As IL's Engineering Editor Jay Kavanagh reported last week, our 2010 Honda Crosstour was requesting its first regular service. Yesterday afternoon I called Honda of Santa Monica to make an appointment for this morning. The operator transferred me to the service department and the phone rang, and rang, and rang. Eventually she came back on the line and said all the service writers were with customers. She asked to take my name and number and said she'd have someone call me back.
Yeah, sure, I thought.
Five minutes later my phone rang. It was Gladys, the operator, saying she gave my message to Service Writer Karl who would be calling me shortly.
Wow, I thought. I got a call saying I would be getting a call. I immediately vowed to buy a Honda.
A few minutes later Karl himself called, and we scheduled the Crosstour's first oil change for 10:00 a.m. today.
Dropped it off in the morning without incident, and was told the Crosstour, which was filthy from a few days of drizzle, would be washed as well.
Karl called at 11:30 a.m. to say our Honda was ready. Total cost $49.30.
When I went over to pick it up, I found the glowing service wrench was gone and the oil was back at 100 percent.
Unfortunately, the Crosstour was still dirty. It's not like I expected them to wash it. But they offered.
Nearly flawless customer service. Nearly.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 7,760 miles
konocar400h says:
06:17 PM, 07/ 8/10
That price would be nice.... I just picked went with my mother to the Toyota dealership to pick up here 2004 Toyota Sienna for the 90k service and a broken radiator... grand total? $3,956. I'm not kidding. Yikes. The service lady was shocked. Never in my life have I had a bill that large, whether it be Lexus, Mercedes or BMW. Never. I'm sure some in this forum have had larger though...
greenpony says:
06:26 PM, 07/ 8/10
Nearly flawless spelling too. Nearly.
bobfranks says:
06:37 PM, 07/ 8/10
to bad they didn't keep it.
roadburner says:
06:49 PM, 07/ 8/10
"I just picked went with my mother to the Toyota dealership to pick up here 2004 Toyota Sienna for the 90k service and a broken radiator... grand total? $3,956."
Did that price include complementary Vaseline and flowers the next morning?
Wow.
Several years ago I put off changing a noisy idler pulley on my wife's 128K 1997 528i; my procrastination was rewarded by the pulley bearing disintegrating and taking out both belts and the fan shroud. I decided to let my independent BMW tech handle the repairs. While he had the car we decided to replace the radiator, the water pump, and the remaining idler pulley as a precaution. My tech also found and replaced a bad tie rod and had the car aligned. The total repair cost?
$1161
konocar400h says:
06:54 PM, 07/ 8/10
Well, they washed the car. I forgot to say they did put 2 new runflat tires and resurfaced the rear rotors... but thats it. Roadburner, it sounds like you have a good mechanic. I have yet to find one of those. And i've tried.
roadburner says:
08:45 PM, 07/ 8/10
konocar400h,
I have to say that I'm extremely fortunate to have access to a couple of excellent dealers as well as two good indie shops. In some areas it does seem like all the good shops have pulled up stakes and left. Here's hoping you find a good one.
aspade says:
09:13 PM, 07/ 8/10
A $4,000 rape like that would pay for flatbedding it to and from a good shop in the next state.
Having non warranty work done at a stealership is for people richer than I am.
sodaguy says:
10:40 PM, 07/ 8/10
What's up with IL skipping tire rotations now?
throwback says:
08:06 AM, 07/ 9/10
karl? Is Brauer moonlighting at Honda dealerships?
csubowtie says:
11:17 AM, 07/10/10
One of the local Chevy dealerships in CO would wash your car everytime you brought it in for service, or if you bought it there, they would give you a complimentary car wash whenever you wanted.