rubaduckie

Anyone else having this problem? I live in So. Cali and the dealerships near me all give me this excuse and won't give a loaner while they fix the rattles. I worked full time and its a hassle to bring the car in for rattles and a headliner that is about to fall off (I hear Velcro noise every 3 seconds)...only 1500 miles on a new TL-S..sucks.

rockyfeller

iTrader: (6)

I've never heard of that escuse. That's terrible, these guys are reaching new heights of BS. I'm sure if 1 dealer started the escuse it gives the right to the rest of them thinking "hey that's a good escuse, I'll use that one too."

Why is it if it isn't for warranty work they'll let you drive right into the garage? Greed. When they sell you the car they boast about the warranty but when you actually have a problem post-sales, this is not the attitude you deserve.

Dealers are jerks sometimes when it comes to warranty work. They'll try anything to get out of it unless it's a big job they can decently profit from. If it's just some rattles there's a limit to how much labor they can charge Acura.

If dealers are smart they earn loyalty by courteousness. If your local dealer is a jerk, but you have no choice but to use them, stay smart and use anything to your advantage. If a dealer is stingy, I try to get a loaner but nitpicking EVERY problem I can think of (brakes, suspension etc.) to justify letting them give me a loaner. Other dealers are very generous and will feely offer you a loaner if available.

YOU are the customer though. You have to get to work. The dealer dosen't get to make more escuses than you. Find a way to get your way.

Elegant TYPE S

iTrader: (2)

Best bet is to try another dealer, Acura dealers are notorious for this type of service. There is no set standard for Acura service centers, some dealers are far better than others in taking care of their customers, so just try another dealer.

Since your car is new, you might as well find out which dealer is more friendly to your needs and build a service history there rather than floating around because it will be more beneficial to you down the road when you need other stuff fixed.

erok72

Whereabouts in So. Cal. are you? I've taken my TL to 2 dealerships for various issues and have had no problems whatsoever with getting my hands on a loaner. The first few were TSX's, but the last time I took the car in for service, I drove off in a brandy-new RDX (only 50 miles on the ODO).

01tl4tl

If you can go to the selling dealer you get better service

Many Many Many people try to bring their car in Friday and get a loaner for the weekend

Most of the regular techs work weekdays and anyone there on Saturday is likely the oil change guy.
Make an appointment for midweek and tell them its a brand new car and you NEED a loaner thanks!
Speak directly with the Service Manager- in person if able- to resolve

rubaduckie

Yeah, this is exact excuse they gave me. They said they can only do diagnostics on weekdays and on the weekends all the techs are dedicated to oil changes. I've talked to the service manager and he said the weekends are all booked for oil changes.

I did call Metro Acura in Ontario about my high beam not working and they said the same thing, but after talking to him for a bit, he took it in and fixed it. Great service.

avs007

It's definately a dealer thing. The dealers in town are the same way. Wouldn't give me a loaner, if they need the car more than a day. Always gave me an enterprise-rent-a-crap.

However, the dealer a hundred miles away is a different story... I brought the car in on a saturday, and they installed a spoiler, and a bunch of other stuff... Gave me an Acura RL loaner... They even ordered the wrong color spoiler, and told me that I could take the RL home, and just come back the following weekend, even though they said the car would be ready in a day or two, because they said it would be an inconvenience for me.

I wish the Acura dealers in town were like that....

Cractos

I had problems taking my car in on the weekend ... at Acura of Riverside...

havokgroup

At the dealership I work for..we try not to do warranty work on the Saturdays. Saturdays are pretty much service days (oil changes, brakes, and etc)..because we are not at full staff on Saturdays.

Warranty work such as rattles takes time to figure out, take apart, and to fix. With interior work I take my time because the parts/panels are new and I don't want to break nor stain/dirty anything.

Most dealerships don't like giving out a loaner car on Friday because most people will keep the car till Monday. Most of the time these customers will go out of town and etc. There are cases where a loaner will go out, but for minor stuff they will no on a Friday at 4pm.

The best thing to do is to set an appointment with your local service dept. Let the person who help you know that you need to have a loaner because your primary source of transportation is getting worked on. 99.99% of the time...if this is done a customer will get a loaner.

avs007

A customer shouldn't have to go through that many hoops.. (Aside from making an appointment).

If the dealer keeps my car till monday, I should keep the loaner till monday, end of story.

SilverSleeper

Call Acura and place a complaint with them as to which dealership you're experiencing an issue with. This will affect their rating and in turn has an adverse effect on the over purchasing discount.

havokgroup

I'm not saying for anyone to jump through hoops. If you make an appointment and a loaner is available one will be given. I was simply stating that most dealership does not take on a lot of warranty issues on a Saturday. And yes if we keep a car till Monday and the customer is already in a loaner car...they will keep it until their car is done.

ankur914

+1.

