Unbelievable. Taking a southern route to San Diego today from the Coachella Valley in mild weather and I start to notice the car is running a few extra revs at 60mph or so on a two lane stretch before getting to I-8. Then, approaching the 6% grade to the Mountain Springs pass which is a climb of several thousand feet, by 1000 feet the car is increasing revs while at the same time losing torque and therefore speed. Then the transmission starts to pulsate and lose more ground and I slow from the 50mph I can maintain to the side and it catches on for another stretch, and this is repeated till the drive simply uncouples and the car is dead on the roadside with the smell of burnt oil. No leaks.


Honda roadside assistance had the car towed to a dealer in El Centro where I've most of the day and I find Honda won't even pay for a rental. Are you kidding me? Now back home and because its Sunday, won't know much until tomorrow as to how long it'll take to change the tranny. And no matter how well this replacement goes, I've totally lost faith in the vehicle's ability to provide reliable transportation.

 

Ouch. Horrible customer service from Honda, pretty shocking when Ford provided me with better service for a much, much less serious fault.

Best of luck!

 

Thanks, I think I'll need it for one would have to raise the bar a substantial amount to call Honda's customer relations horrible at this point. A useless car if bad enough. My god, a Yugo could go 3800 miles.

 

Honda is usually reliable and I think what happened to you was just an isolated case. Their customer service leaves much to be desired though.

 

NEWS FLASH!!! Machines fail, sometimes new ones. That's why warranties exist. Too bad Honda and it's dealers failed in the customer service department! Try sending a PM to HondaCustSvc , he might help.

 

Is it indeed a transmission failure? What did Honda say failed? Anything as to why it has failed?

I know it may be too soon to know any/all of these things but I'm interested in knowing. Just want to be sure they actually said the transmission itself failed or they are still investigating.

 

Your car was built on an assembly line, essentially identical to thousands of cars built before and after it. Something went wrong, and Honda's going to fix it. Once the CVT is replaced, the car will be good as new. Enjoy it!

A lemon is a car with a recurring problem that defies multiple attempts to fix. Your problem seems pretty clear cut- and your real problem is bad customer service. There's no excuse for that.

 

Honda dealer wont give you loaner car...
honda does not have free loaner cars like lexus, mercedes, bmw, acura..etc

I couldnt believe when honda was swithching from gears to belt...if cvt is that good, why acura (same family) doesnt come with cvt?

 

My Ford dealership got a rental from Enterprise and covered 100% of the costs.

 

Which is what Honda should have done....

 

At 8:30 am the service manager in El Centro said it will take till after lunch to run diagnostics. Really?

 

Sounds like it is time to call Honda Corporate about the dealer's lackadaisical attitude. A call from Honda might move your job's priority up a bit.

You might also ask corporate why a catastrophic failure of a major drive train component that has left you stranded doesn't warrant a loaner car. You never know what they can do until you make your desires known.

I'm sure that Honda corporate is almost as interested in a look inside the failed CVT as you are in getting your car fixed. If that is indeed the problem it's a matter of swapping out the entire unit.

Oh, and a "lemon" is a car that has multiple issues or one recurrant issue that evades repair. One failure, while significant, does not make a lemon.

 

Lemonade perhaps.
It's a modular world with new car mechanicals these days and I doubt they'd try to take that tranny apart at a dealership, I would expect them to change it out. If they put new fluid in and say I'm good to go, we'll have a problem.


Car rental is on hold till I get the diagnostic results, which apparently takes all day to plug in.

 

You have my sympathies. This is, uh, why you HAVE a new car!

 

My honda dealer gave me a loaner car from their lot for a $2500 ecu swap. Its bullshit they did not give you one.

 

Shit, the Dodge dealership even gave my friend a rental from Enterprise when her USED Neon had issues, and it wasn't even under warranty. They still replaced the part out of good faith since she just bought the car.

Honda, come on man. Cheap asses.

 

Way back in the day it was normal for a dealer to loan a car off of their lot to anyone whose car was in the shop. They'd use it as a marketing thing, putting the driver in a car that was nicer than their own for a "test drive."

Of course, those were more civil times, before lawyers and insurance people took over.

 

Just over two weeks ago, you posted the following:


01-24-2015, 03:00 PM: With my car stuck in sand yesterday in the Anza Borrego desert, I thought I'd give Honda Roadside Assistance and their free offer on my 2 month old Fit a try. You get what you pay for. Though the agent was cordial enough on the phone they would only send a tow truck that I had to pay for, being on a residential dirt road and all. I gave up and called AAA, and even though they had to dispatch a truck from fifty miles away, there were no issues and no cost. Honda Roadside Assistance? Never again.

I wonder if getting your car stuck in the sand had something to do with your transmission failure, perhaps when you were rocking to get unstuck. I am not smart enough to know if sand could somehow get into a transmission, but I have personal experience in how getting unstuck can impact your transmission (rocking back and forth).

 

call the 800 number and put in a complaint. when my transmission gave up in august (car has 200 miles on it and i had it for 36 hours), it took a few days of back and forth, but honda gave me a rental for 2+ weeks while the car was being repaired. rental was from enterprise, not the dealer.

dont give up hope, and BE NICE to the lady on the phone... good luck.

i thought the same thing. took me a 3 months after the repair, but now i am very happy with the car. EVERY car model has a few units that fail. every one. give it a chance after the repair.

 

OP,
Definitely try calling Honda customer service and explain your situation. I have had good luck with Honda customer service for my Accord. They replaced front break pads (worn out by 30k miles, I think). They resurface rotors and replaced beak pads again after some time.