Engine Another dead/faulty civic...

[basegreen]

....had this from my brother's colleague. It came via email. She's havnig probs signing up.

I have been looking at all the pages on your Honda Civic web-site and am wondering if I am the only Very Unhappy Honda Civic Owner.

Hence I tried to log in and air my views. I have set up a profile - but my MSN account was not activated - so I am wondering if I have lost my login details.

Can you please send me some new ones so I can share my Honda Experiences.

Briefly I purchased a new honda civic in May of this year. The second time I drove it I experienced serious defects with the Honda VSA system. The symptoms were that the VSA system would engage at between 25-35 miles per hour when taking right hand bends. The car would swerve to the left and the steering wheel would judder, the brakes would be automatically applied and I felt that I did not have full control of the car. There have been several occasions when I felt the car could have a collision with another unsuspecting road user, either beside me or behind me - due entirely to the VSA issue.

I gave the Honda garage several opportunities to solve the problem but to no avail. I have even been able to demonstrate the problem to the Honda Garage's senior engineer, he too was able to replicate the same issue himself during normal driving conditions.

I regected the car as unfit to drive on the public road on 9th June. It's now 22nd August and I am STILL waiting for a new replacement vehicle or at least a firm confirmation that I will receive a replacement car. The dealer is not responding to any of my recorded delivery letters and I am waiting for Honda's reputation as the leader in customer service to come into action.

I first notified Honda UK Customer Care on 9th June to the problems with the car. Honda UK (not the garage) finally agreed nearly a month ago to cut out the dealer and supply me with a new car via a different dealer. I have requested this in writting - but am still waiting.

I have received no letters of appology or compensation for the money I have spent on this new car. I have spent hours chasing dealers, sending letters some recorded delivery, taking time off work, paying for insurance I did not need, the frustration of not being able to get a response from the dealer is ridiculous. I rather wish I had kept my money in the bank and received the interest from it.

So far there has been a total abscence of Honda Customer care.
In May I bought a shiny expensive new Honda Civic - but where is it - not on my drive.

This really will be the last Honda I purchase.

Gill.

[elfa7]

Disgusting treatment. I thought the "Sale of Goods Act", was supposed to stop this sort of thing --- seems like we have

some way to go.

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by elfa7

Disgusting treatment. I thought the "Sale of Goods Act", was supposed to stop this sort of thing --- seems like we have

some way to go.

I had similar issues to be honest. It comes from this fairly unique situation where the dealer is responsible, but it is not in their interests to help.

They are often lazy and don't chase things up. I resented having to get involved, but when i did, and I got in touch with CS, things didn't get any better - i was confronted with rude and unhelpful staff. It ended up with a call from Steve Oliver in the end.

Still, I am glad they did the right thing, and Steve was very good and sorted things out.

It's difficult for the manufacturer, but I think timely communications, politeness and respect goes a long way; in my case, I found it sadly lacking.

[TTDegs]

whilst it's not good, there will always unfortunately be 'Friday afternoon' cars (or dishwashers / Tvs / PCs whatever) where nothing seems to work right from day one.

Ultimately, whilst not good, customer satisfaction can be retained if the problem is resolved in a quick and efficient manner, accompanied by a genuine apology (and some recompence, even if it's just a bunch of flowers)

The longer that things go on, especially without seeming to be going anywhere, the harder it is to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion.

Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly where this is going

Feel gutted for Gill - this could have been handled SO much better

[basegreen]

Update: I think they're replacing the car.

[TTDegs]

I hope she gets the big bunch of flowers on the front seat...


Cor - the power of this forum!

thread has only been up 20 mins and she gets a result

[elfa7]

Good one Degs.

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by TTDegs

I hope she gets the big bunch of flowers on the front seat...


Cor - the power of this forum!

thread has only been up 20 mins and she gets a result

I think it was sorted before I posted, actually!

[Hartside]

I think it was sorted before I posted, actually!

The power of this forum is even more impressive

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by Hartside

The power of this forum is even more impressive

Scary, huh?

[Martin]

I hope that she not only gets the car, but an emphatic apology from the dealership, and the sales person who sold her the car.

If one of my clients gets a problem I ALWAYS want to be the first to know, and help as much as possible to get things sorted.

If nothing else I can at least send them in the right direction and follow things up, and perhaps more importantly apologise.

Cheeses me off, bad service. Might have noticed.

Off my soap box now.

Cheers

[WoolyCiv]

Originally Posted by Martin

I hope that she not only gets the car, but an emphatic apology from the dealership, and the sales person who sold her the car.

If one of my clients gets a problem I ALWAYS want to be the first to know, and help as much as possible to get things sorted.

If nothing else I can at least send them in the right direction and follow things up, and perhaps more importantly apologise.

Cheeses me off, bad service. Might have noticed.

Off my soap box now.

Cheers

Martin I must say that you sound like the salesman that I dealt with. When I collected the car as I have said previously there were some problems but I have to admit the salesman got them sorted. I had complete confidence in him and I think that the problems were created by the other departments involved i.e. the service department or whoever had the job to fit the options I had ordered.