I dont know, but I feel like Acura Service gives its customers too much crap for no reason. I give it up to all the Acura/Honda Engineers for engineering great cars (reason why I bought my Acura ), but the service sucks. But on the flipside, Acuras (and toyotas ), dont require much service. Anyways, back to the point, why should Acura customers have to bend over backwards for the sake of the dealership cuz their workers want to leave early/on-time and dont want to do work on a weekends? Why be open then? Many people on this board are hard-working people who did pay good money for their cars and it may be that the only time they have free to bring in their vehicle is a weekend. My friends and family dont have to go through this kind of stuff with Lexus or Benz, cuz they understand that their customers paid good money. Anyways, my two cents! Lol!

havokgroup

LOL how hard is it to make an appointment? Schedule a time you are free to drop your car off so that the service dept is able to have a loaner available? I don't think this is hard at all..regardless of what dealership it is.

As for ankur914, everyone has a life...including tech's that work at any dealership. The service is open 6 days a week 11hrs a day to try to meet everyones needs. You make it seem that tech's that work at dealerships don't do shit and we leave right on the dot. I'm sorry to tell you this but I'm sure I"m willing to bet that I stay at the shop working on cars more than most people with 9-5 jobs. A 40hr week week is very very very uncommon for most techs.

ankur914

Whoa...ok, didnt mean to insult anyone. Especially you, havokgroup. Shoulda probably looked at the way I phrased my thoughts. But you gotta admit, most of these dealerships are filled with techs my age who dont wanna do minimum work but get paid (again, im generalizing and I know, but from what Ive seen at chicagoland dealerships, thats how it is). These people, at chicagoland dealerships at least, mash the customers gas pedals as they bring them into the garage thinking they are ghetto fabulous with the seats rocked all the way back. And it brings it back to the question, why are Acura dealerships giving excuses (i.e "your MOD X caused the problem", or "thats how they are built") and Lexus/Benz/BMW do not. If they dont do work on Saturdays, thats kool, but they should at least give the customer a loaner and let him/her drop off his/her car. Do the work on monday/any weekday. Dont have to tell the customer, "hey we dont accept warranty work on weekends, come back on monday" Seems frugle on the dealerships part. Anyways, Im Just trying to pose a rhetorical question cuz no one is gonna have an answer for this. Its like saying, why doesnt peanut butter taste like strawberry jellly? LOL. You look like a dude who actually takes pride in his work, so again, I apologize if I offended you.

havokgroup

ankur914:
None taken!!!!!! Trust me I know and understand what you mean. There's a lot of tech's out that that really don't give a shit about their job...but there are some out that work hard and take pride into their work.

As far as the topic goes...I was just simply stating what goes on and letting everyone know some of the reasons that could come about, that's all. I can only speak for how my dealership is ran and operated. We always do the best we can to fix and meet any customer's need. There has been times when I have gone to a customers house to fix a problem. Saturdays are usually set for services and quick fixes due a shorter work day and a half staff. Most major jobs or tasks are done during the week in case parts are needed to be ordered or if a tech really needs to spend time to diagnose issues. Rattles are really a pain to seek and find, so they are time consuming. I try to fix as many rattles (even ones that the customer does not complain about) once I get the car in my bad. I do this because in the future it could be a problem and since the car is already here...why not just spend a little more time to fix all the common ones.

Just to let everyone know, I own a 2005 TL myself. So I understand about the rattles and issues. When my acura rep comes to the dealership, we are always discussing different issues (some even posted on this board). I was a member of this board before I even worked at Acura.

avs007

Funny you mention that....

Acura tried to void the warranty on my tranny, becuase I didn't bring my car in to the dealer to perform regular maintenence. When I showed that wasn't necessary, they tried to void the warranty becaues I didn't flush the tranny... when I showed that it wasn't due for a flush yet, they rescinded their comments, and re-instated my warranty....

Infniti on the other hand... Asked if I was interested in having them install a Supercharger in my G35. They said if they do the installation, I can keep my powertrain warranty.

avs007

I didn't mean it was too hard to make an appointment. I meant what a hassle to convince the dealer to give you a loaner... I've tried to make appointments before at the local dealers, and they would say, "We do not give out loaners for service work that takes more than 24 hours". I've had other dealers say that they only provide Enterprise rentals for service work that takes more than a day, then when I go to drop off my car, I have to sit in the waiting area for 2 hours for the enterprise guy to come with that car. (Even tho I made an appointment)

That's the part I was complaining about.

kenny5

I think my dealer only gives TSX as loaners to TL customers. I guess they don't want to "reward" you with a higher grade car -- such as RL or MDX -- when you only bought the lowly TL. BTW, should there be a difference in terms of getting a loaner if you ask the dealer to do warranty vs customer-paid work?

sunny201

If you really have a problem I suggest you should contact the Acura HQ. I think of it as talking to the manager at a restaurant after getting a bad meal or something lol. Afterall that is why they have customer care at HQ, to make sure customers are satisfied.

