Sunday, June 17, 2007

More people in India having trouble with Honda?

Here are some examples that I came across on the Internet of people being harassed by Honda car dealers. Goes on to show that HONDA DOESN'T CARE.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sir I would ask you to visit www.team-bhp.com/forum/ here you could get a lot of help with regards to honda dealers as well as contacts for india.

Anonymous said...

is that true??

Anonymous said...

I have a honda city exi Nov. 2004 model. Initally we really liked the vehical becasue of its great interior space , feul economy and styling but very soon practicle problems started surfacing.

For your information, we are qualified architects living in Delhi. Our vehicals is self driven.Our house is in pitampura and office in C.P. Approx. 20km's one way drive on good roads. Site visits in Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad Faridabad. Highway tour to Punjab once in 6 months. Max. drive in a year 25,000 kms. Serviced routinely at 5000 kms.

a) Really bad Bumpers: The bumpers are soo bad that they are ready to come off at the slightest hint of an impact. The are like a huge volumonous skirt ot "TUN TUN" wrapped around aishwarya rai's waist. Oversized, flimsy and complete misfits. You would never come accross a Honda City on the road with bumpers completely intact. They are the worst part of the Honda City. What the hell is a bumper meant for if it cannot take even a small touch on a red light.??

Cost wise they are Rs.3000/- a peice after insurance claim.

b) Door Locks. : We did'nt get keyless entry installed as we wanted a gear lock. Amazingly the door lock set has konked off twice in a period of 3 years. They cost Rs.8500/-+ tax and installation a set.

c) Bearings: After a period of 1 year approx. 30,000 kms an amazing noise started coming from the rear tires. We took the vehical to ring road honda . The bearings had worn out.

Cost 15000/- a set . Not covered in insurance

d) Engine Mount Cracked. There was a slight creaking sound from the engine area everytime the vehical stopped on a curved area (our ramp) from almost day 1. We asked the service engineer about it and they said it was normal.

During the last service the service engineer fellow told us that the engine mount has cracked

Cost Rs. 5000/-

e) Poor Drivability and shit grade goodyear tires. :

I think they buy the export rejected tires from the plant and fit them in the honda city. The vehical moves like a drunken duck at 120 kmph. It is such a unsecure feeling. I have driven a maruti 800 at 140, a zen at 150, an esteem at 160 an indica at 140, but i can never even think about driving this vehical at that speed. It is the safest at 80-90 kmph.

F) The worst Part of owning a Honda is the after sales service. Your first visit to the dealership for service will make you regert your decision of buying a Honda. The service fellows are a complete bunch of incompetent cheat bastards who will do a third rate job for 5 star prices. Repair and maintenance of Honda City is the worst part of ownership of Honda City.

If you want to have a big petrol car, then buy the Toyota. Don't waste your time at Honda.

Best wishes

swaran

Batty said...

@Swaran, unfortunately you left an anonymous comment, so maybe you'd not get to see my response.

I felt terribly sorry after reading your comment -- I fail to understand how come Honda company is letting this situation exist the way it is -- despite so much feedback from so many customers.

Hopefully the global economic slowdown will cause a significant dent in their earnings from new car sales - which, in turn should provide them motivation to take good care of existing customers.

Meanwhile, my suggestion to you (if you get to read this comment) would be to post this feedback to customer_relations@hondacarindia.com. Let's see whether they respond back to you or whether they still choose to ignore you.

Unknown said...

Courtesy Honda Lally Automobiles, in New Delhi, India is the most inefficient, and unprofessional unit of Honda service we have ever experienced. Honda Corporate must examine the improper behavior of the employees of this service center. Specifically, Okhla's service head Ajay Sharma, along with Sanjay Sharma and Deepak Kumar insisted on a deposit of Rs. 2000 (for a Rs. 18,000 Relay). All three intentionally delayed the procurement, mislead us on the delivery date of the part (daily for 4 days), and frustated us --- forcing us to go to another dealership.

