Honda warranty - questionable

[JDMFanYo]

I purchased a civic sport around 10 months ago from a local Honda dealer, this came with the 12 months warranty which is subject to the car being serviced by Honda etc.

I took the car into Honda towards the end of March to report a gearbox fault, I was then booked in for a check-up at the start of april.

They checked the car and I was told that the gearbox was under an extended 7 year warranty due to being a known fault, therefore it would all be taken care of. They will give me a call in few days

2 weeks later I get a call saying it's not under the extended warranty, but will be under the warranty I got when I bought the car, right OK, I just had to send my servicebook.

I emailed this over, a further 2 weeks pass (today) and I receive a voicemail saying that due to the car not being serviced by Honda (which is NOW overdue (wasn't when originally reported)) the claim has been rejected.

I'd rather not part with my cash for a new gearbox on a car which has only done 45k miles and is only 5 years old, the reason I have not booked the car in for a service is based on how the garage handled this claim, why would I pay extra money for peace of mind for a car I could have bought cheaper, then have to pay for something which shouldn't have gone wrong and should have been under warranty, and then pay 3x the amount for a service the local garage would charge?

What shall I do?

[Martin_Hx]

Try writing direct to Honda UK ? other than that i dont have a clue

[JDMFanYo]

I've written a polite email to the dealership, hoping they will resolve the issue otherwise I'll have to escalate to Honda UK and the usual proceedings

[itsnotarace]

What is the actual gearbox fault? And which model year Civic?

[CatherineJ]

itsnotarace said:

What is the actual gearbox fault? And which model year Civic?

I was going to ask that. I wasn't aware of any known gearbox faults on the current shape civic, although there are known issues with the clutches/dual mass flywheels on the diesels.

I am guessing as it is a "sport" model, it must be the last generation car?

[s.m.h.]

I guess its one of these dealer sold warranties and not a full Honda manufacturers warranty?
I did a stint as a service advisor at a Honda dealer and part of it was dealing with them (at that time a company called Warranty Holdings).
Depending on the items/ level of cover sold and whether or not its down to the manufacturer is the tricky bit. If neither admit responsibility, youre in for a long wait, or a big bill..
I had several incidences where customers had items fail only for the warranty people to say "not covered sorry" and thats the end of it. No discussion, reasoning or common sense. If its not down in black and white, its not covered.

If the dealer say its a common fault but HUK dont, then its the dealer you have a gripe with. They ought to have got authorisation before telling you it is covered. HUK have a few "rough" dealers that are getting a bad name, Ive read several instances where major faults are being fobbed off because the dealers know its down to their shoddy work and not a warranty failure.

You need to get in writing from the dealer what the problem is and whether it was originally covered by the warranty or HUK. Sounds like they have messed up the warranty claim and now missed the deadline for a claim. Saying you didnt get it serviced when its pending a claim is pretty stupid. Also if its a known issue, generally all warranty claims should be customer led. In that the dealer doesnt put right every faulty car (unless dangerous) the owner reports it then they fix it. (To prevent unscrupulous dealers from making warranty claims on sales cars on display to bump up the service department profits when its quiet )

Writing to HUK may help but dont get shirty or rude. They are pretty good to customers but not if you go in "guns-a-blazin'" Get all the facts and state you had every intention of getting it serviced when it was being repaired - it just took too long.

[itsnotarace]

CatherineJ said:

I wasn't aware of any known gearbox faults on the current shape civic...

There is a known 3rd gear issue on the FN2 Type R's

http://civictype-r.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&...

Which is almost identical to the 2nd gear issues on the old EP3's

http://civictype-r.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&...

I can't remember if the Civic Sports were 5 or 6 speeds though

[havoc]

Assuming it's the extended warranty (sounds like it), then it's not covered by the FSA rules, so your ONLY recourse is to HUK...and if they're not interested, you're stuffed.

There's been a lot of discussions about these warranties on the Honda fora, and the conclusion is that they're only as good as your relationship with your dealer...i.e. whether they'll go into bat for you to argue your case.

[Rayhoop]

I agree that you should speak to Honda UK.
Call them up, speak to them nicely and express your dissapointment. They are very very helpful. A phone call into them is just as good as sending in a letter (as long as you get s reference number!).

[10 Pence Short]

havoc said:

Assuming it's the extended warranty (sounds like it), then it's not covered by the FSA rules, so your ONLY recourse is to HUK...and if they're not interested, you're stuffed.

There's been a lot of discussions about these warranties on the Honda fora, and the conclusion is that they're only as good as your relationship with your dealer...i.e. whether they'll go into bat for you to argue your case.

It may have changed now, but a little while ago Honda dropped their own extended warranties and the scheme began to be underwritten instead by Aon. At the same time, by coincidence I'm sure, Honda dealers suddenly became far less cooperative when deciding whether to proceed with extended warranty claims...

[havoc]

Interesting. My experience is from ~3-4 years ago, give-or-take. Enough that I swore never to take a Honda extended warranty again, if they were going to make themselves judge AND appellate judge over each claim.

When did you hear that they changed?

[10 Pence Short]

havoc said:

Interesting. My experience is from ~3-4 years ago, give-or-take. Enough that I swore never to take a Honda extended warranty again, if they were going to make themselves judge AND appellate judge over each claim.

When did you hear that they changed?

They changed longer ago than that. Back in '99 when I had my first Accord, I would call the garage (Lancaster Honda) who would take the car in and look at it without question. Any work that needed doing would be done (though in that car, all I ever needed was a quick look at the gear linkages by the gate and some investigation of an annoying rattle beneath the dash). The Civic had similar treatment.

Once I bought cars after the CTR, every warranty job was a case of bring it in, we'll investigate then wait for the go ahead on the work- and there was some wriggling, too. The technical director at the dealership was through and through Honda (he won European Honda technician of the year and made finalist a few times) and he found the change incrdibly frustrating. This was a guy who took the time to personally strip my ITR gearbox down and fit the new synchros himself despite having any numbr of grease monkeys who culd have done it for him.

[havoc]

Interesting - I was told by a Service Manager that I trusted (wrongly?!?) that the Hondacare Warranty wasn't subject to the FSA regs as it was provided/adminstered directly by Honda and was set-up by them so as not to be caught by the regs.

Or was that just a bit of flannel to stop people raising grievances with the FSA?


Be interesting to see what's on the current policy documents...

[10 Pence Short]

havoc said:

Interesting - I was told by a Service Manager that I trusted (wrongly?!?) that the Hondacare Warranty wasn't subject to the FSA regs as it was provided/adminstered directly by Honda and was set-up by them so as not to be caught by the regs.

Or was that just a bit of flannel to stop people raising grievances with the FSA?


Be interesting to see what's on the current policy documents...

There may be a difference between the warranties Honda offer as extening the original new car warranty and providing an official Honda warranty on their qualifying used cars.

That said, an awful lot of manufacturers use third party underwriters like Aon for their car warranties.