Darkavich's Daily Ramblings Ramblings of a Mad Sys-Admin

From some of my previous posts, you may remember that I purchased a 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. It was an absolutely fantastic car to drive, but it was let down by battery management issues and some of the worst dealership customer service I’ve experienced.

At around 4,500 miles (about three months of ownership), a BMS (Battery Management System) warning appeared on the dashboard. While I was driving to the dealership, I called Hyundai’s roadside assistance/connected services (their equivalent of OnStar). After nearly 45 minutes of back-and-forth, I was told there was nothing to worry about and that I could bring the vehicle into the service center whenever it was convenient.

I wasn’t comfortable with that advice.

I drove to the dealership where I had purchased the vehicle, only to wait almost an hour without anyone helping me. Eventually, I gave up and left. I contacted a friend who also owned an Ioniq 5, and they recommended a service advisor at another dealership. I took the car there, where they kept it for a day running diagnostics. Their conclusion? The high-voltage battery needed to be replaced. Oh yeah! And the advice to take it in whenever was really bad as it could have stranded me at any time.

When I asked how long that would take, I was told… about nine months.

At that point, I contacted Hyundai Customer Care to see what could be done. Their response was immediate: they would repurchase the vehicle under California’s Lemon Law.

That wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for.

In September, Hyundai completed the buyback. To their credit, they provided me with a loaner vehicle throughout the process, waived all mileage charges and fees, and ultimately I had the use of a vehicle for about four months at no cost.

I genuinely loved the Ioniq 5. It’s one of the best EVs I’ve driven. Unfortunately, the dealership experience and the complete lack of meaningful troubleshooting completely changed my opinion of owning one. Based on my experience, I can’t recommend buying one—not because of the vehicle itself, but because of the service network behind it.

Personally, I think manufacturers need dedicated EV service centers instead of relying on traditional dealerships. Many dealerships don’t seem interested in servicing EVs, and customers end up paying the price. Separating EV service from the dealership model would likely improve the ownership experience considerably.

In September, I leased a Rivian truck and was able to take advantage of nearly $15,000 in incentives. So far, I’ve been very happy with it. There have been a few issues—mostly software bugs—but the Rivian service center has been responsive and genuinely interested in resolving them. I still have a few outstanding problems and another service appointment next week. My message to them is simple: find the root cause, or don’t give me the truck back until you do.

Despite those issues, from both a capability and range perspective, it’s the best truck or SUV I’ve ever owned, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the ownership experience continues to evolve.

My time of owning a Chevy is coming to an end. In 2017, I was looking for a new vehicle since I no longer was riding two wheels. I had been researching EV’s and thanks to some great posts by Scott Kennedy about his 2017 Chevy Bolt, on this facebook group. I was convinced this was the car for me. I ordered my first EV. Because it was the first EV I had every owned, I had reservations. I had a bad experience with a Toyota camry hybrid (sold it less than 2 years of ownership). I decided to lease the car, my first lease ever. At the end of this lease, I purchased a 2020 Chevy Bolt (slightly more range). During the pandemic, Chevy decided to buy back these vehicles rather than replace the batteries during the battery recall. Not sure if it was cheaper for them, but because I went 100% work from home it worked out for me. In 2023, I bought my third Bolt.

Last weekend, I decided it was time to upgrade from the Bolt to something that could be used for a road trip car. I purchased a 2025 Ioniq5 Limited. In the week I have had it, it has been proven to be an amazing vehicle. More details in a later post once I have more miles and time with it. Now that I have a new EV, I decided to sell my current Bolt. Why am I selling it? Why did I upgrade? First off, let me say, I absolutely love the Bolt. It is/was a great car and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a commute/day tripper.

The main reason I decided to look for a new car was two fold.

The first reason is the local Chevy dealers are impossible to work with. This may not be the case elsewhere, but in San Diego they will not look at your vehicle for weeks. They require you to drop off the vehicle, and maybe in 10-20 days they will get to it. Their excuse is that they do not have enough EV techs. Even after making an appointment with them (after much arguing about not being able to be without a car for 20 days), I showed up for my appointment and was turned away. They claimed their EV line was down. Note: I was not there for anything related to it being an EV.

I did some research and talked with a lot of service techs. What I have found out was that there is no requirement for their techs to be certified on EV. When I talked to the techs, they told me: “There is no incentive for us to get certified”, “We don’t want to work on high-voltage cars”, “We are no longer selling EVs, so why should we?”. That last one actually shocked me, but what I found he was referring to was the stop sale on the 2025 bolt, while they switched it over to the ultium platform for 2026/2027. At the time, the blazer or silverado was not out for sale yet.

The second reason is the charging speed of the vehicle. The vehicle has a 65Kwh battery (range of about 259miles), which is fantastic. The time to charge the vehicle from 10%-80% on average is about 70 minutes with a DC-fast charger. This is because it only charges at around 50kwh. So taking it on a long road trip would add several hours a day in charging time. Most of the modern EV’s can charge from 10-80% in 20-30 minutes. This makes it a more desirable road tripper. If you charge at home, or do not drive long distances in a single shot, this is still the best priced/value EV on the market.

So tomorrow, they are picking up my last Bolt. I will miss them, but I am excited to have a new EV with all the latest tech.

Meet my fleet:

This will be the second time using a purchasing company. I didn’t trade the car in because dealers will not give you anything close to what it’s worth (even on the wholesale side). I had used CarMax before, but we have a local buyer called CarCzar who guarantees they will alway be able to beat CarMax. I sold my 2004 Toyota Tacoma to them and they definitely were able to offer more. I highly recommend them if you do not want to deal with the hassle of dealerships and want to get a little more money than CarMax. Also, they came to my house, inspected it, brought me a check, and picked it up.