Growing up, my family have all owned Honda's from one time to another and we couldn't brag enough about it for it's dependability and reliability. Until this incident, I've always had nothing but amazing things to say about Honda but now, I have lost all faith and will never buy another Honda nor would I ever recommend it to anyone. Matter of fact, I'd tell them to run for the hills!!!
In 2012, I had a job transfer that moved us from Oregon to Texas. My then 18 year old daughter stayed in Oregon to attend college so of course, we wanted to buy her a nice reliable car that is good on gas. In December 2012, we bought her a brand new 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid. Within months of owning the car, she started getting warning alerts and her USB would not synch up. We reported the problem to the dealership where we bought the car. The nightmare then began for over a year. The car was brought in to the dealership over and over again to be told that it was software issues or software updates that needed to be completed.
For over a year, the car was back at the dealership numerous times as the service department said that Honda America would not do anything unless a Technician could replicate the problem. The car would stay at the service dept. for days to a week at a time for us to be told that they needed proof. They told us the problem was the music system and the technician did see the problem one time but they needed to replicate it 3 times before they could obtain approval from Honda to replace the music system. My daughter started taking photos and videos of the warning signs to show the service dept. when she brought the car back in. They watched the video but said they couldn't accept that as proof as it had to be witnessed by the technician himself. At one point, they asked for our permission to allow the technician to drive the car to and from work (he told us his commute was approx. 30 miles each way) to see if he could replicate the problem.
There was no way I would approve that as it was a brand new car and I refuse to have someone else put in all that extra miles. I escalated to Honda America and long story short, the electrical issues did get fixed but not without hours upon hours of phone calls, no car for my daughter to drive and her showing up at the dealership again and again. I thought for sure that had to be the worst experience ever....
Well, that takes me to the present. Two years ago, my daughter moved back home to Texas and we had the car transported from Oregon to Texas. This car has never been in a wreck!!!! It currently has 58000+ miles on it. On April 27, 2018 my daughter was coming back from the pool that is approx. 3 blocks away in our neighborhood. She said that at the end of the street, 3 different warning lights came on and then the car started to jerk. She stopped it for a minute and then tried driving it again and she was able to move for 2 blocks and then the car was jerking again but this time it felt like someone was slamming on the brakes. That night at dinner, my daughter told us about the problem. After dinner, my husband took the car out for a test drive and it was not jerky but one of the warning lights did come on . Saturday morning, he called David McDavid Honda of Frisco and was able to get an appointment for Monday, April 30 morning. The diagnostic showed up that we needed to replace the "Master Cylinder" and the approximate cost was $300+ plus taxes and labor. A couple hours later, we get an update that they made a mistake and since it was a Hybrid they need to replace the "Slave Master Cylinder + server" too and this part was an additional $3500+ plus taxes and labor.
I called Honda America and filed a case with Lawrence; he assigned me case #08550825 and said a case worker would call me back in 48 hours. I received a call from Larry, my case worker, two days later who told me that he would need to speak with the District Manager and would get back to me. He said there are three options that might happen after he spoke to the DSM. 1) Honda will pay for the repairs 2) Honda would split the repair cost with me 3) I may be offered an "out of warrantee" repair help due to the high cost. Larry called me back a couple days later to tell me that the Manager, "Eric" at David McDavid said that there is no record of my car being at the dealership nor was a diagnostic done by them. Larry said that Eric said that the last record they have in the system is from 2014 and "was I sure my car was not at Ron Tonkin dealership"? I told Larry I'm very sure because Ron Tonkin is in Oregon and the record is from the time that I told him about when we had all those electrical issues when we first bought it. He said he'd need more time to speak to Eric again and get back to me. I called our Service Advisor, Timmy Tran, to tell him about this and I told him that I gave Larry his direct wireless number to call him as for sure David McDavid had the car and a diagnostic was done.
