Primo Honda

Service Center is a Ripoff! I wish I had checked reviews before scheduling service here. I was quoted a brake service on the east coast (at a dealer) before moving across the cou I wish I had checked reviews before scheduling service here. I was quoted a brake service on the east coast (at a dealer) before moving across the country. I brought my car to this dealer after moving and the quote was double. Then they called claiming the other brakes would also need to be serviced too at the same 2x rate. I checked AAA for the cost and it was the same as the east coast Honda quote (half of what I was being charged). Stay away from this service shop. More

I have had two bad experiences, and now decided never to go back to this dealer. My Odyssey mini-van has low mileage and works great. The vehicle has a service code indicator on dashboard about what type go back to this dealer. My Odyssey mini-van has low mileage and works great. The vehicle has a service code indicator on dashboard about what type of service is due. The last two times I had gone was just for oil change, and both times, the service dept pointed out that I needed a small or intermediate service. It cost about $400 on my last visit. I told them that it it only needs an oil change at the current mileage (and the vehicle service code indicator also showed that only an oil change was required), but they said that the service was recommended by the dealer. I was in a hurry to get to work and did not have time to research, so went along with it. But later I realized that it was too much and un-necessary. The worse part is this -- in spite of doing the expensive service which was not needed, they did not inspect the tires properly, rather gave my tires a clean bill-of-health (as part of their "free inspection" report). Then a few weeks later one of the tires burst. Not just flat, it actually burst while going at 65 miles per hour on teh freeway (101S). It was very scary. When pulled over and looked at it, it had burst very badly. AAA was very friendly and quick to respond, and replaced it with a spare. The next day when I took the mini-van to a local service shop (not the dealer) for getting a new tire, they told me that the other 3 tiers also needed to be changed, as they all had lots of mini-cracks, including a full circular crack that went along the entire side of the wheels on each tire. This was a major safety issue, and tires with such cracks can burst if weather is too hot, or if there is a nail, or some other damage, etc (which happened on the freeway for me -- AAA person mentioned that it was a nail that had been there from before, but had now gone in deeper). The tire service person was shocked to see how the dealer did not catch this. The tires are about 6 years old, and hence it is expected that they need to be changed a this point. What was extremely shocking was that the Honda dealer had been happy to perform the other costly services when only an oil change was due, but neglected to point out the issue with tires which is actually a major safety issue. Fortunately, my family was safe and we did not have a major accident on the freeway will all the traffic going by so fast. After these recent bad experiences, I have learned my lesson, and in future, will stay away from this dealer. From the above experience, either they are negligent or incompetent, and certainly not very honest about services required for the vehicle. More

