Accord LX

• 42,000 miles

Since 2001, my Accord has had intermittent electrical problems. In April of 2001, while still under warranty, we brought the car into the service center because the power door locks stopped functioning. The problem was that the issue was intermittent. Hit a bump, slam the door, and they might start working again. Because of this, the maintenance people were not able to reproduce the problem. For a while, the problem subsided, but then started again. We brought the car back in to the shop in September of 2001. The car was still under warranty, but, being an intermittent problem, they weren’t able to reproduce the problem. I believed at the time that this wasn’t a big deal, because surely Honda would fix the problem if it were to reappear again, since there was documentation of the issue happening twice while under warranty.

We brought the car into the shop in August 2002, after being assured that the service would be covered. This was not true, as the service coordinator called us up and said, “I’ll have to charge you $75 to look at this”. It was only after the charge that they said that they were still having issues in finding the problem, and it could be several more hours of $75/hour to locate the source of the electrical problem. Mind you, by this time, the door locks didn’t work, the car stereo didn’t work, the map lights didn’t work. I found that by opening the right vanity mirror, the radio would work, but only if you didn’t turn on your headlights. When you turned on the headlights, no power for anything!

I contacted Honda of America at this point, and was told that I would have to pay for the diagnostic fee to figure out what was wrong with the car, and then Honda would decide whether to cover the issue.

I brought the car into Honda of Tempe on November 1st of this year. They removed my car stereo, my trailer hitch, and my auto alarm. After many hours of searching, they found that the problem was a poor ground, caused not by any of the aftermarket equipment, but because a bolt had backed out under the passenger seat! I felt happy knowing that the problem was solved, and that it was a quality issue which would surely be covered.

Unfortunately, Honda of America told the dealer that they would cover the replacement of the BOLT! Honda of America would not cover any of the diagnostic fees, or cover the re-installation of my equipment back into my car.

So, in summary, I have now paid $235 to find a problem that was an obvious quality issue, dealt with in-operable door locks, radio, map lights, etc. on and off over two years, been without a car for my wife and children for 5 days while it was serviced, and received the car back from the dealer with no radio, the alarm and wires in a bag, and my trailer signals disconnected.

I sent a letter to the President of Honda of America, and got a reply back from the same "customer service" rep that had stonewalled me from the beginning!

Honda's service sucks, and I am never buying another. Toyota here I come!