The WORST premium company to deal with when your car has problems?

Before you get ready to start complaining about BMW, Mercedes, Porsche or Audi not doing the right thing for customers when their cars have problems, you'd better read this article below.

The Spies can tell you from personal experience that Honda/Acura are the ABSOLUTE worst at coming to the aid of the customer when there are service issues with their cars.

The german companies are a DREAM compared to them!

From our experience, the German companies go above and beyond what they have to do for customers (unless you're a bastard/bitch and threaten them).

We get hundreds of emails from disgruntled Honda/Acura customers basically saying if there are problems on their cars, you are hosed!

More supporting info below..

Lease-holder entitled to warranty protection on appeal Camden County man can sue auto maker

BY TOM HESTER
Star-Ledger Staff

A driver whose leased car or truck won't run right is assured of repair warranty protection under a federal law even when New Jersey's "Lemon Law" does not apply, a state appeals court ruled yesterday.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel allows a Camden County man to sue American Honda Motor Corp., claiming it did not honor the warranty on his leased Passport SUV.

"This is a very important decision" for those who choose to lease rather than buy a vehicle, said attorney Robert M. Silverman of Ambler, Pa. His client, Christopher Ryan of Berlin, leased the Passport from Burns Honda of Marlton in 1999. Fifteen months later, after 22,000 miles of driving, the engine failed.

The auto dealer, according to court papers, said the engine had suffered damage not covered by warranty and directed Ryan to file an insurance claim. The insurer paid $6,771 for repairs and auto rentals while Ryan paid a $2,000 deductible. But after the repairs, the vehicle continued to run poorly.

A lessee is covered by New Jersey's Lemon Law but only if the vehicle has been driven less than 18,000 miles or leased for less than two years.

In July 2001, Ryan sued American Honda Motor Corp. claiming, in part, that the vehicle was covered by warranty under federal law. American Honda argued it owned the vehicle and since Ryan was only leasing it, he was not entitled to warranty protection.

A Superior Court judge in Camden held in 2002 that Ryan did not have a case and directed him to pay $8,605 in legal costs to American Honda. Ryan then appealed.

Appeals court Judges Edwin H. Stern, Donald S. Coburn and Barbara Byrd Wecker had to decide if the federal Magnuson-Moss Act allows lease-holders, as well as car owners, to sue for breach of warranty. They declared Ryan is a "consumer" under the law and entitled to warranty protection.

Writing for the court, Wecker said the language of the law and "a common sense approach" lead to the same conclusion.

"It is unlikely that the auto leasing market would have developed as it has, if prospective lessees were denied the right to enforce the manufacturers' new car warranties," the judge wrote. "It is hard to imagine that Burns Honda did not intend Ryan to rely on the promises contained in American Honda's warranty when it ... obtained his signature on the lease agreement."

The judges remanded Ryan's lawsuit to Camden Superior Court for reconsideration and reversed the order that he cover Honda's legal fees. Charles W. Craven, American Honda's Philadelphia-based counsel, was not available for comment. Silverman said Ryan will attempt to sue American Honda for consumer fraud as well as his repair and rental costs.

DiamondJim - 3/31/2005 10:38:58 PM

+1 Boost

I get great service at my local dealership and I am not sure whether that's a function of that dealer's management team, or what I feel is a current very pleasant relationship I have with the salesman who sold me the car or whatever other variables there are but I pay for my maintenance and they do cover repairs under warranty (almost nothing is wrong with my car anyway.) I do feel fortunate for having this sort of thing hearing how others have horror stories with their warranty repairs.

By the way, I visited almost 10 different dealerships before I chose this one..... never be pushed into a deal you FEEL is wrong, and what else, but SHOP AROUND.....

993Turbo - 4/1/2005 6:02:31 AM

+1 Boost

What does the dealer have anything to do with the service??? I bought a several Hondas on rte 3 in Clifton and got a good deal. My manager was driving with his wife and the passenger airbags (door, seat,and curtain, not dash) go off. The service dept. said he hit a "bolt" way up under the car, considered it a collision, and wouldn't cover it under warrenty. You could hardly see the "bolt" up under the car. What if he had hit a pot hole? Honda seems to have very bad warranty policies and I will probably switch to Toyota for my next company fleet.