Beware of Honda Redwood City. Absolute crooks. They have very low quality technicians in their service center now who are messing with your cars and after you figure out that your car has issues they don't very low quality technicians in their service center now who are messing with your cars and after you figure out that your car has issues they don't even honor their 1-year service warranty on all parts and labor jobs they perform on your car. Don't take my word for it guys. If you have been going to Honda Redwood City to service your Honda for the last year or so, have your car's health checked immediately by some other service center. Trust me I have been a customer since the last 8 years. I have been servicing both my Honda cars in this service center and since the last year both my cars are having problems. This is especially true if you have done timing belt change. So absolutely NO NO - DO NOT CHANGE TIMING BELT WITH THESE GUYS. If you want more details as to what happened with my cars read the exact complaint text I filed with BAR attached below. If I would be rating these guys a year back I would be giving them all 5s. But how they have treated me and my cars over the last year is why I am giving them low rating. My situation is so bad that I have filed complaints with American Honda, BBB (http://www.bbb.org/) and BAR (Bureau of Automotive Repair) a division of DCA - the California Department of Consumer Affairs (http://www.dca.ca.gov). Trust me I am going to fight it till the end till I get justice, even if I spend more that what would have cost me to get a new engine (note, I have already spent $800+ dollars on rental car and counting). If any of you guys are in the same boat and want to be with me in a joint fight against these guys please email me at gourksaha@gmail.com. BAR representatives are looking for more people in the same boat so that they can prepare a solid case against these guys. Trust me I also had so many small issues over the last year but I never had the time to do all these complaints. It is true that now since I have to incur such a high cost that I am taking these steps. I understand there are so many of you out there who are in the small issues area, but trust me ignoring and letting go does not help. We need to fight and protect our consumer rights. This is the exact text that I had provided to BAR in my complaint on Sep 28, 2009: ================================================================================== On September 16, 2009 morning I dropped off my Honda Civic to Redwood City Honda for an air condition problem. They diagnosed the problem and found some leaks. After talking to me and getting my confirmation they went ahead and fixed the problem. Later that day they delivered my car and then I headed back home. Within 15 miles of driving from that point I saw the check engine light come on and thick fumes coming out of the hood of my car. I pulled over and stopped the car. I waited for hours to let the engine cool down but could not re-start it again. Next day morning I called Redwood City Honda and (without much ado) they immediately towed it to their service center. They diagnosed the problem and found that my engine is completely gone bad and that I need to replace it with a new ($9000) or old ($3000) one. The sole cause of the problem - the radiator cap spring became loose because of which all the coolant leaked and the engine became over-heated. The piston springs inside the engine bent because it was too hot and now cannot be fixed. The only solution is to replace it with a new or old engine. They told me they had nothing to do with this radiator cap problem in this servicing and were not responsible for the engine failure. I was shocked. I always serviced my Civic from Redwood City Honda since I bought it. No one else ever opened the hood of my Civic. I have all the records. I told them that 5000 miles back you guys did a timing belt change and intermediate servicing on this car (on the same day). They also have a 1 year warranty on any job they perform on any car. It has been only 3-4 months and 5000 miles since that job. On that day they did radiator coolant top off and checking of its cap and other related parts. According to them my Civic was in excellent health as they had told me on Sep 16 also. I told them that it is less than a year that Redwood City Honda performed these jobs on my car and that they were responsible for the above incident. They behaved rudely with me in the beginning. Later I complained to BBB and American Honda and their service manager (Neff Castro) called me back saying they are ready to give some discounts on the new engine. I told them my car was as good as new specially after the timing belt change all cars get another 90,000 miles of easy life. I am absolutely not accepting that my Civic is a junk now. I asked them that they have to replace the engine of my Civic at their cost (specially that it is under the warrantly of their timing belt change and all other service jobs). Since then they stopped communicating with me. It has been 11 days that my car is lying in their service center. Please read further if more details are required: ================================================= Their has been a major issue with the quality of service at Redwood City Honda over the last year or so (with my 2 Honda cars - the Civic mentioned above and another Accord). Now when I recall the history of last 5-6 visits I realize that the quality of service of Honda Redwood City has actually fallen to a very low level. Following are the series of incidents that has been occurring with my 2 Honda cars over the last 6-7 visits to Honda Redwood City. 1. The air condition problem stated above started within a week after doing a timing belt change and intermediate service (3-4 months back) on the same car Civic. 2. I dropped my Civic for a minor service (4 months back) and during delivery found a windshield crack. They denied that they had caused it and that it was already cracked when I dropped the car. I replaced the windshield through my insurance. 3. I dropped my Civic for a regular intermediate service (7 months back) and found external body damage caused to my car. This time they had actually accepted their fault and told me that they will fix it. It was a pretty big unnoticeable scratch and I was expecting that they would report it proactively. 4. I did a timing belt change on my Accord (8-9 months ago) and the fuel economy immediately after dropped by 20%. They told me it was normal and fuel economy would come back within a few weeks of driving. Several months passed and I reported that I still see no change. On their request I also did a whole bunch of stuffs like fuel injection, filter cleanup, throttle body cleanup and what not (for ~$600 after discount) thinking that I will eventually save on fuel if it gets fixed. Till date I have seen no change and am paying the price every mile I drive. Also after 3 months of timing belt change my car suddenly dropped dead on the freeway. 5. 2-3 months later after the timing belt change on my Accord (point 4 above) while doing a minor service Redwood City Honda detected a leak in the water pump system. On asking if it was anything to do with the timing belt change they immediately said that in that case it will be covered under warranty of the timing belt change. They fixed it without cost. Again no pro-activeness of finding the root cause and poor quality of service (specially timing belt changes). 6. About a year back I was noticing that they were not rotating my tires during major or intermediate servicing when they were supposed to do so. Once I marked my tires with 1,2,3,4 in a hidden place and on delivery saw the same configuration. I asked them multiple times if they rotated the tires and they said "oh absolutely". This time I caught them red handed and showed them the photographs I had taken before the drop off with the position of the numbers being the same as they are now. They said that sometimes they forget to rotate tires and immediately did the rotation for me. I am a long time (almost 8 years) customer of Honda Redwood City and have never faced such problems until this last year. In fact I never saw the points from 1 to 6 as a series of low quality servicing until after the last event occurred with my Civic (now a scrap of $0 value). All the while I thought that it was either co-incidence that I see issues with my cars within days/weeks after servicing or that it was probably caused by me (the windshield incident). However my car breaking down within few minutes and 15 miles of driving after getting it delivered from their service center is absolutely unacceptable. Note, I always ask them to do a health check during any servicing and repeatedly ask them if the health of my cars look good. I can't believe that on Sep 16 before taking the delivery of my car I had asked them this question 10 times and they said "your car had a recent timing belt change so be rest assured that your car is in super health and will easily last another 90,000 miles". More

