Honda Consumer Reviews - Page 2

ARIZONA -- I bought a Honda Element 2007 in July 2007. Since the purchase I have learned that the front seats do not adjust as in previous models. However, both the Quick Start Manual and the regular manual both indicate visually and in writing that the front seats should adjust forward at about a 10 degree angle for access to the back seat. "Open the door, and pull up on the seat-back adjustment lever. The seat-back tilts forward to allow easier access to the rear seat." The picture also shows this tilt angle.

I took the car to a dealership. They did not know about this design change; they also did not know that the same change is on the 2008 model. I talked with Honda about this design flaw as a safety issue. Without the ability to tilt the seat forward both entry and exit from the back seats are restricted even when a front seat is moved forward as far as it will go.

Honda's response was that they knew people who have the car and they aren't having any problems getting in or out of the back seat and that I should just move the front seats back and forth to use the back seats. In case of an emergency, exiting the back seat would be difficult at best and a danger to their safety and well-being.

Honda's response is that the design is written in stone and that unless enough complaints and problems with emergency exits are made that nothing will be done. Their opinion is that the car is safe and has been fully approved by the NTSB and NHTS. I would defy anyone to enter and exit the back seat with any speed because of this change in design.

I hope this will be investigated and that Honda will be forced to redesign and recall the models that no longer allow the front seat to tilt for as they say "easier access to the rear seat" and I would add easy, quick exit from the back seat in an emergency.

WEST CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY -- I purchased a new Honda S2000 convertible at Honda of Essex in West Caldwell, New Jersey two weeks ago. By the time I got through finance, etc., and took delivery of the car it was almost 10:00 at night, and I didn't get a chance to take a good look at the car. One clue might have been that it was in detail for an unusually long period of time before they gave it to me.

Over the next couple of days while admiring my new car, I noticed a number of chips in the paint, and a number of cloudy areas. Most of the problem exists on the hood and passenger side fender. I brought the car back to Honda of Essex and brought my concern to the attention of one of the sales managers. He asked one of his detail guys to look at the car.

The detail guy looked it over and made a few attempts to cover some of the chips and fish-eyes in the paint. At some point he said there wasn't much more he could do. I was not convinced that more couldn't be done, but I figured he was just trying to blow me off as he received a phone call from his wife and told me he was late for dinner. I figured I would wash the car myself and have it detailed by a professional, and perhaps this would resolve the issue.

I had a body man look at the car. He told me the paint was defective in a number of places; that the dealer attempted to buff out some of the damage; and that the only way to fix the paint would be to repaint the car. He refused to touch the car.

Now I have contacted Honda directly and I am told that a case manager will be in touch with me within two days. If they don't resolve this properly, I will take further action against the dealer and Honda directly, if necessary. I will also make as many public complaints and statements as possible so that people will know that this dealer is not honorable, and if not resolved, neither is Honda of America.

9/12/07: A case manager from Honda contacted me and recommended I make an appointment with the service department at the dealer, which I did. The service manager looked at the car, and recommended the car be compounded to see if the imperfections in the paint can be buffed out. He said they would also apply touch-up paint to the chipped areas. After that, if I'm still not happy with the paint, he said a representative from Honda would inspect the car and make a further determination. At least they are taking some action. I'll keep everyone posted.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- I recently purchased earlier this Jan/Feb of 2007 a brand-new 2007 Honda CR-V EXL, $28K. I am writing to you regarding a manufacturer's defect by Honda in the manufacture of its new line of Honda CR-Vs. My car presently has 3,158 miles on it. I brought it into San Francisco Honda Monday, 13Aug, due I had noticed some irregularities which I wanted to get checked out. They were as follows:

1) A tapping sound in the back of my car;
2) A wet spot noted on the floor of my garage under the hood area;
3) Intermittent inability to start the car whereby battery light would come on; and
4) Inability to accelerate, but sudden surge thereafter when driving.

Later that day I received a call from SF Honda, the service dealer, to advise that:

1) The tapping sound in the back of my car is due to a welding defect. They have removed all the back panels but not been able to discern the exact location thus giving rise to the concern that there may be more than one area that is experiencing this defect; and...

