Warranty Just About Up - Advice

Hi guys,

The warranty on my Civic is just about up (in another 4500 miles). So
far, the only problem I've had with it was a fauly power steering rack.
Would anyone recommend, or recommend *against* taking the car to a
mechanic just before the warranty expire to look for problems that would
be covered by the warranty?

Would such a thing be worthwhile? What would you expect me to pay for
such a service?

 

Call your Honda Dealer if you trust them, they will look it over, there may
be a charge, maybe not they will look and cover any repairs under warranty.

Tom

 

Unfortunately, aside from customer goodwill, there is very little
incentive for them to do "a good job". They will make considerably more by
finding nothing right now, but then finding all the out-of-warranty things
at your next routine service interval. That's just the way manufacturer's
warranties work. It's not just Honda. On warranty repairs the dealer gets
paid, but at a steeply discounted rate (no profit) and makes zero from any
required parts. For this reason it's in the dealership's financial best
interests to do as little as possible "under warranty" and as much as
possible "out of warranty".

 

Bubba, you are ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT! WRONG! You don't know what you're
talking about and evidently have a complete lack of understanding of a
dealership as well as a biased opinion probably based on some
sensationalistic stories you've heard about some dealers. Next time listen
to the good stories too. There might be a few of them to hear since there
are dealers out there earning good money on legitimate business making
customers satisfied. Some of them have been around for decades, and if they
weren't "doing the right thing" for so long they wouldn't still be there.
Bubba growled:
"On warranty repairs the dealer gets paid, but at a steeply discounted rate
(no profit) and makes zero from any required parts."
WRONG! DEAD WRONG..
The dealer makes the same amount of money on labor per hour from warranty
work and receives a generous but just a little less than retail markup on
parts.
Bubba growled again:
"They will make considerably more by finding nothing right now, but then
finding all the out-of-warranty things at your next routine service
interval."
WRONG AGAIN.
They have every incentive now to make it right. They do want you as a
customer and will probably bend over backwards to maintain you as a
customer. You are entering a time or mileage period where your vehicle will
need some parts and service reasonably soon. Perhaps you'll need brakes,
tires or other maintenance or wear items as your mileage adds up.
The warranty period is usually the least time of investment for the vehicle
owner because everything is new. The dealer should be looking forward to
seeing you after the warranty is up. That is when he can prove to you, the
customer, that he knows your Honda better than any independent mechanic and
with highly trained Honda Certified technicians, has all the proper
diagnostic tools and parts readily available and can fix your car right the
first time and keep you safely on the road longer.
And lastly he will be measured by customer satisfaction surveys. And the
dealer has more incentive than you can imagine to ensure that you are
satisfied enough to return an excellent feedback survey if you get one.
There is enough incentive and pressure there that could affect his
livelihood and future.
If you feel your dealer is not treating you the way you feel he should,
there are other Honda dealers around most towns. That's what competition is
all about.
Trust your Honda to your Honda dealer. He knows every inch of your Honda
better than anybody.
There's an old saying at dealerships. "The Sales Department will sell you
the first car and the Service Department will sell you the second".
Good luck,
Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bubba" <wdg@[204.52.135.1]>
Newsgroups: alt.autos.honda
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 7:52 PM
Subject: Re: Warranty Just About Up - Advice

 

"Howard" wrote, among much wise verbiage:

Exactly. I'm on my 3rd Honda with 'my' dealership -- mostly because of the
Service Dept.