1. is not necessarily true. I pay 364 euro on insurance
. Nice parents are a requirement for this.
2. True, I've seen a fair few middle agers looking at it but then moving on as they discover that they can't seat many kinds in the back.
3. Do they? Try to spot one between all the leased BMW and VAG products[smilie=cheeky-grin:
4. Apparently quite common as most Honda Dealers are small fish compared to the showrooms of Ford, Audi, ... I've seen similar problems with Hyundai They just seem to lack the investment capital. I've visited about 4 dealers before ending up in Antwerp, to find one you trust your car with.
Actually, I could list my experiences with the dealers. Don't know whether anyone would be interested but here goes. I'll rank them from bad to good
:
Tienen:
[LIST=1]
[*]Their showroom is an utter mess. I've been there twice and it was dirty and the cars were covered in dust. Cigarettes were on the counter and there was also 15 euro's in change just laying there.
[*]On the two occasions I visited them the salesman / manager was always out. Once to drive his kids to wherever, and the second time nobody knew where he was and the technician came out to help me. Helping me was telling me to wait until the 'boss' came back. I left after 45 minutes.
[*]I decided to phone them later. At that point I was looking to sell my 1.7 CTDI but as they already had one, said the manager, they wouldn't trade mine in.
[*]Still one the phone: The manager was not polite at all, and I sometimes had trouble understanding his dialect. I asked about a Type R (not the 2006 one) but the manager seemed uninterested to tell me anything about it. I guess I sounded too young or he didn't feel like making a sale.
[/LIST]
Conclusion: don't go here. And take some cleaning gear with for when you are bored waiting. This dealer will only help people he knows and I have no clue why he is still in the business.
Eindhout:
- Here they don't even think to trade in any car. Company policy! I guess Business was going slow
- If you ask for work to carried out here, and it's your door that is not aligned properly, you will have to persuade them to look at it. They then tell you it isn't all that bad and they can do nothing about it. I had it fixed in Diest (had been my regular dealer for years)
- The saleswomen(????) was very polite and took my 1.7 CTDI for a drive. My alternator belt was too tight on and made screeching noises when pulling away hard in first, or at low rpm in any other gear.
Despite telling her what to do, she could not replicate it. We changed seats and I got it on the first try. She said it was normal when pulling off this hard and it didn't need fixing. I got it fixed in Diest.
I had the feeling they only help existing customers here (as in: buy a car first). At some point she surprisingly asked me why I didn't go to Diest (We'll come to that later). Their lead technician was about to retire . I think it is a family company and it was her dad or so. Not a bad point, the man will have lots of experience but is deaf to smaller issues.
For regional inhabitants only.
Lier:
- Friendly staff, easy going folks
- They tried to rip me off big time on a valve adjustment on our 1.4 civic. Quoted 80 euro. Got it done in Diest for 25 euro.
All seemed competent people there, but I don't really know whether they are good or bad. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, as I am strongly inclined to believe buying customers will get better quotes
Diest:
1.4 Civic
- No issues with our 1.4 civic there except some stains sometimes because the don't use seat covers. Allways got a good an honest price. Most of the time I did have to phone them to ask whether the car is ready but I do not have gripes about that.
1.7 CTDI:
- Sold my 1.4 to my gf and bought this one. Car was in superb condition as the previous owner was a Honda enthusiast.
- Woofer boxes were glued or taped against the sides where the thing is that lifts up when you open the trunk (sorry I forgot how this is called in English in Dutch: Hoedeplank). Some idiot used a Stanley knife to get them off. Very very deep cuts! I was really gutted. Swallowed my pride...it was just the boot. The also scuffed it here and there.
- They lied (sorry there is no other word for this as I asked them directly after finding out the truth)to me about the car having had a new 3 rd gear syncro. And that after all my complaining about 3rd gear being harder to engage than all the other gears. Eventually, I found the previous owners number on a document and so I found out. Dealer 'confessed' and said that is why I had trouble engaging it, it had to bed in. And it did.
- Upon taking delivery, they mounted my struts wrong. It was the same temporally technician who destroyed my boot. Took them 4 hour to figure out. They also cleaned the car. I had asked NOT to.
- When I asked to change the grey stripes on the inside door pulls, they took out my door interior and lock. Technician had misread a nicely typed out work order. Can happen. Alternator belt was changed. Service was done. Vibrating gear stick looked at (not fixed). And yes, he found the stripes and put them in. The bad about this? I had told him he could have my car for a whole week for this because they were very busy. I wanted it done good, not in a hurry. I dropped it off on Monday. On Wednesday I checked in and still no work done. On Thursday I discovered my trim in the back and my lock missing. No other work done. I complained that I didn't leave my car here to stand in the garage and that I had at least expected for some work to be done already. Friday noon they started working on it (I work very nearby so I drove by a few times). It was ready just before closing.
Conclusion: Work could have been done in one day. They got five and used one. I could have driven 4 days instead of taking the bus[smilie=mad.gif][smilie=mad.gif].
2008 CRT:
As I am a patient man, I bought a car there again. This time expecting A++ treatment. And the manager was very nice. He's really polite and forthcoming. That was about the only reason they were still my dealership.
And yes, then the nightmare begins:
- My car stood there 2 weeks before I phoned them to ask where it was (delivery was 3 weeks overdue). Can you believe this!
- Upon taking delivery I had to wait 30min. There was no fuel in the car. I got 10 litres
- My boot wouldn't open most of the time. Dealer looked at it once or twice but could not find an issue. It always did go open when I got there.Oh and there were no TSB's...until I, thanks to civinfo, found out there was one. A kind dealership from the UK faxed it to me. I went to the dealers and oh he found it too now I showed him the UK one.
- He promised to order the parts needed. The lead technician lied. He was a little mad about issue number 5 on my CTDI (see above). 2 weeks later I asked about the parts. Oh he forgot to order but then rushed to his PC and ordered it right in frond of me. He lied, again. Then I decided to call the Gent, where the parts come from. 'We don't have an order from Honda Diest here Sir". Oh really![smilie=mad.gif]
- I confronted the manager (I was quite upset) and he went very pale and took me outside as some customers were listening in. We confronted the technician and I couldn't help saying he shouldn't try to fool people with lies if he wasn’t sure he was lots smarter than them. I got the boot fixed there and I will never ever set food in Honda Diest again.
Conclsion: The manager is ace, the lead technician a vengeful liar (or more kindly said unprofessional). As I am very partial, make up your own mind about them. Be on your guard before letting that man near your interior as he is not very good at keeping it scratchfree (I didn't list the all the minor damage he did).
Antwerps Honda Center:
Supberb treatment. Really perfect until now. I've been there for one service and I felt so at ease.
Will hold a recommendation until I know more.
The end