^^^Excellent idea.

One thing is for sure, do not rest until you are completely satisfied. Going through this with a brand new car is just rediculous.

 

I had a TSB done at NR Huntington Beach for the 2nd gear popping out problem. They ordered the parts i came in to have it serviced and i got a call back the next day from the service manager. He told me that upon reinstalling the tranny they put a hole in the pumpkin because they used and accord transmission lift/jack. I didnt have my S for about a week and when i got it back i thought all was fine an well except for all the swirls they put on it after "detailing" it.

Skip to about 3 months later and i notice a small pool of transmission oil in my garage. I jack up my car and take a peak and sure enough its leaking. I take it in to Pacific Honda in San Diego since i moved down here recently. Service advisor tells me that the tranny is missing a heatshield and a few bolts. I tell them that NR did my TSB about 3 months back. After some haggling my car was fixed with Norm Reeves footing the bill.

I'm done with the Norm Reeves service department and plead others not to go to them to get service unless you want them to F*ck up your car! They got me a good deal on my car but i've got swirls to buff out now and two very bad service experiences.

PS Pacific Honda took my car for a 20 mile "test drive to make sure the tranny was properly installed". What kind of BS was that! Is that normal? I spoke to the manager and the tech advisor and they said "its standard procedure to break in a new tranny".

I'm never going to any Honda dealer ship again unless i make a trip to Honda World in Westminster Someone there actually gives a damn about us.

 

NR is owned by a billion dollar corporation along with over a thousand other dealerships. They aren't really all that concerned about your problems. But if you don't set the bar somewhere then you'll never get anything close. You'll settle for less I'm sure but you'll get more than if you leave it up to them to decide what will make you happy.

 

20 miles is not that unusual, it's a 20 minute drive on the freeway, 10 minutes out, 10 back. I'd rather have them check that they actually fixed the problem than to give it back untested only for me to find a problem on the way to work or the way home. Something as complicated as a transmission rebuild will require it be warmed up, driven in traffic and on the freeway. A fair number of shifts. You can also expect that some of those miles were added before the work was done to confirm the problem existed and the circumstances. Nothing personal but people generally have no idea what they are talking about and untill you experience it for yourself you can't really be sure you know what you are dealing with. If you figure 10 miles pre service to diagnose the problem and 10 miles post service to confirm it's fixed that's your 20 miles.

 

Well, I kinda fell off the board lately, stupid flu, but I seriously appreciate all of the support! Thinking back, I really wish I had bought the car at Honda World, or at least took it there for service in the first place, but hey, live and learn. As far as I'm concerned, it's Norm Reeves' problem now and at this point I am definitely leaning toward invoking the Lemon Law on them.

I informed them of the new issues and they immediately agreed to make things right and even install my security system for free (original quote was $315 when I first took it there in Feb), so that was cool, but since then things have become... complicated. Basically, I took the car back there about two weeks ago to get it fixed and they still don't know what's wrong. Their claim is that since the S2000 is built in Japan, "no one in America really knows how to fix any problems with it, just like with the old Prelude." Sounds like a load of BS to me and that statement alone makes me really concerned about the work they're doing.

They told me they sent it to the body shop to fix the swirls and that they would take care of the oil leak when it got back. During the time it was at the body shop they put a "tracer dye" in the oil to try and detect where the leaks are. Apparently, Honda of Japan asked them to take digital photos of where the dye comes out so they can have their engineers at the factory analyze them and come up with a solution. Is this normal? I sure don't like the idea of my brand new car becoming the subject of an experiment for Honda's engineers. Playing telephone with Japan to try and figure out how repair it does not sound good at all.

So this is where it gets complicated (well, ok, it's been complicated from day one): I thought I had forgot my checkbook in the trunk so I went there on Saturday to have a look. The whole car was in pieces. The center console was completely stripped and the transmission was non-existent, I mean, I could see pavement from inside the car. I couldn't really search my trunk because most of my exhaust piping and a ton of other parts I can't really identify were in it sitting on some cardboard. The car was also filthy so I really doubt it had gone to the body shop yet ("don't worry, we'll, uh, detail it for you, man") and, honestly, I just don't want it anymore. As far as I could tell, it had been in that condition for several days. I usually garage the car and park underground at work, so the thought of it sitting outside in the sun and rain for weeks at a time (supposedly freshly painted!) just pisses me off even more.

