My dealer is holding a "New Owners' Clinic" tonight and I'm planning on attending, barring having to stay late at work. Does anyone have questions about the '09 Sport MT that they'd like me to ask? If so, post them here and I'll add them to my list, which currently consists of:

• Are there plans to upgrade/reprogram the milage gauge to make it more accurate?
• To be continued...

 

that would be my first question too.

my 2nd question would be, "why didnt they just drop the mpg calculator from the car if they knew it was inaccurate?"

 

So I went to the clinic and asked that question - the mechanic kinda shrugged and said "Bring it in and complain, they won't change it unless they get enough complaints."

 

sounds like it was the first time he's heard about it.

did you get any useful info out of the clinic?

 

Welp, that sounds like a challenge....I'll call my dealer tomorrow.

 

Might have been. The clinic was funny - first they set out a whole spread of pretty decent food (shrimp cocktail, sliders, eggrolls, fruit, desserts, etc). While we (maybe 50 of us?) chowed down, they spent about an hour pitching all their services - oil changes, the shuttle they provide if you have to leave your car, free starbucks, etc. It was a little cheesy and at first I was really pissed that they were wasting my evening. After that they took us into the shop, where they activated an airbag (very loud and smells terrible). They had every model of car on a lift, and told us to go stand by our car so we could talk to a "specialist." At first I saw 15-20 people gathering by the Pilot/Civic, and I immediately thought, "That's way too many people, I'll never get any one-on-one attention." However, there were only 3 people at the FIT area, and one hadn't even bought his yet (he was there with his wife who had just bought a Civic).

I probably spent a good hour talking to the mechanic. He gave a nice little tour of the underside of the Fit, then lowered it and pointed out a few things under the hood. He was much more honest and straightforward than the hosts of the clinic (no pitches), so that was pretty cool. The other two people left after about half an hour, but I hung out for a bit. I asked him to give me a little more in-depth tour under the hood since I don't know much about cars and haven't really cared about one until my Fit. We went over some basic maintenance (changing the air filter, checking fluids, watching rubber parts that might dry out and crack in the CO air). I mentioned that my husband has bad allergies, so he showed me the cabin air filter in case I ever want to change that out for something more advanced or replace it more frequently. I told him about the AVIC-f90bt that I want to install and asked him if he would take apart the dash so I could see how it's done, but he didn't want to do it without a manual handy (which I expected). However, he showed me the tools he would use.

All in all, the first half of the clinic kind of sucked, but the second half was really useful and fun. For all you car experts out there, it might be a waste of time (unless you have more advanced questions to ask), but it's pretty good for someone who's new to learning about their vehicle.

Yeah, I'm taking mine in tonight to get it checked out. We need to start a movement! It seems like technically it could be considered false advertising.

 

ask them why is there no ambient temp gauge?
wth did honda place the tach on the left side of the cluster?

etc.

 

Too late, the clinic already happened. But you can get a rearview mirror with an ambient temp gauge. Personally, I've never had a problem with the tach on the left, but I have skinny little arms