2) The wet spot noted is actually due to a transmission leak and they will need to replace the entire transmission.

Upon hearing this, I was flabbergasted. Who would have thought that a brand-new car, a Honda which is noted for its reliability, would encounter such problems? And at 3,000 miles? And simultaneously? I was told to contact Honda America, which I did at 1-800-999-1009. A complaint was lodged on 13Aug at 4:40PM and I was promised a call back within 48 hours. I did not hear back from them despite leaving repeated messages. When I finally got through to my case manager, Chris at **, he advised as follows:

AA) The 48 hour time limit starts from when HE receives the complaint, not when its lodged (so the time frames pretty much pointless then);

BB) The case had been closed (without action, remedy or follow-up); and...

CC) He would start, but only after he had had his lunch!

I cannot believe that I, the consumer should have to be going through this! My car is a lemon -- if after but 3,000 miles it already starts to exhibit such problems, who is to say what it will do at 6,000?

CASPER, WYOMING -- My name is Ben, I own and have run an auto repair facility in the Middle-Eastern part of Tennessee (near Knoxville) for 22 years. I recently leased/rented this business to another fellow and moved to Casper, WY for full-time ministry and missionary work. I have literally done (and my business still does) thousands of dollars of business directly and indirectly with The Honda Corp of AMERICA.

I had never done any business with the local store here until today. They recently moved from what was a pretty dilapidated to what is what appears from the outside to be a new fairly modern and what could be a state of the art facility on the end of town where I live (which is a little more upscale than the rest of town, since this is until recently a very depressed, conservative republican trailer home type community).

Anyway, I own a couple of Hondas (they are registered to my kids but I assure you I bought and paid for) and I am repairing the one that my son drives. I go to the Honda store and buy an OEM timing belt and 3 qts of lube. I asked the counter guy for my discount as a shop owner and he said, "We don't do that!" I want to stop right here and say that the 12 or so dollars meant very little to me. But, boy did I ever open a can of worms!

I should have left it at that but I quite honestly felt like I was being "blown off as some kind of nut or beggar"! I asked how to get a discount and the guy said, "Ask the lady in business accounts." I asked the Gen. Manager and he directed me to her. She said she didn't know what I was talking about but to follow her to the service manager. Listen to this, he in a very unprofessional manner says, "Well we might be able to do this if you are going to buy a couple hundred K in parts a year," laughs and basically walks off leaving me and the lady standing there with our teeth in our mouths. I felt foolish!

I mean, I explained my situation. I don't want anything that isn't mine. But is that the way you should treat an old customer that still has some influence with the buying public. I hope and pray this is an isolated case and just in this area. I know I was never treated that way at home in TN. There they even delivered to my shop some times twice a day. I GUESS THEY SPOILED ME!

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- I would like to first introduce mysel. My name is Leonid. I purchased a 2006 Honda Coupe. However, due to high markup pricing of the vehicle I was forced to buy the DX model with the air conditioning unit. However, when I had the air conditioning unit installed I was informed that it was not operational due to the radio. I was then later told that it was due to the after market alarm I installed. Finally, I went to see it with my own eyes and was shown the cables that were supposedly cut in the process when running a cable to the alarm's horn from the interior of the car to the engine compartment.

Therefore, two cables that affect the air conditioning unit were cut. This is hard to believe since the installation was done by my brother who has years of experience and installs car alarms and radios for a living. The reasons I feel the cable were not cut when passing the alarm wires to the engine compartment are:

• The wires are well insulated and protected.
  
  • The wires are bundle together which means that in order to cut a wire one must separate it from the other wires.
  • The wires require something sharp to be able to cut them but no sharp objects were used to pass the car alarm wire to the engine compartment.
  • The force required to cut two cables is high which means that it could have not be done accidentally.

Furthermore, I feel I should not be charge $300 for such inspection and repair. First of all because I feel no two wires were cut when installing the car alarm. And finally because if I would have known that they were sure it was due to the car alarm I would have had my brother repair the damages or remove the car alarm to avoid excessive charges but instead I was informed when there was nothing I could do. I was simply put on a position where I was only required to pay and complain the charges at a later time.