I did not hear back from Larry since my last conversation with him so I followed up with him the following Monday. Larry did not call me back so I called and left a VM for him on Thursday, May 10th; no return call. I called again, Friday, May 11th, no return call. I called again Monday, May 14th and Larry finally called me back because he saw a missed call on his call log but had not listened to my voicemail yet. I reminded him that he was to follow up with me and I told him that I had gotten a call from Timmy on Thursday, May 10th and Timmy explained that you, Larry, asked him to contact the District Manager, Allen. Timmy contacted Allen via email and Allen had declined to help us because we were not loyal customers because Allen said our records show we have not been back to Honda since 2014. I said "you are kidding, right"? Timmy told me that Allen said he refused to help me and has no desire to do so because I'm not a good, loyal customer. WOW! I was appalled to say the least. I told Larry all of this and he again told me he'd have to call Allen and would get back to me Tuesday, May 15th morning. For the first time, Larry kept his promise and called me back on the 15th. He confirmed that Allen declined to assist. I asked if there was anyone above Allen and Larry said that Allen works for Honda Corp and he was the highest person and there was nothing more he or I could do. He did confirm that "customer loyalty" was a factor in the decision to refuse the help.
This is by far the worst experience I've ever had and I'm beyond appalled and frustrated. How does the entire brake system go out on a car that has 58k miles on it? In my first conversation with Larry, he asked if "Timmy ever tell you its a defective part"? No Timmy didn't tell us that so I called Timmy and asked him and his reply was "it's hard for me to say because we'd have to take the part out, send it to Honda and then the engineers would have to run a test before they can confirm". Timmy also said that usually if a part is defective it usually appears in the first 2-3 years. I am now stuck with a $4700+ repair bill and ZERO help from Honda America. We are very good at staying on top of all of our maintenance/service schedule and again, this car has never once been in an accident. I am shocked there is nothing, I mean nothing, Honda America is doing to help.
HONDA America has completely lost me as a customer and I've lost all faith in it building long lasting, reliable cars. I know two of my family members in Oregon have had electrical issues with their brand new Honda's. They had horrible experiences with Honda America too. One had to hire an attorney to finally get a settlement. They traded their Honda's in for another brand new car and like me, they will never buy another Honda.
Growing up, my family have all owned Honda's from one time to another and we couldn't brag enough about it for it's dependability and reliability. Until this incident, I've always had nothing but amazing things to say about Honda but now, I have lost all faith and will never buy another Honda nor would I ever recommend it to anyone. Matter of fact, I'd tell them to run for the hills!!!
In 2012, I had a job transfer that moved us from Oregon to Texas. My then 18 year old daughter stayed in Oregon to attend college so of course, we wanted to buy her a nice reliable car that is good on gas. In December 2012, we bought her a brand new 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid. Within months of owning the car, she started getting warning alerts and her USB would not synch up. We reported the problem to the dealership where we bought the car. The nightmare then began for over a year. The car was brought in to the dealership over and over again to be told that it was software issues or software updates that needed to be completed.
For over a year, the car was back at the dealership numerous times as the service department said that Honda America would not do anything unless a Technician could replicate the problem. The car would stay at the service dept. for days to a week at a time for us to be told that they needed proof. They told us the problem was the music system and the technician did see the problem one time but they needed to replicate it 3 times before they could obtain approval from Honda to replace the music system. My daughter started taking photos and videos of the warning signs to show the service dept. when she brought the car back in. They watched the video but said they couldn't accept that as proof as it had to be witnessed by the technician himself. At one point, they asked for our permission to allow the technician to drive the car to and from work (he told us his commute was approx. 30 miles each way) to see if he could replicate the problem.
There was no way I would approve that as it was a brand new car and I refuse to have someone else put in all that extra miles. I escalated to Honda America and long story short, the electrical issues did get fixed but not without hours upon hours of phone calls, no car for my daughter to drive and her showing up at the dealership again and again. I thought for sure that had to be the worst experience ever....