Anonymous said...

Definitely, the services standards are so poor of Honda Dealers that even the roadside workshop provide better servic quality than Honda Dealers. I visited Ring Road Honda, Peeragarhi, three times and each time found the service level more low than previous one. I think they carry a target to bring down the service levels each year.

Ansi said...

I agree with the assessment of the honda car service, by giving the service centers near monopoly, i think Honda car has done great'disservice' to itself and its customers.

I have been using Honda city for nearly 7 years now - in past i never bothered to look at the service assessments done by its service centers, but somtime back i was asked to replace the magnetic clutch & field coil in the AC compressor (when the total KM driven was 34K) and within 14K KM of driving i once again started getting the same noise. On going back to the whitefield honda service center bangalore - i was told that its the same part that needs to be replaced again.

On questioning them and escalating to Honda customer care, the assessment by Whitfield honda was revised to NOT just that assembly but the entire AC Compressor needs replacement. Which would cost me Rs. 38K. Imagine for a car that has done less than 55K KM - the AC compressor needs replacement and after replacing one if its sub-assemblies earlier.

And now am beginning to wonder whether in past all servicing, this service center in Bangalore - has been truthtful or not?.

The question really is whom do we trust - the dealer/service center or the silent car manufactuer who seems to have least amount of say with the day-2-day service standards of its own service center.

Batty said...

Thanks for sharing your experience, Ansi. From your experience and also from my own, I am wondering what kind of image is Honda trying to project in India?

In the United States, Singapore, Canada, countries in European Union and elsewhere where the legal system is strong, I am sure they wouldn't dare to do anything like this.

However, in India the company just refuses to get involved whenever there is a dispute between the customer and the service station. They simply put pressure on the service centre to close the case ASAP. Besides doing this, they refuse to do their own independent assessment of the case and to find who's fault it is.

How I wish Honda had to pay a price for their indifferent attitude towards their customers in India. I am sure that the huge decline in new car sales due to the ongoing worldwide recession will definitely cause them to provide better customer care.

natasha said...

i read ur blog and have changed my mind to buy a honda city as my husband is serving the indian army n we will be staying at some godforsaken places in the coming few decades... so, it is not going to be a very good choice to go for honda city at all. i wonder if i should stick to maruti cars evn though i do not like anything about those cars. but thanks for such a vivid and analytically handled article.

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Captain Anurag said...

I completely agree with the comments.It is a terrific car but after sale service is pathetic. I bought a Honda city V-Tec Plus from Ace Honda, Noida about two years back. Car is being serviced regularly by them and everytime car has been returned with some issues pending.

My recent problem started few months back when my car started giving jerks while accelarting in 2nd and 3rd gears. Diagnosis was defective ignition coils, same were replaced under warranty along with spark plugs.

The problem re-appeared again after few days of driving. But, I could not take the car to them (Ace Honda) immidiately due to my official travel assignments and informed them about the resurfacing of problem over phone.

Upon my return when I took the car to them for check-up, I was told that last visit only two coils out of four were renewed and now another two coils need to be renewed.

And since I ran out of my warranty period with-in these few days, I will have to shell out about Rs.10,000/- for the repairs.

I did protested asking questions like why all the four coils were not replaced under warranty even though I was verbally told tt all the coils require replacement.

Anyway, I agreed to pay for the cost but found that the coils for my model were not available in the workshop and will be ordered from the company which will take about a week to come.

I took back the car with two old coils in place but to my utter surprise, the problem had disappeared all together. I drove the car abt 2500 km for two months without any problems and that too in the hills of Uttranchal. It is worthwhile to mention that in these two months I never received any call from Ace Honda as was promised upon receiving coils in their stock.

To my pure bad luck, I took my car again for due servicing to Ace Honda and mentioned the events to Service Manager who assured me to have a look at the car himself.

