We own a 2002 Civic (in addition to the S2000 and an Odyssey), and had an unfortunate experience with Honda. In a nutshell, our daughter took it to a dealership in Washington to get some work done on the transmission, and afterward we discovered that they'd cracked the tranny case and tried to patch it with J-B Weld. It was leaking fluid everywhere, so we had to replace the case.

The dealer in Washington, of course, denies that they broke it. The only other place we've ever taken it for work is our local dealership (in California), and they're the ones who discovered the J-B Weld. Of course, they would never accuse another Honda dealership of causing damage. To keep them out of the fray, we ended up going to an independent garage to get the case replaced.

My wife's livid. All we want is for the Washington dealership to reimburse us for the repair, but they refuse. We've owned six Hondas - and spent about $125,000 at Honda dealerships on just the last three (purchase, maintenance, whatever) - but she's decided that if that loyalty's not worth $1,500 or so, she'll stop buying Hondas. (We're looking to replace the Odyssey, and maybe get a pick-up as well, so it's something of a big deal.)

So, what would you do in this situation? Take the Washington dealership to small claims court? (That's an expensive and inconvenient option as we're in California.) Write Honda regional management? Forget the whole thing?

Thanks!

(By the way, before my daughter took the Civic to Seattle we had the clutch replaced at the local (California) dealership. Less than a year later, the clutch was giving her problems, so she took it to this (Washington) dealership. They replaced the clutch, claiming that it had been installed backward. That, of course, is impossible. (Later that was changed to installed improperly; this after the technician who had done the work had left the dealership's employ.) The only reason I can think that it would fail within a year is if the clutch were defective, but after a year of trying to get any information out of the service manager (we'd call, she'd say she'd look into it and call us back, she wouldn't call back, we'd call a few weeks later and have to remind her of all of the details, and on and on), there was no way to prove anything. We were already suspicious of their behavior, but this latest finding makes us question even more any work they did on the car. We honestly believe that we should be reimbursed for the clutch job as well.)

 

CALL Honda Corporate (Customer Service) and detail your situation. They'll get a case started for you. A dealership found to have done something like this would get in serious hot water from Honda Corporate.

1-800-999-1009

If that fails, contact their local Better Business Bureau to get a case started with them.

If all else fails, a lawyer will help. If you've maintained your vehicles properly (documented and at a dealer, in this case), you'd have a fairly straightforward case.

 

As mentioned above contact Honda America. They have been very helpful in resolving my Honda dealership related issues in the past.

1. Our civic went in for regular maintenance we picked it up at the end of the day and discovered the license plates were incorrect also the front and rear plates did not match. The paperwork that states the condition the vehicle was received in had the correct license plate numbers. After talking to several reps the Honda techs have to write down the license plate number on the car, the process is not automated.
We filed a police report. The front license was from an abandoned neon in El Paso, and the rear plate was from a Izuzu trooper registered Schertz, TX.

The dealership refused to pay us for the price of new license plate and re registering. Claiming that the plates must have been swapped before we they were in possession of the vehicle.

A few days later we discover they were stolen by a technician, and swapped on exact same year & color civic. If a police officer checked the plates he would see the vehicle was properly registered and insured. They still refused to help makes things right.

Contacted Honda America and everything was resolved and the oil change was free.

2. 4 days after purchasing the S the top ripped. Dealership refused to repair. After a week they offered to patch it up. I refused and contacted Honda America within 3 days a rep contacted me to take a look at the top. I had a new top the next day and was marked a good will item.


^^these are minor issues compared to JB welding a transmission case.

Good luck with this mess, corporate is more sensitive about their image and doing the right thing

 

yup. Honda headquarter helped me with a problem a local dealer refused to fix under warranty.

 

[QUOTE=JonBoy,Jul 6 2010, 11:01 AM]CALL Honda Corporate (Customer Service) and detail your situation.

 

This is a battle I would love to fight. You've already had the thing fixed, and you're planning to spend more money somewhere.

Here's what I'd do:

1) Go to the Honda dealer you like when you're ready to buy.
2) Explain to them that you're ready to replace the Oddysey and also need another vehicle.
3) If they want you to consider them for these replacement purchases, they need to pursue Honda corporate for your reimbursement. They can admit what the other dealer did, or not. It doesn't matter as long as they get your money back to you.

Explain that you aren't interested in bundling this money into a discount on next purchases, because they'd be negotiating with you anyway.

Tell them clearly they need to provide you this, then you'll discuss next purchases and determine at that time if you'll be proceeding with the purchase.

 

Im 125k on purchase and maint cost. Wow thats some maint cost avg s2k 32000,avg civic 22000, avg odyssey 30000 total 84k or so that leaves 41k for maint???? WOW! With that kind of maint schedule and budget and considering they are Hondas surprised you need any major repair.


As far as the rest, can you document they caused the damage? did you have before photos? Can an independant mechanic document for you proof of the dealership causing damage? If not you may have a tough fight ahead of you.

I know your a respected member on here so use that as a leverage tool in your communication to the dealer. Send them the link to this thread bad mojo is not what they want. Good Luck!

 

They average 8 years old (2001, 2002, 2003), so that's a bit under $2,000 per year per car. The S2000 has over 180,000 miles, and the Civic and Odyssey have around 130,000 miles each, so it works out to about 28¢ per mile.

 

They had to open and close the transmission drain plug when they replaced the transmission bearing, and there's no mention on the work order that it was cracked and J-B Welded when they found it. I'd think that if it were, they'd have mentioned it; service departments put all sorts of notes on the work order (we recommend this and that, . . . .), but there was nothing there.

No, we didn't think to take pictures of the transmission housing before they got their hands on it.

 

^ Well you have a point so do like I said point the stealership to this thread if they dont budge expose their name, prove you did biz with them EX: post up your work order than email American Honda and let them know that since they dont plan on helping you your letting the world know of your experience.

also post a thread in the tell Honda forum.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showforum=119