LBDefender - 4/1/2005 12:07:45 PM

+1 Boost

I had (still have) a transmission problem with my G35 6MT. The only technician at the dealer who could work on this was the service manager. After he test drove it he said "they are all like this", but of course would not produce another one for me to drive and compare to. I told him I wasn't satisfied and I contacted Infiniti.

Seems that Infiniti won't get involved and want you to take any issue up with the service manager at the dealership. They (Infiniti customer service) wouldn't even let me talk to anyone other than the operator on the line who picked up.

Then of course I get a boiler plate form letter from the Infiniti dealership asking me to get in touch with my service manager if I wasn't satisfied with the results of my repair.

I consider myself smart enough not to make the same mistake twice. I'll never buy any Infiniti again and probably like most people who read this board I'll influence many people to never buy any Infiniti also.

niktee - 4/1/2005 12:25:00 PM

+1 Boost

On an un-related note....No one makes an exploding F1 engine better than Honda!

dano100 - 4/1/2005 4:24:07 PM

+1 Boost

I owned a 2001 CL Type S that had a transmission failure in 2003 at 30,000 miles. I called the Roadside service hot line and my dealer sent a towtruck to pick it up in less then an hour. They called me the next morning and said they had a loaner for me to drive but it wasn't another CL. They asked if I could drive a stick and I told them yes, but why? They were going to give me a Ford Focus (the dealer has a Ford store beside the Acura store). I told them I bought a premium brand car from them and expected a premium loaner. Within 2 hours I had a brand new Lincoln LS. Some may argue the premium status of the Lincoln but I was pleased with their service. I also rec'd a 7 year, 100,000 mile warranty on the entire drivetrain on the Acura. I can not complain about Acura not standing behind their products.

dbrebel - 4/2/2005 5:53:04 AM

+1 Boost

You can cherry pick specific incidents to lead people to a conclusion, but a single incident such as this doesn't prove a thing.

All I can say is that my Honda dealer has been great. I'm on my second Accord from them and as long as I'm still buying Hondas, I'll definitely be back.

Just to show you that you can find isolated horror stories about any brand, a local woman bought a Mazda Tribute that had repeated transmission problems. The number of service calls on the same problem met the criteria for Wisconsin's lemon law, so she contacted Mazda requesting that they replace the vehicle. Initially Mazda agreed, but they found a minor loophole and they're using it to screw this woman over. Apparently she didn't offer in writing to sign over the title of the Tribute to Mazda, even though that was clearly her intent. By the absolute letter of the law, Mazda is within their rights. However, even the Department of Motor Vehicles has come to her defense, recommending that Mazda be forced by the courts to follow through on replacing the vehicle. As it stands, the whole thing is tied up in litigation.

Does this reflect well on Mazda? Absolutely not. Do I condemn the company based on this one isolated incident? Of course not. But that doesn't stop Autospies from coming to such a conclusion based on a single incident.

Autospies' bias against Honda and Acura is abundantly clear, and it makes it difficult to accept anything they say about those brands.

DiamondJim - 4/2/2005 9:37:23 PM

+1 Boost

you know, im reading these things and what i can tell you from my experience, was that the 10 or so dealers i visited prior to the dealer i bought from, as soon as i entered the lot, i felt like a rabbit in an eagles sights ready to be eaten alive....

as soon as i stepped into this dealership i did buy from, i had a feeling utter relaxation, like you know when you have that feeling that this is right, this is where you know you need to be.....

if it doesn't FEEL right, WALKAWAY. if it does feel right, GO WITH IT..... listen to your inner voice.....

Matthew1 - 4/4/2005 11:52:50 PM

+1 Boost

"They were going to give me a Ford Focus (the dealer has a Ford store beside the Acura store). I told them I bought a premium brand car from them and expected a premium loaner. Within 2 hours I had a brand new Lincoln LS."

You expected a premium loaner? For the amount of time you needed it, a Focus would have been more than adequate. Better than no loan car. Is the type of loan car you recieve really that important? No.