Two Salesmen Gave Him The 'Oh, Come On' Look When They Found Out He Went From a 2024 Honda Hybrid To an 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5 for $800 Out The Door

A car shopper swapped his 2024 Honda hybrid for a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5. He got a few surprised looks as he walked out of dealership. Was it the money involved, the cars involved, or something else? Read on to see why two salespeople looked bewildered.

May 20, 2026 - 9:23AM EDT
By: Tim Healey

A car shopper named Michael Lovett traded his 2024 Honda hybrid -- he doesn't say what model, but it's like an Accord, Civic, or CR-V, since the only other Honda hybrid, the Prelude, has just hit the market -- for a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Lovett implies that after he "sold" the Honda -- it sounds like he actually traded it in -- he paid only $800 for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, an EV, which Torque News senior reporter John Goreham has thoroughly tested and published a controversial opinion, as he calls it.

He also says two salespeople looked at him weird and the salesman he worked with asked him if he'd prefer to lease.

Why?

Here's What Torque News Found

Check out Lovett's whole post on Facebook where he writes the following:

I think I'm a bit of a weirdo. A month ago I sold my high-demand 2024 Honda hybrid and got a 2026 Ioniq 5, for $800 out the door after the "rebate".

I like the car a lot, and for what it's worth, the dealership signed a paper promising unlimited loaner If I have an ICCU issue.

Here's what's still eating at me a bit: two different salesman there gave me the "WTH?" look when they found out I was going from a Honda to the Hyundai. Then my sales guy later asked again "Are you sure you don't want to lease?"

As I drove away with the new Hyundai (owing nothing) I couldn't help but feel I had made a bad decision somehow..

I hope I don't learn the "hard way".

We think there are three things at play.

One, we think that the switch to an Ioniq 5, which is a blocky, almost van-like crossover might be odd coming from a Civic or Accord hybrid. There's nothing wrong with the Ioniq 5, of course -- it's a well-done vehicle -- but changing vehicle types without an obvious reason sometimes raises eyebrows.

It may simply be that the Honda was only two years old, or that the shopper was going from hybrid to full EV.

The pricing may play a part -- how did the buyer work such a favorable deal, even with a "high demand" Honda on offer?

We don't think popularity is an issue -- even though the Honda is high demand, the Ioniq 5 is doing well and seeing growth each year through 2025. Sadly, without knowing the Honda model, we can't do an exact comparison.

2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5

Here's What Torque News Think

Your author suspects that the weird looks were about the reliability of the Ioniq 5 related to the ICCU failures. While Hyundai's reliability has improved by leaps and bounds since the company first came to the U.S., there's a perception that it's still not very good. That perception is almost certainly wrong, but it still exists. Honda, meanwhile, has generally had a good reputation for quality over the years. Decades, even.

Concerns about reliability would certainly explain why the buyer was worried about learning the "hard way."

Our take is this -- the customer is likely to not have any serious reliability issues and worked out a very favorable financial deal.

About The Author

Tim Healey is an experienced automotive writer and editor from Chicago. He has covered automotive news at Consumer Guide Automotive, Web2Carz, AutoGuide, and was the managing editor at The Truth About Cars. Tim is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association. You can find him on Facebook, X/Twitter, and on LinkedIn.

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