My experience with the service at Redwood City Honda/Menlo Honda for over 20 years has been very poor. On simple repairs or standard maintenance as well as more difficult problems they have done Honda/Menlo Honda for over 20 years has been very poor. On simple repairs or standard maintenance as well as more difficult problems they have done very poor work. I have seen this not only on work on my vehicles, but also where I have discovered mistakes made on vehicles owned by others. I used to think the best service available would be by the dealer since they know the vehicles better than other shops and you pay a premium price compared to other repair shops, but now I've learned the quality of the work is simply dependent on the quality of the mechanics in the shop. Here's some examples of the type of service problems I've had with Redwood City Honda/Menlo Honda: 1) They cross-threaded the tension bolt after replacing the alternator - returned several times because alternator light kept coming on (kept throwing belt). I finally had to fix the problem myself - removed alternator and repair threads on tension bolt. 2) Replaced front wheel bearing - they forgot to torque down the axle nut - almost lost the front wheel. 3) Replaced timing belt at 90k miles - now I have an engine oil leak that drips on the exhaust - always smells of burning oil. Scratched-up valve cover. 4) After an engine overheat problem - had the head gasket replaced and head resurfaced. When I picked-up the car it ran terrible - said there's a compression problem with the cylinders. I asked about the valves and they said they tested fine. I did a leak-down test myself and the leak was clearly through the valves. I returned the car for them to leak-down test and again they insisted the leak was in the cylinders. Now I knew they were lying as I could clearly hear the leak through the intake and exhaust - not in the crankcase. This time I had to threaten them with reporting to the BAR - so they finally agreed to do the valves. After that the car ran much, much better. However they didn't bother to tell me the timing belt was bad after the overheating problem - so soon after the repairs the timing belt broke and smacked the valves. Sold the car for a few hundred dollars. 5) And the best for last. I bought a car with a "check engine" light problem so I couldn't pass the smog test here in California, and I couldn't register the car. I asked them to diagnose the problem - said the car needed a new cylinder position sensor, then a new crack angle sensor, then a new MAP sensor. All along I kept asking about the engine computer/ECU and they said it was fine. Now after $1k in parts and labor they called to say I needed a new ECU. Here is where I said stop and put everything back, but I was still stuck with the diagnosis fee since they now said the problem was the ECU. They kept the car so they could verify the ECU was the problem since this was an expensive part to take a chance on. After waiting several months they returned it in the same condition as it was in the beginning. Again I had to do the repair myself - the two oxygen sensors were cross-connected and confused the ECU. I should have reported them to the BAR many times, but never did. More

The salesman, a Hispanic man, was very polite and straightforward and businesslike. The whole experience was great. I came in, saw the car I wanted, talked to the guy and a few days later I was drivi straightforward and businesslike. The whole experience was great. I came in, saw the car I wanted, talked to the guy and a few days later I was driving the car home. Get in and get out with no hassles. The car itself was great. I had to go in to have an extra key made later and that was done really fast. Great service all around. More

I was shopping around for a 07 accord SE sedan around Bay Area. A few Internet sales managers responded to my query and promised me the best deal or even orally agreed on the OTD price I was asking for. But Area. A few Internet sales managers responded to my query and promised me the best deal or even orally agreed on the OTD price I was asking for. But once I hit the dealership, the pattern had always been that some bigger boss jumped out and told me there's something wrong with the deal I saw online (better than I asked for) and the best they could do was to sell the car for like $1,000 more. Understandable you are supposed to trade time/energy for a better deal but I'm kinda sick of this drama and more towards a straightforward way of doing business. Usually one day after I walked away, they would call me again and ask me to come back but with nothing concrete. Then Jason at Menlo Honda called me and I told him I would waste my trip in case of any drama. It turned out that Jason is a real manager and he doesn't need to ask for approval from a big boss. The entire process was as smooth as it could be. I must admit I was expecting something fancy all the way but I was wrong this time. So I feel obliged to share my experience here. And I'm recommending Jason to my friend shopping for Honda. More