Well after about a month of fighting with HondaCare, Honda, my dealership and anyone else associated with them I ended up paying very little to get my diff replaced. Here is some background if you did not catch my earlier thread....

In December I took my car to Mueller Honda in Highland Park for a noise that I thought was coming from the Diff. I took the service manager on a ride and he could not hear anything. I left the car with them for the day and still they could not find anything. So they told me it was no big deal and that I could come back if the noise got worse. Anyways, I pick up the car and put it in the garage because I usually drive my truck in the winter. About 3-4 weeks later I pick the car up and take it for a quick spin while the weather was nice and leaving a railroad crossing without heavy acceleration the diff blows on me. I hear ratlling and some horrible sounds so I pull into a strip mall and call the tow truck. Took the tow truck 3.5 hours to show up which completely sucked but this was only the beginning of my headache.

So at this point I had the car dropped off by Muellers and in the morning stop in to let them know what happened. I was told that there should be no cost to replace the diff and that they will give me a call when it is ready. I think well thats perfect until about 3 hours later when my service advisor calls me back to tell me that my "Certified Honda Warranty" was really just a third party warranty(HondaCare) and that I would have to wait for an inspector to come look at the car but he said it should not be a big deal. A couple more hours pass by and I get a call from my advisor stating that they have rejected my claim because of my CAI which the bastard inspector claimed added 20hp to my car(I have the letter Hondacare sent stated "20hp"). Anyways I am pissed now because they say the bill will be over 4200 bucks. I said that there was not a snowballs chance in hell that I would pay for it because the CAI did not cause the diff to blow and I knew it. He suggested talking to Hondacare and getting things resolved....this just made things twenty times worse....

So I call hondacare and explain to them that when I bought my car I was told my car is "honda certified" and that was it. I got no contract from HondaCare, nothing that stated anything abotu mods voiding a warranty so I was under the impression that I was protected by the Magnusson Moss Act. He said that I should have got a contract from HondaCare when i bought my car and that it was Honda of Joliets fault(my purchasing dealer) that I did not receive it. I went on to tell him regardless that it is a horrible case of misrepresentation and that I would like to appeal on the basis that I was misrespresented and that the intake could not more than 1-3hp at the most. He tells me to write a letter to his manager and wait. So I write a letter, have it sent out and sit and wait. A week goes by and nothing. I call and get no responses. At this point I am gettign very angry and have contacted several lawyers each one saying that I have a good case on my hand(I work at the Daley Center and have access to thousands of Lawyers so I let the dealership and everyone know that I will sue if i have to). HondaCare's manager did not respond to me by phone, he sent me a mailed letter explaining that my 20hp gain caused the diff to blow. I call back irrate asking to speak to him and the rep on the phone says that he is busy and will not be able to speak to me and that basically their decision is final and for me to pound sand. Itold him that I will see them in court and hung up.

So now I call my dealership bitching that since I am going to have to make this legal I will be sueing everyone from my purchasing dealer, to American Honda(mis representation) to HondaCare and my servicing dealer. Mark Shwartz who happens to be a very nice guy(service manager) tells me that he will try to use some of his contacts in honda to get this resolved because he really felt that I was getting the short end of the stick and that he disagrees with Hondacare but can not really do much about it. So Mark being a nice guy tries what he can and puts me in contact with another helpful guy named Wayne and American Honda Customer Service. Wayne bent over backwards to fight with HondaCare and American Honda to get me some sort of deal. This in itself took 2 weeks and him and Mark kept in contact with me the entire time. Their first offer to go 50/50 with HondaCare still refusing to pay(me pay half and dealer/American Honda pick up the other). I rejected and said that I refuse to pay because I will not get cheated out of this. So wayne again bent over backwards for me and got Hondacare to pick up part of the tab and they got the parts to me for cheaper eventually. So in the end it took a lot of time and one month but I ended up paying about 10% of what it would have cost to fix my diff without the warranty. My total cost ended up at around 450 bucks and I took this because I was sick of dealing back and forth with everyone and just wanted to get my car back. I think i could have pushed even harder but Wayne and Mark were so nice throughout the whole thing that I wanted to just finish for all of our sakes....

Anyways the bottom line is that American Honda stood up and so did my dealer and helped me out. As for Hondacare they can PHUCK off....bunch of pricks and a-holes. They want to screw you. Actually at one point one of their guys said that since he could void my warranty for ANYTHING aftermarket he does not care if the intake took away hp he would void it anyways(just to be an a-hole). He was trying to get under my skin purposely. Guys if you are going to mod, do yourselves a favor and DO not get a honda certified warranty, it is crap. Mine came for free on the car when i bought it with 2900 miles, but I have never dealt with bigger pains in the arss than HondaCare. Finally got my baby back though!

 

I'm sorry this happened to you....

From my experience, I've had nothing but pleasantries with HondaCare. They replaced my plastic window, and adriver's side window regulator qafter my first week of ownership. I later went in a month later to complain about the clutch decelration buzz, while they were looking at it, the tech thought it was a replace job and dropped in a new clutch. the advisor told me about this and told me to enjoy my new clutch since it was the dealer's mistake and they weren't going to pay the tech for more hours labor and to replace agood part with a bad part......all in all, between the dealer and Honda Care, I got over 2500 in parts and service free my first month, including a rental car, for a warranty that cost me 800 bucks and is still good for another 34K miles... I can't complain....


Sorry your deal has been so bad!

 

I've been reading more and more horror stories on this board about HondaCare. Are they only a-holes to people who have modifications? My factory warranty ends in September and I am considering getting an extended warranty. All I want to do to my car is an OEM front lip, Comptech sideskirts, an RS-R exhaust (which I will take off when I take it to the dealership), AP2 wheels, and an OEM titanium shift knob. Do those mods count as potential "warranty voiding" mods to the HondaCare inspectors? Damn, is there ANY good extended warranty out there?

Sorry to threadjack. I'm glad that you got what you wanted out of those jerks. It's good that you are just such a hardass, that really pays off..haha

 

The rejected a claim based on BBS LM wheels. If you read the contract they can void your entire warranty based on ANY modification. When he was in the process of being an A-hole he said he could void my warranty for different tires etc. They do not want to spend a penny and will void it if they can. Forget Hondacare, when you warranty runs up go with a different company. A lot of third party companies are mod friendly. I would say they would give you a hard time with your mods bro. Hondacare is just not worth it IMHO.

 

Damn. Does anyone have any suggestions on GOOD extended warranties that don't void your warranty based on a bull$hit reasons like different tires?

 

I know of one called "Save your money". It's great. All you do is put $1000 into an account when you buy the car. $100 a month after that and you're all set.

Plus, if you DON'T ACTUALLY NEED THE WARRANTY, you'll come out with extra money for your next car.

 

I've bought 5 new cars over the years and never paid a dime on an extended warranty. My most expensive repair was $800 for a wear item that would not have been covered under warranty. I figure I have saved $6k-$7k. That will pay for a lot of repairs.

 

I've also got a spare diff that I picked up for $150.

 

I thought HondaCare was through American Honda??

 

I disagree. I bought my car from a woman that had purchased an extended warranty. I never would have bought one myself. This one was through CNA national. Few months ago had my engine die due to lack of oil; the short block had to be replaced. They sent a guy out who looked at it and authorized the work. I believe it was about 6 or 7 grand all in all, so I was extremely thankful for the warranty. To each his own...