JPA3

Acura does not care.

havokgroup

A loaner program is a luxury item. This program is totally up to the Dealership and not by Acura. I totally understand everyone's points. Keep in mind, I've been an Acura customer for years and years before I started working here. At our dealership we have 25 loaners (TSX, TL, RDX, RL and even MDX). Of course we try to match the customer with a loaner to the type of car that they own, but sometimes it's hard. We also deal with Enterprise Car Rental when we do run out of loaners. But I can honestly say that because of customers in the past that has missed used the Loaner Program that it's harder to get one now.

Here's an example: We had a customer that had 125k on a 2000 TL. Their transmission went bad. They never did any service at your dealership nor was they able to provide any type of doc's that they ever did any service. Out Acura Rep did a one time "Good Will" warranty for the transmission, but the customer had to pay a $250 deductible. The customer agreed and signed the work order. 3 weeks later the customer still has not returned with our brand new 07 RDX. The dealership had several attempts to call and even send certified letters to the customer's home and work address. The customers response was "I will return the car whenever I feel like it". With that said, we went to go Repo out Loaner and put a Mechanic's Lien on the car. After we got our loaner car back, the customer came to the shop and said she does not want to pay for the repair for the new transmission. All in all..she finally paid for the repairs and left. By the time we got our Loaner RDX back, it had 5,000 miles on it.

Most transmission warranty take about a week at the most. Once we order the transmission it should take about 3 days to get in. Doing a transmission takes 3-4hrs if there's no other line work that's in the way.

And trust me...this is only one example of the many things that occur with the Loaner program.

Hapa DC5

The dealerships do not want to put you in an Enterprise rental. It costs them money, while giving you a loaner does not. The most widely used loaner is a TSX, so it's not a conspiracy to put you in one. I've been given a TL, TSX, RDX, MDX, pretty much every Acura but an RL.

Some customers do not return loaners when their cars are finished, multiply that a few times and you wind up with a shortage of loaners. Then some of you don't want an Enterprise car or feel somewhat embaressed to be driving a lower grade automobile and you end up complaining about it on here.

It's just the way the world works, they are giving you a car to use (some will even goodwill a repair like havokgroup stated) and a lot of you won't ever get anything done but warranty work from them.

To the OP I feel your pain, this should not happen to a brand new car. Find a dealer that will work with you and help find a solution to this. Issues such as the ones you mention warrant getting a loaner. The compromise I suggest you make is dropping the car off early (at the selling dealer) in the week to get yourself a loaner.

You will all have problems taking your cars in on the weekends. Believe it or not you aren't the only ones who thought of that...

avs007

This is relevant how? Why does it matter when/where they had service performed? You're still getting paid to fix the transmission, whether it be by the customer or Acura. If they didn't return the loaner or want to pay for repairs, that is a separate issue. Even if you didn't give a loaner, they may still not want to pay, etc.

Yes, I know loaners are a luxury service, but what is Acura? If we were talking about Chevy dealers, then I'd agree with you.

havokgroup

avs007: I used that example because of how a customer used the loaner car program.

As for as the service....goes, when it's out of warranty by 25k or any mileage, all dealerships will go look for records to see if it's justify able to even do and the Goodwill Warranty. We do "Goodwill Warranty" for customers that have been taking their cars to our dealership for services and anything else. Why should a dealership fix or help a customer when they are well out of their warranty (including extended warranty) and the customer has never came to the dealership for anything?

As far as luxury goes, Acura is a brand that is considered. But as I stated before Loaner Car programs are not a "MUST HAVE" by them. It's up to the owner of the Dealerships (some are Corp and some are Family owned). The dealership offer this as a benefit to the customer. Acura does not say you must have a Loaner Program or you must have a certain amount of cars to be used as Loaners.

x03BlackAccV6x

Sounds like you guys have been to some crappy Acura dealerships.

As far as no warranty work on Saturdays this is a common policy with all dealers. Warranty work requires more resources to perform than are usually available on Saturdays (shortened hours, and staff). The reason why there is shortened staff and hours on Saturdays is because there is not a large enough demand for a full staff, and employees are entitled to a day off like everyone else. Saturdays are an extension of the normal work week for dealership employees. In order ta have a full staff come in on Saturdays means you would have to give that full staff a day off during the week rather than a select few. The weekdays are the busiest days so why not save your full staff for then?

Issues that require diagnostic time can tie up a technician for valuable hours on Saturday when the dealer could instead be accomidating 15 other people who are unable to service their cars during the week. Most dealers that have this policy don't just leave warranty work for weekdays but ALL diagnostic work (CEL, rattles, etc.). Now you also have to remember that American Honda is not open on weekends, because of this the dealer loses their tech line support and warranty authorization for certain claims.

