sgr

There are at least 3 dealers located in the San Diego area: Cush, Poway, and Pacific. Has anybody had any particularly good or bad experiences with any of these or other, nearby, dealers? Any with expertise in S2000's (i.e., trained personnel)?

Thanks!

jzr

Multiple BAD experiences (spilled oil on exhaust once, undertightened the oil filter causing a huge mess another time) - don't go to Cush Honda in Mission Valley.

Pacific Honda has a much nicer facility (from what I saw) and haven't messed up yet...good luck!

calc

jason, maybe I'm preaching to the choir here, but you know you don't have to go to a dealer unless it's a warranty repair.

So, with that in mind, does anyone have any experience with local shops? I just had my oil changed by a Honda-certified shop here in PB. I guess I should go check the filter torque before I say they did a good job, but I went there because it's a lot more convenient than Cush and, after reading so many negative posts on this forum, I no longer trust dealer shops.

By the way, Pacific Honda seems to charge a lot for everything--including severe markups for their cars--so I've always avoided them.

cal

sgr

So what's a "Honda certified" shop and what's its name?

jzr

It would be great if there were a local shop that catered to the needs of enthusiasts and racers owning Hondas. One thing I really miss about my Porsche was the excellent service I always received at Black Forest. The guys there knew the cars inside and out, and had great knowledge and experience from servicing most of the local racers. To my knowledge there's no such shop for Hondas, but if there were one, I'd definitely go there. Sure, the S2000 is mostly like other Hondas, but I don't want my S2000 to be the first the mechanic has ever worked on, so that's why so far I've been going to the dealer(s). If anybody can recommend a better place, I'm all ears!

I have been thinking of starting my own business...hmmm...

almilli

I've had bad experiences with Cush in Mission Valley. Dented hardtop and damaged steering wheel and claimed that it was like that before they got to it. They ended up fixing both, but I had to argue for a while on the hardtop one. Plus they put on a lot more miles than made me happy. Oh yeah, also I noticed that my striker is loose and Cush was the last one to touch the striker when trying to adjust the hardtop so I have to go get that tightened when I get back next week.

s2kman had some pretty horrible experiences at Pacific where his wheels were stolen while on the dealer lot overnight and the dealer wouldn't cover the loss and he ended up having to make a claim on his insurance. I think TFota also had some bad experiences at Pacific too if I remember correctly.

Tipton in El Cajon is less bad, but when I got my car it took them 3 triesto put my additional accessories on when I bought my car. The kept forgetting to put all the items in. It was actually kind of funny since all 3 times they forgot to put the floor mats in. Like it's so hard to install those. other than that, it's not so bad.

David

jzr

No offense to any mechanics out there, but I find it funny:

A reflection of Groucho Marx's "I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member" is the statement "I wouldn't want to have anybody work on my car that works on cars for a living."

Had I a garage I'd do all the work myself, like I did while growing up. Maybe it's time to stop buying titanium car parts and save up for a garage with one of those house things attached to it...

calc

Blame it on my laziness--the correct term would be Honda-certified mechanics who have (presumably) taken Honda training and passed some sort of tests to verify that they know what they're doing.

Of course, one would assume that any mechanic at a dealer's would have the same sort of certification.

The shop I went to is Honda Acura, 4927 Cass Ave., 858-270-0808. I went to them in the first place because the body shop where I took my black s2k recommended them. Also because they're about 4 blocks away from me, so within walking distance. But their prices seem a little high--$25 to drain & replace the transmission fluid with MT-90 I provided, plus $28 for oil change & filter. What do you guys think?

cal

SanDogDewey

Poway Honda charges around $20 for an oil change and guarantees 30 min or less.

cthree

De Vore Automotive in El Cajon (619) 440-8635. It's a long trip for me but the service manager Bob Clough is a car and autox nut and will work on your car personally. They did my alignment and I'm very happy with the work. I do the maintenance myself and have the warranty work done at CUSH Escondido (only cause it's close to home).