A local Acura dealer had a special. Timing belt changes with all parts installed for $599. Since I'm at 90K I decided to get it done early for this special price.
I walk in ask questions, like you sure my car is not special, & everything would be included for this $599. I was told yes & got it in writing. I made an appointment for today to drop the car off.
As I'm waiting for my ride to take me to work from the dealer. They pull the car in. Just before I leave the service manager comes out & tells me since I have modifications to the engine, they can not be responsible for any work done to the car & said since it's not a stock engine they are not going to do the work.
He in nice terms refused to work on the car.
Mods are thermoblok spacers, P2R intake plenum, headers, pulley, Icebox,
strut bar.
Nice to be loved

So I'll just wait now. Once I get to 105K I'll have a local tuner shop do it.

 

What a bunch of stupid f*cks.

Is it R. Case or the one on Federal Hwy?

 

What idiots, seriously I wonder more and more why dealership service exists. Overpriced, poor workmanship (not all of them) and a bunch of tight asses. Actually, I think that is pretty much how 95% of garages are now a days. They want the biggest payout with the least amount of work.

 

pretty funny actually, they were scared to touch your car because you had shiney stuff under the hood

 

i hate dealerships with a passion

 

What a joke!! You should have talked to one of the service techs to see if they would do your work for $599 on the side.

It must be nice to cherry-pick work in this economy.

 

Yea that is pretty stupid since your mods dont really affect what they have to do. As for shops they are all about getting jobs done as fast as they can. They go by "book" estimates on prices for installs. All they want to do is do the job as fast as they can to get the time under the estimated time. the last thing they want to do is spend more time then estimated cause they look at it as losing money or working for free. It is hard to find good shops that do quality work nowadays. I think I have finally found a few I really like luckily. As for the 105k mile service im having a shop do it not an acura dealer. It will be half the price of the dealer and will be better work.

 

I wonder if my story from the Jersey dealership made its way south to Florida and now they refuse to work on any CL'S. haha.

When I talked to the owner of Precision Acura, he kept looking at his service tech during the meeting and was saying, "You never should have worked on a car with 200k miles on it". What he was failing to realize is that the age of the car had nothing to do with it, it was the quality of work that the service department performed.

People are getting lazier and lazier, it's a sad trend.

 

Sounds like acura dealers are spoiled. I know alot of shops that would be happy to get any work.

 

Seriously! Why wouldn't a dealer want to work on a high mileage car? They could potentially establish a relationship with someone who may have a lot of work needed in the future. Instead they shy away from anything that isn't textbook work.

 

Thats a BS excuse. Part of me would say argue it, but Im the type that wouldnt force a shop to work on my car because theyd most likely screw something up.

 

I would say its because they are lazy and want easier work. They must be getting enough business from the new tl's that they dont need any business from older cars. Older cars offer more work and money to be had potentially but it can be a pain with all the rust and removing bolts etc. Also I think they would prefer to do only typical service stuff that is routine and easier to do without complications or too much thinking involved( they prefer dumb customers too). For instance my car it was a pain to do all the work because of the rust. The sway bar end links are a bitch, removing the rotor bolts was a pain had to use a torch to heat them first. Same thing for my headers the bolts on the cat were so rusted they didnt have anything to grab onto had to use a torch to cut them off. Also like i said before they dont wanna give you an estimate for a 3 hour job then end up spending 5 hours because bolts etc are rusted and hard to remove then they are working for free.

 

r case

I think the problem was with the special price. For $599+tax from a dealer that's a pretty good price for a complete timing belt change with all the parts & labor.
I wonder if I just showed up & was willing to pay the normal $800+ for it if they would have said anything.

 

i hate R. Case. when i first got my CL i took it in for a trans inspection since it was still covered under the extended warranty and they were complete assholes about it because it was free but still wanted to charge me for "this and that" garbage. i had to go to the back and talk to one of the techs, i slipped him a $20 and he told me to come back at a certain time. he put my car on a lift and we checked it out

 

I am missing the point here but $599 AT THE DEALER ?!?!?!?! WOW! I just got quoted yesterday for $1250+

 

Ahh. Have not been there in awhile. There was a guy named Derek that used to work on my car and he was good. if he is still there. He was one of the techs that helped out with my 'bent valve' incident back in the day.

They handled your bent valve case as well IIRC. Maybe they are starting to scrutinize more these days, though I don't now why it would matter.

I had a service writer at the one on Federal say to me, with a cautious tone and raised eyebrow, 'Ohh, I see here, (looking at the computer) that you had bent valves back in 04'. I said, yeah it was most likely due to that POS tensioner Acura procured and originally installed on the car from the factory. He just shook his head and shot back with, 'From what I understand, alot of those cases were caused by the owner overreving the engine'. I reminded him that there was a TSB for a dysfunctional tensioner and that it was an Acura issue, not an owner overrev issue, at least in my case'. I could not believe this f*ck was trying to put it on me. I just walked away from that dipshit and never looked back. oh well.

I agree. That is a pretty decent price for a stealership.

 

Exactly what I was thinking, the labor for a timing belt isn't worth what they are charging, and it gives them a reason to deny you, even though it makes no difference what's done to the engine cuz like others said, they're not touching anything that you've modified. They just don't think it's worth the hassle for such a small fee

 

Rick Case is dirty. My brother bought an Accord there and they dicked around with everything. He went to Brahman (sp?) in Ft Lauderdale for the Pilot.