I hope this gives a little insight into the mind of the dealership. We don't do it screw anybody, we do it as an added convience to our customers in a smart and logical manner. There are always excpetions but if you offered this to everyone then it would be defeating the purpose.

007TL-S

tell dealer Service Manager if they don't take care of you !..., your going to call AMERICAN HONDA and complain!

avs007

because if they are out of warranty, they are paying you to fix their car.

I understand that, but in this segment it is almost a necessity. Maybe it's just the dealers around here, I don't know. I've been to 3 acura dealers and 3 infiniti dealers. 2 of the 3 acura dealers treat me like I'm out to take advantage of them. Infiniti has never treated me that way.

I had an Acura dealer tell me they can't help me, when I had a flat tire. They said they aren't a tire shop, and that I should go to a tire-shop.... (Tire shops around here seem to close early) I went to a nearby Honda dealer, and they patched it for free... So much for Acura service...

x03BlackAccV6x

Actually the dealership does the diagnosis and repair as if they were doing a non-warranty repair. After they finish the repair they submit the bill to American Honda. As long as the dealership follows the warranty guidelines American Honda pays them for the repair.

rubaduckie

I wonder if I don't mention anything about warranty, would they take me in on a weekend.

havokgroup

That's fine I understand that. I don't have a problem working on a Customer Paid Job or a Warranty Paid Job. But most people out there want a discount or don't feel that they should have to pay for something to get fixed. They want it for free, regardless if it's in the warranty period or not. Our dealership does "Goodwill Warrnty" for those loyal customers that do come and get work done on their cars. We can out right charge them full price for everything but we don't. We understand shit happens and we stand by our products and work.

There's so many times when I have to go over a car that has been worked by independent shops, diy'ers, and even other Dealerships. These other shops/persons attemp to fix the problem yet they make it worse (this could be because they don't have the tools, resources, or knowledge). Some customers feel that the car shouldn't break down, even though they can't even change their oil regularly.

So many people feel that dealerships are a rip off's and such. But it's a business just like any thing else. Owning and operating a dealership is no small chunk of change. Our dealership try to offer as much as possible to make sure everyone is happy (this goes to the customer and to the owners of the company).

Let's answer this question:

A customer who owns a 2005TL with 15,000 miles brings her car in because of a check engine light. I obtain the code (Vtec Pressure Low). I also noticed that on the MIL it states that the car is 3000 miles overdue for a B-Service. I check the oil level and it's bearly any signs on the dip stick. The oil is as dark as can be. When I go to drain the oil out it bearly fills up 32oz bottle of Gatoraid (I used this container because it was clear so the oil can be seen).

Should this car be under warranty or not? Should I start to do any work on this car to fully inspect it?

avs007

I actually have experience with this.... (And I work with lawyers everyday)...
If you read the Acura Maintenence Book and the owners manual, there is a disclaimer on the top of the maintence guide that says, "You should follow the maintence schedule". Scattered throughout the sections, it also says, "You should do this/that/etc."....

"Should" has a very specific legal meaning that is very different from shall,must,etc. Therefore, even tho I don't advocate not maintaining your car, Acura actually cannot deny your warranty because you failed to do something in the maintence guide, because the maintence guide says you "should" do something, which legally means you are not "required" to do it. In the legal jargon in the warranty itself, it simply says to follow the owners manual, which says to follow the maintence guide, which says you "should" do.......

(My line of profession deals with these types of documents, and that's what our lawyers tell us...)

And Acura already tried to void the warranty on my transmission for similar reasons, (even though I actually did "maintain" it), and after explaining this to them, they re-instated my warranty and replaced my transmission.

You can argue that Acura will deny etc, but there are international standards for the definition of "Should", "Shall", "Must", "May", etc, etc. The law is clear as to their meanings... And yes, we (our company) has gone to court/3rd party arbitration/etc with other companies over issues like this, and won.

avs007

Besides, you shouldn't just stop work just because the oil is low, etc, for many reasons...

1.) The last person to work on the car could've forgotten to reset the indicator. I've had that happen before.
2.) The oil could have disappeared for other reasons.
3.) The oil could've turned dark for other reasons. (Maybe not, but you should at least investigate what is going on). Besides, for only being 3,000 miles over, it should not lose that much oil anyways.

In the end it might not matter anyways, because of the way Acura chose to word it's warranty disclaimer/requirements.

havokgroup

I never said I would stop working on it. I actually did alot more than I should have (but that's besides the point). My point is there is customer out that does not take care and do not do things that should be done...and they want things done for free or feel that the car shouldn't break down. The last person that worked on this car was a Jiffy Lube. All in all I did everything and got this customer back on the road and all I "flagged" for was an oil change. I didn't push for anything else but knowing that the customer has a better understand of her car was good enough for me.