Hahahahaha.



Buying a Kia/Hyundai because a Honda wasn't well built enough?

 

It would be more advantageous financially to lemon law the car, but it also would be way more time consuming. Frankly if I was as pissed as OP I'd go for lemon law too no matter how long it took just to stick it to them. Good luck, OP.

 

Basically with a lemon law your playing on their court, Unless your a lawyer?
I'll be interested to se if Florida actually gets involved or if you get a "feel free to file in court now" letter.. Best of luck!

Without a lawyer you'll find that form is followed by months of pain and suffering thats why most people just trade them off.. Life is too short.. Google around on BMW lemon law claims..

 

There's some good information on the Florida Lemon Law here:

The Florida Lemon Law - Consumer Information

I particularly noted the section "In Florida, the lemon law only covers defects that substantially impair the use, value, or safety of the automobile. That means that cosmetic problems and insignificant malfunctions likely won’t qualify"

If true then I'm having difficulty seeing how OP's problem meets that standard. In any event there's no point in further discussing it here. OP can post here again once the process is complete and tell us how it all worked out.

 

Not clear we have a clue what OP's problem actually is. Either the people who have worked on it can't verify the complaint--i.e., confirm it's making unexpected noises that other Fits do not make--or are incompetent to get beyond that point and understand/fix the issue.

At one point, OP posted that a body tech had a diagnosis related to rear window bonding. But that was weeks ago, so I'm guessing the dealer got nowhere with that information. (If it were me I might have had that guy fix it and gotten on with my life.)

I don't recall OP reporting that anybody had taken the hatch apart to check/verify things like integrity of the wiper motor mounting, latch/lock hardware, spoiler hardware, loose tools/hardware in the cavity, etc. They seem to mostly have gone after hinges/springs from what I recall of OPs postings on the topic. And body noises can be hard to precisely locate in the first place. Who knows? This could be bad welds somewhere or a suspension problem? But we are trying to do remote diagnosis and that never turns out well.

Lemon law issues tend to be things that are pretty generic to a design--e.g., Ford Focus Mk3 DCTs--that *lots* of owners suffer from. (If they were debilitating instead of cosmetic, drooping front bumpers and loose lower engine covers might qualify as this kind of issue in 3rd gen Fits.) And the reason they don't get fixed is because they can't get fixed because the design/engineering is botched. So the dealer can only put in crap parts to replace crap parts. OPs issue does not sound like that. Seems like with all the effort OP's put into it, by now somebody clueful would have been able to say "noise is coming from X and it can't be fixed because of Y".

 

I'm surprised the dealership wouldn't just swap the hatch out with another one from a car on there lot. If the sound is there while driving why would they think is the hinges or gas struts? I would still love to see a video of the problem. This seems like a minor inconvenience move then anything. I have been slowly pulling apart my GD fixing small rattles and sound deadening the panels. We drive cheap base model cars but you would have to pay me to trade my fit for a Kia or Hyundai and I'm not even a Honda guy.

 

Well, the hatch is surely VIN tagged for one, and there might well be color match problems, and they'd potentially be moving a problem from one car to another. Lots of reasons they probably wouldn't want to do this. But, yeah, you'd think there would have been lots of things they could have tried. Drive it around without the hatch to see if the problem exhibits. There are only 100 or so parts in the whole assy. They could have taken them off one by one… I kinda wonder if the dealer consulted with Honda to figure out what they'd do? Once they get the lemon law notification, you can bet that kind of conversation will take place if it hasn't already.

Doesn't add up, does it?

 

Didn't consider the vin tagging. It would just move the problem to another car but at least you would be a happy customer and the dealer could sort out the problem on there on time.

 

It always happens when anything negative is said about the H in their shrines on the fireplace

 

Problem finally resolved on 6th visit to dealership!!!!

Technicians notes on remedy: "Framing under headliner where metal overlaps causing noise adjusted where metal meets under headliner. Noise Gone".

There was no need to replace these items -- Hinges replaced, boom arms replaced on back hatch, black garnish replaced on hatch, headliner replaced from installing new hinges and damaging, mohawk strip on roof replaced from breaking during hinge installation. I was also in and out of three different rental cars while all this was going on.
All unnecessary work was done under warranty and the fix was actually quite simple if someone at the very beginning knew WTF they were doing.

Basically, during manufacture in Mexico somebody F'ed up and really didn't give a Shit to do their job right that day.

P.S. Now my air compresor is broken - New one on order under warranty.... Honda, I really hate you.

 

Thread closed. Let's have a Happy New Year everyone!