Well, that takes me to the present. Two years ago, my daughter moved back home to Texas and we had the car transported from Oregon to Texas. This car has never been in a wreck!!!! It currently has 58000+ miles on it. On April 27, 2018 my daughter was coming back from the pool that is approx. 3 blocks away in our neighborhood. She said that at the end of the street, 3 different warning lights came on and then the car started to jerk. She stopped it for a minute and then tried driving it again and she was able to move for 2 blocks and then the car was jerking again but this time it felt like someone was slamming on the brakes. That night at dinner, my daughter told us about the problem. After dinner, my husband took the car out for a test drive and it was not jerky but one of the warning lights did come on . Saturday morning, he called David McDavid Honda of Frisco and was able to get an appointment for Monday, April 30 morning. The diagnostic showed up that we needed to replace the "Master Cylinder" and the approximate cost was $300+ plus taxes and labor. A couple hours later, we get an update that they made a mistake and since it was a Hybrid they need to replace the "Slave Master Cylinder + server" too and this part was an additional $3500+ plus taxes and labor.
I called Honda America and filed a case with Lawrence; he assigned me case #08550825 and said a case worker would call me back in 48 hours. I received a call from Larry, my case worker, two days later who told me that he would need to speak with the District Manager and would get back to me. He said there are three options that might happen after he spoke to the DSM. 1) Honda will pay for the repairs 2) Honda would split the repair cost with me 3) I may be offered an "out of warrantee" repair help due to the high cost. Larry called me back a couple days later to tell me that the Manager, "Eric" at David McDavid said that there is no record of my car being at the dealership nor was a diagnostic done by them. Larry said that Eric said that the last record they have in the system is from 2014 and "was I sure my car was not at Ron Tonkin dealership"? I told Larry I'm very sure because Ron Tonkin is in Oregon and the record is from the time that I told him about when we had all those electrical issues when we first bought it. He said he'd need more time to speak to Eric again and get back to me. I called our Service Advisor, Timmy Tran, to tell him about this and I told him that I gave Larry his direct wireless number to call him as for sure David McDavid had the car and a diagnostic was done.
I did not hear back from Larry since my last conversation with him so I followed up with him the following Monday. Larry did not call me back so I called and left a VM for him on Thursday, May 10th; no return call. I called again, Friday, May 11th, no return call. I called again Monday, May 14th and Larry finally called me back because he saw a missed call on his call log but had not listened to my voicemail yet. I reminded him that he was to follow up with me and I told him that I had gotten a call from Timmy on Thursday, May 10th and Timmy explained that you, Larry, asked him to contact the District Manager, Allen. Timmy contacted Allen via email and Allen had declined to help us because we were not loyal customers because Allen said our records show we have not been back to Honda since 2014. I said "you are kidding, right"? Timmy told me that Allen said he refused to help me and has no desire to do so because I'm not a good, loyal customer. WOW! I was appalled to say the least. I told Larry all of this and he again told me he'd have to call Allen and would get back to me Tuesday, May 15th morning. For the first time, Larry kept his promise and called me back on the 15th. He confirmed that Allen declined to assist. I asked if there was anyone above Allen and Larry said that Allen works for Honda Corp and he was the highest person and there was nothing more he or I could do. He did confirm that "customer loyalty" was a factor in the decision to refuse the help.
This is by far the worst experience I've ever had and I'm beyond appalled and frustrated. How does the entire brake system go out on a car that has 58k miles on it? In my first conversation with Larry, he asked if "Timmy ever tell you its a defective part"? No Timmy didn't tell us that so I called Timmy and asked him and his reply was "it's hard for me to say because we'd have to take the part out, send it to Honda and then the engineers would have to run a test before they can confirm". Timmy also said that usually if a part is defective it usually appears in the first 2-3 years. I am now stuck with a $4700+ repair bill and ZERO help from Honda America. We are very good at staying on top of all of our maintenance/service schedule and again, this car has never once been in an accident. I am shocked there is nothing, I mean nothing, Honda America is doing to help.
HONDA America has completely lost me as a customer and I've lost all faith in it building long lasting, reliable cars. I know two of my family members in Oregon have had electrical issues with their brand new Honda's. They had horrible experiences with Honda America too. One had to hire an attorney to finally get a settlement. They traded their Honda's in for another brand new car and like me, they will never buy another Honda.
Worse experience EVER!!!!!!
- Beth N., Lewisville, US