In my mind, that car belongs to Norm Reeves now and not me. After all of this, I deserve a brand new one. I don't trust the same jerkoffs who ran my car into a wall to completely rebuild my transmission and interior. Plus, I'm tired of driving in stinky rental cars. I'm calling their managers today and demanding a new car, thanks again for all the help, I'll let you all know how it goes tonight.

 

lordy, what a nightmare

good luck, hope the lemon law works out for you.
your post has def helped in regards to me not ever going back to that place for service.

btw get well soon (the flu)

 

I don't know if it's the same in all states, but in Florida we have a government agency designed to handle cases like yours. (Agriculture and Consumer Services is the agency's title, odd name but they get a TON of things done for people like yourself)

If Honda, the BBB, the dealer, lemon law and all else goes to heck, you should try contacting them. Again, it's obviously different in all 50 states but I'm sure that Cali has a similar deal.

I hope that it works out for you. I bought my new baby 3 weeks ago and had a similar (well, not nearly as bad) issue with the dealership. They made all the right moves and "happied me up." Hopefully, your dealer does the same.

Make sure to keep us posted. It's starting to sound like an automotive soap opera.

 

If nothing got resolved try calling the corporate office in torrance and report the incident to them, they might be able to help you and good luck.

 

My heart goes out to you!!! Having your 'baby' abused by 'expletives deleted'... when they they physically marred and defaced her is bad enough... but, when you took her in for a defect from the factory and have since jacked you around with their incompetence, does not compare to the fact that your diminished value has been impacted by the loss of your VIN numbers on the removed/painted-over body parts. You will not feel the impact of the value of your VIN numbers until you decide to trade your "S" in on even another "S". Even though you may consider saying "OK, you've done a great job of restoring my car to 'As New Condition' and I am now happy with your reparations of my unique vehicle" ...you will never recover the loss of the value of the original VIN stickers on you vehicle's body parts. Trust me, I've been there, done that! My '04 was hit by a hit-n-run drunk driver in front of our house in the middle of the night. Even though they found the driver (yeah, guys... it was a female), the diminished value of my '04 (-$7K), was not refundable to me from the insurance company without going through the expense of an attorney. The insurance company said "we fixed it to 'as new condition' so, your $7K de-valuation is on YOU" !!!" We took my "S" into 3 dealerships for a 'trade-in' estimate, and the first and foremost thing they looked for was the oringinal VIN # Stickers!!! If you are missing even "1" VIN #, raise so much bloody hell that Honda of Toyko can hear YOU!!! Believe me, they scan/screen these forums (anonymously, I presume) and give feedback to corporate so BS dealers like Norm Reeves' will never have a Honda franchise again!!! Don't sign-off receipt of your car if ANY of the VIN # Stickers are missing, or if your oil leak hasn't been resolved!!! Demand that you receive a new, un-blemished S2000, and accept nothing less! Let Norm 'eat it' (because he can afford to) rather than having to 'eat it' yourself! I've been there, and I've done it... While I 'bond' with my cars and it broke my heart to let my '04 go, my '05 is actually a better car. There is another "S" out there for you... DEMAND that you get it!!! California has a "Lemon Law", so let them go to work for You!
I had the balls to stand up for my rights... I hope you do too!!!
Hugs, Helen

 

Wait just a minute... I didn't even think about this... I guess it never occurred to me that they would have repainted over the VIN # Stickers or what impact that would have on the worth of the car. That's 20% of my car's value down the drain for something that's not my fault. Now I'm really pissed off!

So I called Honda Corporate and Tim there told me that they have nothing to do with Lemon Law buybacks. Right. He directed me to contact my local Better Business Bureau. When I called the BBB they, of course, had too much call volume and that I needed to leave a message for a 24-hour waitaround-time call back. Wonderful.

I guess the next step is contacting Norm Reeves' general manager and getting him in the loop on this because I doubt anyone other than the shop guys there know what's going on. I just wish that they wouldn't keep damaging my paint so I could take it to a dealer that, you know, doesn't give back cars in worse shape than they were when they came in.

One of my lawyer friends just gave me a tip: Make them a deal. Tell them to take back my car now, give me a new one, and if they fix it they can sell it "used" to someone else. Otherwise, I'll report it to the BBB and they'll have to sell it as a lemon, which is a much bigger loss for them though as a big corporation this might not matter too much. Now, keep in mind that I know this is the evil lawyer solution. I don't want someone else to buy the car thinking it's ok, just used, but I don't want the car myself either. We'll see how things unfold over the course of this week, it's just a matter of time...