If you’ve ever had your Hyundai Getz serviced at any authorized Hyundai dealer of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc., you may have received in your mail a few days later a brochure titled ‘After Sales Service Customer Satisfaction Survey.’

It is vitally important you fill up this survey. It’s your best chance to get Hyundai Asia Resources Inc (HARI) to listen to you, because Lord knows if you try to email them, they don’t get back to you. :p

It’s been 20 days since I sent an email to HARI (at their cpc@hyundai-asia.com email, the one posted here) asking about e10 gasoline compatibility with the 2006 Hyundai Getz. I tried calling and no one returned my call. I don’t want to appear fussy or self-righteous, but how many people do you suppose send feedback to Hyundai? My guess is not much.

Use the ‘After Sales Service Customer Satisfaction Survey’ to communicate with HARI. Hopefully, they read it. Meanwhile, I heart my Hyundai Getz, and I heart Hyundai Global City, because these guys always listen to me (or at least pretend to).

I drove my Philippine Hyundai Getz on EDSA today to get to work because it’s faster. Everything was going fine - I was singing praises and everything, specifically Myron Butler’s version of Unrestrained when, out of nowhere underneath the EDSA-Shaw intersection - the infamous ilalim - I ran over a metal canister.

Now what the heck a metal canister was doing in the middle of the capital’s busiest highway is beyond me, but my Hyundai Getz ran over it at around 60KPH.

CLANG!

I waited for the inevitable sound of flat tire, but heard nothing. Regardless, I decided to pull over and examine the damage. I held my breath and saw this.

Fudge.

Anyway, I took my Hyundai Getz to Hyundai Fort Bonifacio, where the service is awesome and rates are reasonable, for a look-see. Ever-smiling Jay Doria, Hyundai Global City’s resident service adviser, took one look at it and said the damage was due to a loose hubcap cover, and that we may not need to replace the hubcaps. God, I hope so. I don’t have PHP15K for new hubcaps!

Meanwhile, score yet another point for the service of Autohub Group. Jay was understanding and calming, despite my hysterics. Their number one priority is after-sales service, and that’s why I trust only Autohub.

My Hyundai Getz is getting thirsty, and it ain’t my fault.

Gas prices were raised another buck today, bringing the range of prices anywhere from Php41.73 to Php44.76 a liter.

At this rate, it may get to that point when I’m not going to be able to go to work! How can Gina, my beautiful Hyundai Getz gas guzzler, travel me to work if I can’t afford to fill her tank up with gas? What do I have to do, sell a kidney?

My Hyundai Getz car alarm is acting up. Whenever I press the ‘lock’ button, it makes this high-pitched grinding sound. I think it has something to do with the locking mechanism, but whatever its cause, it is painful on the ears and a bit of a sore point in the mornings when everything is quiet.

*SQUEAK!* Ouch! Grrrrr!

I don’t think this is the fault of the folks at Hyundai Global City - Fort Bonifacio, but I’ll be bringing the car in for them to take a look-see. If this is a product flaw, you can bet your pwet I won’t be recommending this particular Hyundai Getz alarm anymore!

After we took Gina, our Hyundai Getz Philippines, to the shop for her 1000km checkup, I thought the Hyundai Getz fuel consumption would improve. The number to beat - at least as far as money is concerned - was Php1,500.00, which was how much we were paying for a week on our Toyota Revo.

After a few weeks, this is the rather dismal number we’ve come up with.

Our Hyundai Getz gets 10.8km/liter.

 If that isn’t kick-you-in-the-crotch, why-the-hell-is-it-so-low horrific.

For a 1.1 engine, that’s abysmal. And I can testify to my own style of gas driving. I’m a great driver for fuel efficiency.  I don’t floor it, I rarely exceed 3,000RPM, and I’m not a clutch driver at all. Most of the time, it’s been me driving, and I’m not exactly a lightweight at a little over 200lbs, but you’d think a 1.1 could deliver at least 12km/liter.

