Things really started to go downhill beginning in 2020. Plans shifted, we got new upper management in US HQ. Some of these upper management are from a failing brand which also has somewhat of a luxury wing. They have brought over failed policies which have not only hurt the brand, the retailers and our relationships. There is very little planning, everything is put together last minute. There has also been a huge drawback in support overall as far as trying to sell vehicles and also service our customers.
Advertising has also been cut and is also not very well planned out. We have a new vehicle coming out in the next month and there has been very little advertising done as well as very little overall planning for launch as compared to other manufacturers with a brand new vehicle.
Leadership is very dismissive of some peoples efforts and have had made comments and official meetings of people being “lazy”, the field and some people in US HQ does far more work than others in the same position. US Leadership also tells us to do more with less. We are selling premium cars out of in most cases older small Hyundai dealerships not exactly premium. Leadership does not seem to understand that people who want to buy premium cars want an overall premium experience which the field team and some at HQ has tried to do with very little support. Leadership has shown very little dealer body planning which overall is hurting the brand and our retailer who are truly dedicated.
One thing I fear is people in HQ and in the field team are becoming very disillusioned, they feeling like their efforts no longer matter and some are going to start going to other opportunities. We truly do have a good well-versed team from all sorts of backgrounds and truly want to succeed which for a team of over 20 people is hard to get.
They are some managers higher than my position have also stressed that US HQ leadership does not want to hear from them or their ideas. We are told that we cannot report on certain economic factors as they do not want to hear it. This is dangerous, you cannot treat the whole country as a monolith. Each region, each area, and each city is different. It seems like US HQ leadership does not want to acknowledge this and does not listen to people who have far more experience than them in certain areas. Very close minded.