 

Since I work at a dealership I can understand. They don't want to be held liable. It's all about the customer maybe blaming them for having done something to their car. Customers lie all the time (I swear it worked when I brought it in) and they chose the safe route. Blame our litigious society, not the dealership.

The people who are quick to blame life's ills on a dealership have probably never worked at one.

I have at least 50 examples of customers lying about something. There are some bad dealerships out there but probably fewer on a percentage basis than independent shops.

 

as much as i dont like dealerships i dont blame them for not wanting to work on a modified car. because they just dont want to be held liable for any parts on your car not made by honda. ive taken my car in the past to acura and they've worked on my car and its highly modified. different dealerships have different protocol.

 

I agree ^

as a matter of fact I brought my car to the DLR to get my option pulley put on since i couldn't get the damn bolt off nor wanted to use the starter method.

they were pretty DAMN skeptical. first they said no they won't do it then after I talked to the service manager whom I know personally , then I finally convinced them to put it on my car.

However they said if anything goes wrong they are not liable.

So i can see why the DLR wouldn't wanna touch a modded car. but even still, it honestly makes no difference aside from the fact their is "foreign" part(s) under the hood.

meh w/e

it is what it is

 

Anyone remember when Rick Case was a cool dealer.

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-tl-1999-2003-98/i-drove-rick-case-acura-3-5cl-omfg-506483/

NE1 remember the RES?

 

I'm still waiting for that damn Mystery Mod

 

I just recently had my timing belt, drive belts, water pump, and coolant replaced at David McDavid Acura in Austin, TX for $600 too (with a coupon). Their regular price was only $750...that's crazy that there are dealerships out there quoting yall over $1000

 

x2 ^

 

You have a contract, my friend, and they have to honor it. Read the fine print on the bottom or on the back of the paper work to see if there are any clauses or exemptions that allow them to decline work for any reason.

 

Hey fuzzy, what stealer was it? May be towing my car somewhere tomorrow

 

Where do you work? Mike Harvey? Serramonte?

 

I don't work for Acura anymore I work for Mercedes-Benz. Mike Harvey is probably one of the worst dealerships in the Bay Area in every respect How do you like a place that has one roll of toilet paper for the bathroom all weekend!

Serramonte isn't bad at all.

 

LOL! I had Mike Harvey as a customer when I was with Auto Trader Publishing. One of my reps fucked up their account for some time and I ended up having to deal with Glen and Mike. One is a moron and the other is a blowhard, I'm sure you know who is who. I have never seen such a large franchise so poorly run. Of course, I wouldn't have said that if you were working there!

 

$599 is only a little over 5 hours of labor. Acura dealers should be able to do it if they are just replacing the T Belt, water pump and Drive belts. T-Belt tensioner and pulleys are very expensive and to do it right you probably have to replace the cams and crank seals too. Why hate your Acura dealers? because they can't get you something for free? No dealers mean no warranty! Overcharge? Well, wait till you get into a more luxury or exotic car. How about they won't warranty 2 defect brake rotors on my car with 7K miles and it is certified with their extended warranty? Price you ask? $12000! I guess it's sad for me to see Acura master techs moving on to a different brand. I personally know many Acura techs and writers moved to European cars. It is much easier to make a living when oil change cost $200-$300.

 

Rick Case Acura; Sunrise Blvd. at 441.

 

Honestly if you can afford a car like that you can afford dealer maintenance/repairs. And if you can't your living beyond your means. IMHO.
No one with $ I know of that has a high $ car bitches about paying a dealer to work on it.

 

That sucks to hear. I haven't been to a dealership for well over a year. Did the timing belt and water pump on my car a few months ago. Other than needing tiny hands for the timing belt covers it wasn't too bad. I would say as long as there are no fine print exclusions they should have to honor it... The only mod that sucks for them is the pulley cause from what I have heard, they don't have the hex pattern for their holders. Even with the hex holder it took about an hour to get my stock pulley off. I would talk to the service manager and if all else fail call the local news. I'm sure that will get their attention!!

 

The way I look at it, if you don't want to be held liable, do a damn good job. Earn their pay for once.

 

I agree 100%! Very few exotic car owner cry over $ at their dealer. Wonder if most Acura owners are living out of their means?

 

I rather not deal with them at this point.

 

I have never worked at Mike Harvey but know plenty of people who did. When I did sell Acuras I always heard from customers about what a crappy place it was.

I consider Acura to be not a Honda but not a true luxury car, either. I think a lot of people are reaching for reasons to choose an Acura over a Honda and thus complain more about dealership costs, etc. Plus, I think Honda/Acura people more so than most are very technically minded and like to figure out how to add features to their car so they probably have more "hands on" time with their rides than other "luxury" brands which is probably why there are so many threads about $1,000.00 110,000 mile servicings.

A typical Honda customer would be the guy looking at a used Accord who creates an Excel spreadsheet to estimate costs/depreciation over the next 4 years he planned to own it.

When I had my Acura I either went to Sears for oil changes or paid a tech on the side to work on my car. I never used the dealership (including the one I worked for) so I understand. And when my headlight ballast went out I changed it myself using the advice I found on this site.

 

meh, I never took my car to the dealer except for the seatbelt replacement.

I took my car to a local honda/acura shop and they were more than happy to do the 105k service.

 

i got my car from Mike Harvey Sales rep are koo but service sucks ass