And from that day onwards, my car is running worse than ever before with too many jerks in 2nd and 3rd gear.

It is really surprising that car suddenly becomes okay after coming to the workshop without changing coils and next time a perfect running car develops a more intensified old problem after just a check up in work shop.

lack of transparency is a big issue with Honda workships and above events goes to show that their is something seriously amiss and customers are being taken for a ride.

Captain Anurag said...

I completely agree with the comments.It is a terrific car but after sale service is pathetic. I bought a Honda city V-Tec Plus from Ace Honda, Noida about two years back. Car is being serviced regularly by them and everytime car has been returned with some issues pending.

My recent problem started few months back when my car started giving jerks while accelarting in 2nd and 3rd gears. Diagnosis was defective ignition coils, same were replaced under warranty along with spark plugs.

The problem re-appeared again after few days of driving. But, I could not take the car to them (Ace Honda) immidiately due to my official travel assignments and informed them about the resurfacing of problem over phone.

Upon my return when I took the car to them for check-up, I was told that last visit only two coils out of four were renewed and now another two coils need to be renewed.

And since I ran out of my warranty period with-in these few days, I will have to shell out about Rs.10,000/- for the repairs.

I did protested asking questions like why all the four coils were not replaced under warranty even though I was verbally told tt all the coils require replacement.

Anyway, I agreed to pay for the cost but found that the coils for my model were not available in the workshop and will be ordered from the company which will take about a week to come.

I took back the car with two old coils in place but to my utter surprise, the problem had disappeared all together. I drove the car abt 2500 km for two months without any problems and that too in the hills of Uttranchal. It is worthwhile to mention that in these two months I never received any call from Ace Honda as was promised upon receiving coils in their stock.

To my pure bad luck, I took my car again for due servicing to Ace Honda and mentioned the events to Service Manager who assured me to have a look at the car himself.

And from that day onwards, my car is running worse than ever before with too many jerks in 2nd and 3rd gear.

It is really surprising that car suddenly becomes okay after coming to the workshop without changing coils and next time a perfect running car develops a more intensified old problem after just a check up in work shop.

lack of transparency is a big issue with Honda workships and above events goes to show that their is something seriously amiss and customers are being taken for a ride.

Batty said...

Dear Capt. Anurag, It is sad to see that state of things with Honda India after sales service has not improved all these years, whereas the number of Honda customers in India is increasing by the hour.

I would recommend that you write in to Honda company directly about your experiences. You can give them your feedback by visiting: http://hondacarindia.com/feedback/servicefeedback.aspx

If there is a regular influx of constructive feedback being given to the company, hopefully they will be motivated to take some corrective action.

Andrew said...

Hi Sir,
I appreciate you for all the valuable information that you are providing us through your blog.

Batty said...

@Andrew, I am happy to be of help :)

mina said...

Its may be true but not all dealers are same, there are a lot of Honda dealer giving best service for their customers over the world.You have to fine out the trusted one from them.
You never said all being getting harass, some of them also gets good facilities.
I am also a Honda lovers and get the trusted facilities from my dealer. the are the best Chicago Honda dealer since 50 years.you can visit them : http://www.schaumburghondaautos.com

Unknown said...

The franchise people in Honda are ruining the name of Honda. I bought my vehicle from stallion honda lucknow and the sales people in Honda promised me several things which they denied later as i was going to take the car, but they never denied on the zero debt insurance along with the car on which i trusted them and to my surprise when it was the time to claim my insurance i found out that they have done the normal insurance and everyone denied that they had promised so, they are all thief's and ruining the name of Honda, these people are not to be trusted and everything should be on the papers signed by them, a good car with bad people.

honda of the desert cathedral said...

The Lynnwood Honda dealer has all the wonderful models of all the newest Honda cars. Honda is one among the foremost standard motor vehicle brands within the u. s. of America.

Utah Hyundai Car Dealers  said...

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