My warranty is good for 60k miles or 60 months. I purchased the car used from a honda dealership up north with 20,500k on the odo. The car now has 21,000 Ive owned it for a month and a half now. The top is in excellent condition as is the car. I spoke to the manager today and he is still in the works to try to get the top replaced.

 

I do not mean to be pessimistic, but I think he is just putting you off. You need to have the dialog with the Honda rep. I know that handling this the correct way is indeed important, but more important here is contacting the rep in a timely manner, discussing this with him directly and getting closure with this issue. Believe me, the Honda Rep and this manager @ the dealership are in bed together and are "buddies". Get to him and get closure, ASAP. This manager buying time like this is only going to help you blow some steam off and stomach the fact that they want to repair it or do nothing for you.

I have never had a good experience with any dealership. Even after buying my e55 brand new, they jerked me around a bit. They are all a bunch of snakes, period. They are all about saving and making the dealership $$$. They could not be honest with someone if their lives depended on it. I do not see how dealerships make it today.

The rule is, boycott the dealership, unless they are doing free warranty work.

 

If you car is still under warranty you should not worry about it. Wether if it's a damage done by the mechanic or wear hole it should be replaced for free either way by warranty or by the dealer.

With that said, if anyone says that it's not possible to have a wear hole in your top in 3 years, you obviously have not been on this board long enough. Do some search about top wear hole. The top mechanism making a wear hole on the top of a s2k is a more common problem than you'd think. It's more related to how often you drop and rise your top than vehicle age or mileage. Based on the picture the OP posted, it's possible that the whole was caused by the top mechanism. The outer later of the top is vinyl and a hole will always look like a slit even if it was cause by a wear hole. The easiet way to confirm that is to look at the inside and see if you see any wear or fuzzy worn fabric that indicate wear by metal. You can also drop your top gradually and see if there is metal contact in the area of the wear hole.

Why do I know all this? My S developed a wear hole after 3 years and from outside it looked like a slit and in the inside you could see that it was obviously a wear hole. I was able to show service manager at the dealer that it was indeed a hole cause by the mechanism and should be covered under warranty and they did get me a new top for free.

 

[QUOTE=dmz,Oct 19 2006, 01:29 AM]With that said, if anyone says that it's not possible to have a wear hole in your top in 3 years, you obviously have not been on this board long enough. Do some search about top wear hole.

 

They all say that until it happens to them...
Have you ever thought that the fact YOUR situation is not "Normal" but the exception? I guess it's just human nature to see thing from our own point of view based on our experiences. The majority of AP1 owner I've talked to had had their top replaced due to wear hole.

 

I've nevber heard of a top wearing in that loacation. The SM is practicing C.Y.A., or cover your ass. I think you'll be getting a new top. Keep us all posted.

 

Look at the total number of members of S2kI, and then look at the number who have had problems with their top. Most havn't had problems. What happens is that people who have problems post and those who have no problems don't post. Then there is the fact that birds of a feather flock together. People who have a common problem get together and to them it seems like everyone, or at least lots of people, are having a problem, even if the problem is actually rare. This happens all the time here on S2kI, and the best way to avoid falling into the trap is to look at the total population and see what the MAJORITY of owners are experiencing. You're absoultey right about human nature, but I try not to look at just my own experience when it comes to long term issues like reliability.

Besides (not to make too fine a point of it, but), even if every S2000 top ever made failed within three years, the original statement claiming that the average lifespan of a rag top was only three years was just wrong. Quality aftermarket tops come with a warrenty of 5 or more years, so obviously 3 years is not the average lifespan one should expect. A top quality top can last 20 years or more, given reasonable care.

We had a recent thread discussing timing chain tensioner failures, and I fell into the "S2kI worry trap" myself (and it's not the first time). From that thread, any fool could see that everyone's car was eating up the tensioners at fairly low mileage, and I was getting ready to lay aside the funds for a replacement. However, as it turned out, I was a false scare, because there are more than a few owners who have had no problems with the tensioners even after very high mileage (180,000+ miles in one case). Still, I checked to see if the tensioner in my car had been changed by the previous owner, and it hadn't, and probably won't need to be changed until the motor is overhauled. It's easy to let the posts here mislead us, becaue nobody ever posts about not having any problems.

LOL, another year has passed, and my top, transmission, axles, differential, seats, carpets, and motor, continue to operate without problem. (How many members think that kind of thing is important enough to start a thread?)

A poll might be interesting.

How many part or component failures have you had with your S2000?

• None.
• 1
• 2
• 3 or more.

I'll consider starting one if anyone is interested.

 

Today went bye w/o word from the honda dealership. So what steps do I need to take to get my damn top fixed. Bottom line the top HAD NO RIP, HOLE WHATESOVER before dropping it off to get the latch replaced. I need a solution to this. How do I get ahold of the honda rep since the service manager seems to be pushing me to the side.

 

Call American Honda Customer Service and open a case.
1-800-999-1009

Honda will tell you that you will need to bring in your car to a dealer for inspection of the damage. Then you can go back and talk to your service manager that either they replace the top because they damaged it or have Honda replace it under warranty due to premature wear and tell them you have a case open with honda customer service.

I was able to get my top replaced for free by American Honda even when my warranty expired already. So, you should have no problem.