narnia

I was in a local shop having my tires rotated. They always have a lot of Hondas in their shop, and one of the techs told me it was because the nearby Honda dealership sends them their used vehicles to inspect. They're then sold as certified used cars by Honda. I always assumed Honda technicians would inspect their used cars. Is it a common practice to have independent shops do this work?

Gfaze

I don't see why that would be a problem. They probably give the shop a list of things to inspect so Honda can sell them as certified.

vas25tl

Are you sure they are actually inspecting cars that will be sold certified?

Also, it's a pretty common practice for dealerships to have a contract with a local auto shop to do some work for them when things get rather busy.

dallison

it's normal

CL6

Sounds odd. Maybe they farm out stuff like changing tires and oil but you'd think the dealership would want to keep that money inside itself. At the Acura dealership I worked at this was never done (outsourcing) nor at the Benz dealer I work for.

Only the non-Cert cars would get sent to another place.

mrmako

I would think that if the dealer makes a claim that these are "Honda Certified", then Bubba's garage doing the work is not valid, unless the techs are honda certified.

If the dealer makes the ambiguous claim that all of their cars are "certified" (no brand name), then they are not lying, are they?

Derk's K24

Honda's are the hardest car in the world to work on or work with so most decent mechanics are qualified to inspect them as well as service. Depends on how you look at it as far as saying it's a lie. It's still falls under Honda's certification standards therefore it's Honda Certified. LOL

It's all a joke anyway, just about all manufacturer's have the same "certification" process. The main thing you're paying for is the extended warranty that comes with it.

phee

iTrader: (5)

you obviously have never worked on a nissan, or porsche, or bimmer, or mb, or...

Costco

same reaction I had. Try a GM, who does stuff like uses two different sized Torx screwsand then two hex-head bolts on the same shock tower. Not to mention spark plugs that require midgets with triple-jointed monkey arms to reach back into.

apples and oranges, but still.... I wish my F-Body was as easy to work on as my Integra was

dallison

Derk's K24

My bad, I meant "aren't the hardest car to work on". I would've figured though you guys would've realized that's what I meant because by me saying "are the hardest" would contradict my point. LOL

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

I don't see how sending used cars out to be certified by an indy shop could make them "Honda" certified.

narnia

Same here, so that's why I asked. But as long as Honda gives the buyer some sort of warranty on the used car, I guess it doesn't matter who certifies it.

SodaLuvr

I think they only send the "dealer certified" cars to an off-site location for inspection and refurbishing. The Honda certified pre-owned cars must be done at a dealership, afaik.

subinf

Dealers farm out a lot of work. None of the shops I ever worked at did any sort of certification though.

EuRTSX

lol @ narnia