So, instead of saving money on fuel efficiency, we’re actually spending more, because we pay the same amount - Php1,500 a week - but get less power and legroom because we gave up our Toyota Revo for this.

Admittedly, I’m a little bummed. But I’m not the only one. Review what others had to say here and here.

So remember what I said here? Scratch that.

After the explosive rant of last Friday, I owe it to my sales agent Jason Chung and Wheels Inc. Hyundai sales manager Mercy to detail what happened afterwards.

Last Saturday, I brought Gina back to the dealer to have her speedometer and odometer connected. Jason wasn’t there because he had to represent Hyundai at the Megatrade (or was it World Trade?). One of the salesladies there, Bheng (H optional), bore the full force of my wrath. She took it completely in stride - a testament to team effort from Wheels Inc. - and assured me everything would turn out okay.

Mercy then came in and assuaged in me turn, based on the issues I brought up:

1. Unplugged odometer & speedometer. An oversight on the part of the technicians. She acknowledged the oversight resulted in my lack of peace of mind for the previous night, as well as her having to come in to work on a Saturday, her day off. She apologized profusely.

2. No plate, no travel. Jason would secure a conduction permit, good for a week, that would allow me to take Gina to Makati. It’s not a license plate, but at least I can travel. He will also secure me a renewed permit, should the official receipt and certificate of registration (OR/CR) not be available by next week. He delivered it straight to me yesterday. Sure, there’ll be the occasional inconvenience of getting pulled over, but at least I can travel.

3. Horn. Other than payPhp2450 for a Hyundai-chosen horn, I’ll buy a horn of my own choice then have them install it for Php500.

For the record, I’d like to say that, despite an initially sour first impression, I am pleased so far with the after-sales support of Hyundai E. Rodriguez.

We finally picked up Gina from the Wheels Inc. dealership along E. Rodriguez. She was everything we hoped she’d be. Shiny, a joy to drive, and very, very easy on the eyes.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get her without kinks. It’s a real shame, because what should have been a truly joyous occasion was marred by otherwise unavoidable circumstances. I took the day off from work to make sure we would have a smooth transition with our car, and that didn’t happen.

First, we arrived at the dealership at quarter to five, 15 minutes ahead of our agreed time. Ownership papers weren’t quite ready yet. After rounds of signing, we received the keys to Gina at about 615PM, a good hour and a half later. As far as we knew, we were the only customers buying and checking a car out that day at that time. Did it really have to take so long?

Second, we learned that the ‘no plate, no travel’ policy of the LTO was in full effect, and a temporary permit that would allow us on the road while waiting for our license plate would not be ready until Tuesday. We purchased the car with a downpayment on Tuesday. Couldn’t they have filed a request for that permit so that we could have received it already by Friday? If we knew we were not going to be able to drive Gina for two whole weeks, maybe we wouldn’t have rushed getting her so quickly, or at least checking her out.

We don’t have a spare car - someone at the dealership thought we did, which was a little off-putting to me - and to not have a car that can be on the road, especially with Cathy so close to giving birth, was virtually suicidal! Why didn’t they tell us this ahead of time? Grrrrr.

Third and most painfully, we drove off, Cathy, Nathan and I, in our brand-new Gina, only to discover a few kilometers later, that the odometer and speedometer weren’t working! This means tomorrow, I gotta go back to the dealership so they can fix it. The car hasn’t been with us 10 minutes!

We know the Hyundai Getz is the car for us. The service afforded us, however, left much, oh so much, to be desired. I truly hope things will improve in the months, because we love our car and it’s just such a piss-off experience to go through stuff like this when so much of it can be avoided. Grrrr.

(After I was reminded that Ding sold Hyundais, I was so wracked with guilt. I know he would never let anything like this happen to us. If you wanna buy a Getz, try going to Ding; he’ll take care of you.)