Complaint Review: Honda Superstition springs

Several months ago I tried to tell my service advisor that there was something wrong with my car. I told them the transmission didn't feel rignt and that it wasn't driving correctly. It would shake and vibrate.

I was told on each occasion something different. It's the alignment, you need new tires, blah blah blah.

I had been telling all of this to one of my patients, who is a master mechanic with a different dealership.. He finally took a quick look under the hood while in the office one day and said it looked like the transmission is leaking. He also recommended, based on everything I had told him, (the same things I told the dealership) that I should have the control arms and motor mounts checked. On the 18th of February I took the car in and told them what my patient said and wouldn't you know it all of a sudden I was taken seriously. They found approximately 3 oil leaks, and the control arm bushing to the rear tires didn't work. On the repair order the word they used was "broken".  They said they couldn't do the repair that day because they didn't have a mechanic there that was capable of fixing it and scheduled an appointment for me. The earliest they would give me was Wednesday February 22nd even though I requested Monday. I questioned my service advisor, Dominic, if the vehicle was safe to drive under these conditions, he assured me that it was.

I took the vehicle in on the 22nd, tried to pick it up on the 24th. Drove it off the lot and was maybe 2 miles from the dealership when I started to smell something burning. I look in my rearview mirror and saw nothing but smoke. So much that I could barely make out a vehicle behind me. Which turned out to be a police officer. He pulled along side me and motion me to pull over. By this time smoke was pouring out of the front of the vehicle.

I cannot begin to describe how frightened I was. I pulled into a parking lot. Immediately jumped out and called the dealership. I was put on hold for several minutes then transferred to several different people. Finally Dominc asked me to drive the vehicle right back. I told him if he thought I was going to get back into to car that for all I know is flaming under the hood, he was crazy. Well I was put on hold again!! By this time I was sobbing and terrified so I hung up and called back, this time reaching Jessica who thank God had enough sense to tell me not to drive the car whatoever and that she would send a tow truck out.

After getting back to the dealership and after they looked at the car again, I was told that it was a new problem. An O ring was old and cracked and that's why the oil poured out hitting the heatshield and caused the smoke. The service manager Greg blew it off and said "it's no big deal" told maybe for him it wasn't but for me it was terrifying since I thought the car was on fire.

Well went back to the dealership last night (February 27th) and tried to pick up the car again. I asked for the paperwork for the new work and was told by the service M=manager Greg that there is no paperwork, he wasn't going to do any on it. The lady pulls the vehicle around and I notice a piece of plastic hanging down underneath the front passanger side. I asked her "what the hell is that?" she tries to tell me it's a plastic bag that probably flew up under the car and got stuck. Told her "I don't think so" and that I would not take the vehicle back in that condition. So back into the shop it goes.

By this point I started asking for Mr Zamora, the owner, but of couse he was too busy to deal with the "little people". So instead I get the general manager Rob. I tell him everything that has happened. I asked him for the paperwork and he tries to give me the same report for the original repairs from the 22nd. Told him no I want paperwork for the NEW problem. He goes to speak with Greg so the car is returned AGAIN. I go to put my things in the back seat and I find a big piece of plastic that obviously belongs to my vehicle. I take it out and ask Rob if he maybe wanted someone to put it back on my car. Back the car goes.  Meanwhile Rob is trying to tell me some story about how he can't get me the new paperwork beacuse it was so late in the day and they couldn't close the ticket out so they couldn't print anything. Ummmm wrong, the service Manager Greg told me he wasn't going to do any paperwork on the O ring situation and he said it in front of the cashiers when I was trying to get the car back. he then said he would fax it to me later.

After being there for maybe a couple of hours I got the car back.

Needless to say I lost time from work, they aggravated me beyond belief and then they tried to put me in jeopardy by asking me to drive the car back.

Ibette Mesa, AZ