Please, know that this is my first new car and first Honda car as well. I have always admired Honda for its high quality vehicles but I would have never imagined that I would be having problems to install an air conditioning unit. Please, review my case and let me know if there is something you can do to make my Honda Service experience more pleasant.

I own a Silver 2002, Honda S2000 Roadster, and so far I've had not one, but two engine failures with only 16k miles on the car!!! Note: I am a weekend driver, and use a VW golf to get to work and back. The first engine failure occurred about a year ago, when I noticed my engine running poorly while I was on the way home. Apparently, one of the valves may have been misaligned during manufacture, and was subsequently damaged... Just enough to cause loss of compression in Cylinder #3. After $3,500 expense out of pocket for a complete head rebuild, I was able to get my roadster up and running again (took 6 months).

This latest failure is a bit of a mystery... I'm not sure how, but apparently the engine lost 3 quarts of oil in less than two weeks from its last oil change! With the lack of oil in the engine, one of the crank bearings was damaged (Cylinder #3, yet again). All this went on, without an oil light or engine warning coming on! Now, once again, here I am having to get my S2000's engine fixed, but this time the est. of repair is over $8,000 for the small block rebuild!!!

I've dealt with all of this without Honda's or their dealer rep's support or reimbursement for the first time the engine died. Now it seems I'm going to have to go it alone yet again! Needless to say, my confidence in Honda has lessened considerably, and I'm not taken to the idea of buying a second car from Honda any time soon!

UNITED STATES, FLORIDA -- In 2008 we purchased a brand new Honda Civic from the Proctor Honda dealership in Tallahassee, Florida. 2 and a half years after this the paint on the roof started to look funny. After reviewing others complaints about this we were informed they have a clear coat issue via reading lots of complaints online. When we contacted the dealership they blamed us at first for getting bird droppings on the car that never happened. Then they said to contact Honda of America giving us a 1-800 number to contact them about it. Thus passing us off to someone else.

After spending lots of time talking with Honda of America, they said it was due to us buying a blue car or dark colored car (BS). After talking with them more they "agreed" to pay for half of the repainting of the roof. The real issue is now in 2013 the top of the trunk is looking really bad, the body lines are fading and other spots are appearing.

The little car runs good, has had very little mechanic issues but this kind of neglect to fix its appearance is a waste as they are losing a long time buyer of Honda cars (20 years owning a Honda). Next car we purchase will probably not be a Honda and we tell other people of this issue and not to buy one either. (I see a lot of these same cars driving around with huge clear coat issues plus other models and colors).

SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS -- This is the worst experience I've ever had. I thought of taking the 2012 Honda Odyssey and it seems my credit and debit ratio doesn't gave me 0.9% APR. Then, I dropped off buying it and even informed the sales person not to do any credit checks as I know it would spoil my credit history and they confirmed me that they wouldn't do anything. But after a couple of days I could see 7 credit checks on my history that to 2 itself in simultaneous days of Honda.

When I tried to reach the bank/Credit unions to find who has done the credit check I come to know that it is from Honda. When I tried to contact the sales person he told that he has given my details to Honda and he doesn't know anything and asked me to contact the finance department. When I contacted the finance department they picked up the phone and told me that they would respond back but they didn't and also none of them responded back and even picked up my phone.

SOUTH CAROLINA -- Bought a Honda 130 HP outboard boat engine 10 years 3 months ago. This engine has 50 hours or less total operating time. Started having problems with the engine this month when I took my boat out of storage to get it ready for vacation. Took it in for service and the tech said there were numerous technical service bulletins on the motor all major problems - cracked blocks being one of them.

Honda to their credit did extend the warranty from 5 to 10 years. However, 3 months out of the warranty period and have to buy a new motor. Guess what, it definitely will not be a Honda. All outboard boat motor purchasers might want to seriously consider this post when considering Honda Outboard motor purchases. ** email address for additional info: **