked for. It's laughable!
I also wasn't given paper copies of my documents when I left, or even offered printed copies. Brandon promised to email all of my paperwork that day, but he only sent the bank loan contract and left out all of the warranty agreements. When I emailed him asking a basic question about where the coverage could be used and how to get copies of the full agreements, he replied to me in all caps, tried to make excuses when I called him out for being rude, and sent an email with nothing attached before eventually sending the documents over after I had to ask multiple times.
Once I understood and was able to fully read the finance docs, I immediately sent written notice cancelling the third-party add-on plans well within the 30-day window. New Car Director, Tanner, falsely gave me the runaround and told me I had to come into the dealership in person to cancel. When I pointed out that neither the contract nor Texas law requires an in-person visit, he pivoted to claiming in writing that he refused to process the cancellations until he verified my miles. Even after I sent a photo of my odometer, they kept stalling until I contacted the warranty company directly and escalated to the General Manager, Ty Bullard, who finally admitted in writing that an in-person visit is NOT required to cancel.
On top of the finance experience, their service department lazily "denied" a cosmetic factory warranty issue on my brand-new Telluride without even properly investigating it, forcing me to call Kia Corporate myself, who approved and covered it.
Once they have your money, you are nothing to this dealership. I will happily drive an hour out of my way to another Kia dealer for service before I ever let University Kia Waco touch my vehicle again. If you do decide to buy here, ask for Tony on the sales floor, demand printed copies of every single page before you sign anything in finance, and double-check your loan breakdown so they don't pack thousands of dollars of unwanted add-ons into your payment.
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