I am still waiting (since the 12th June) for the Honda follow up survey/questionaire which I was assured would happen. Has everyone else had this survey/questionaire?

[jayt43]

I take it this is the same Gill who left a review on the What Car website at:

http://www.whatcar.co.uk/car-review-readers.aspx?RT=747

I'm actually in the travel business and I know how damaging to hoteliers reviews on the Trip Advisor website can be (basically holidaymakers leave comments about the standard of individual properties).

With the Internet now being such an integral and important part of people's lives, manufacturers need to realise VERY QUICKLY, that one, or several poor reviews, can lead potentially to thousands of lost sales.

And the fact that, on this particular occasion, the dealer and Honda customer service were both seemingly slow off the mark isn't too inspiring to potential buyers either.

When I selected the new Civic I did alot of research on the Internet about each marque and model and (in part) turned down the new Focus as they had, on early models at least, real problems matching the bumper paint colours to the rest of the body! I also read how Golf owners were none too impressed with their cars build quality overall, along with the price of parts/servicing.

So, as much as I love Honda products, Steve Oliver and team need to make sure that they (and their dealers) handle every complaint quickly and sympathetically. I know you can't please everyone all of the time, but it does seem as though Honda CS is currently getting a fair amount of criticism, mostly for not answering back!

[jayt43]

Yes, quite right Martin and WoolyCiv. Some sales people and dealerships simply don't get that it's not just one car they're selling, but potentially 2, 3 or even more.

For example, a dad might buy a CRV for the family, then recommend to his ageing mum a new Jazz, tell his mate down the pub about the new Civic, and get his 17 year old a second hand Honda after passing their driving test.

Ideally, I think that, within a dealership, there should be someone checking that customers receive decent treatment throughout the entire life of the car (rather than just up until the ink is dry on the sales contract).

[JB75]

This account made my heart sink. My brother had a similar issue with a new car once, basically it failed to start on 10 to 15 occasions and he was even towed to the dealership in it once. It transpired that the battery was discharging somehow. The dealer's approach from day one was to dispute the existence of a problem, arguing that they couldn't replicate it. After it had happened for about the fifth time they adopted a new approach by arguing that his 100 miles per week average wasn't enough to keep the battery charged. He contacted the manufacturer's customer services who were equally dismissive and basically parrotted anything the dealership said. The dealership did replace the battery, alternator and engine management chip but the problem just kept happening. After two years of this nonsense he threatened to take them to court and only then did they replace the car. The manufacturer's customer service arm described this as an act of goodwill and maintained there was no problem with the car. The replacement model was a year younger but it had been a hire car and was in a generally poorer state than the problematic model. He ended up taking it, not being able to bear the thought of the pattern continuing. Needless to say, the replacement car started first time, every time. He endured all this nonsense without any mention of compensation for the inconvenience caused. I thought their 'service' was deplorable and have vowed never to touch any of their products.

So, you're not on your own Gill. The point I want to make though is that I think treating customers as an inconvenience is on the rise and it's far too easy for vendors to dispute problems and their responsibilities. If push comes to shove they can always turn to corporate lawyers on £300 an hour for advice on opt outs and loopholes.

[Martin]

JB 75

I think that in some dealerships the treatment is dire. We have a lot of comments where I work about being nice/ friendly and non-pushy. This, I think is the only way ahead, as the public will slowly expect a better standard, and the poor dealerships and or sales staff will become a thing of the past.

Good ridance too

[WoolyCiv]

Originally Posted by Martin

JB 75

I think that in some dealerships the treatment is dire. We have a lot of comments where I work about being nice/ friendly and non-pushy. This, I think is the only way ahead, as the public will slowly expect a better standard, and the poor dealerships and or sales staff will become a thing of the past.

Good ridance too

Hate to say this but the best dealers I have ever dealt with going back over 20 years has been Toyota and I thought the same as Martin then but alas things don't seem to have changed much.

[Topcat]

There appears to be a lot of "Friday afternoon cars" amongst the Honda Civic and a hell of a lot of teething problems for a new model and many different ones too affecting almost every part of the car inside and out!!

[TTDegs]

TopCat

don't forget that whilst people will generally complain if they have a fault, they will almost certainly not say anything if all is going well.

Therefore places like this do tend to make it appear as if the product (be it a Civic or a washing machine) are riddled with faults.


On my other site, many owners were complaining of problems with the DSG (automatic -ish) gearbox on the TT

Everyone got up in arms, people were deciding not to buy it, talk of letters to WatchDog etc etc

I actually had a meeting with the DSG engineers up in Birmingham.

Then we ran a poll of all DSG owners on the site - under 3% had a problem.


Which is obviously not good - in the same way that it is not good that we have problems on the Civic.

But forums do tend to blow things out of proportion a bit

[elfa7]

Before the Civic, I had a Golf GT TDI with the DSG 'box. Excellent box, with imperceptible changes. I wish I could buy the

Civic with it.