Carl Wolf

Review of First Texas Honda

Haven't been for anything super serious, but I get...

Haven't been for anything super serious, but I get my state inspection here for my HRV that I got out of state. Price is reasonable, service is good, free wiper fluid, free. Full service espresso bar while you wait. Occasional live music. Free wifi. All in all, this makes going for maintenance an enjoyable experience instead of a pain.

They also do a good job of informing what's going on. Plenty of explication and follow up. If you drive a Honda, get it serviced here!

Update: Been coming here for three years. I just reviewed my paperwork and found an "interesting" phenomenon.

My previous service was at 20k miles, and this one at 27k. at 20k they replaced the pollen filter, and at 27 they replaced the pollen filter and filter element. A quick google search shows that 7k mi is NOT an appropriate amount of time between pollen filters. There's $60 I got talked into that I likely didn't need.

At 27k miles they replaced the transmission fluid, despite that light not being lit (via Maintenance Minder) when I took the car in. Meh, internet says it's needed every 30kish miles, but still seems slightly disingenuous that it wasn't posed as ahead of time.

The real kicker is that I've been "recommended" an engine sludge cleanup for my next visit. Some quick searches show this as completely unnecessary for cars that have their oil regularly changed. It is also not mentioned in the Owners manual as recommended maintenance. Definitely going to push back on this one next time my light comes on.

So, given that some of this newfound enlightenment, am I going to keep going to Texas First? Probably, the staff is friendly, the car hasn't broken, and they 'do' still have free espresso. But I'm going to be a little more careful. Apparently most dealer maintenance shops are paid on commission, and will try to up-sell you to get maintenance ahead of time or before you actually need it. This has already cost me at least $60, assuming the other maintenance work they've done was necessary (rear differential fluid, brake fluid, and transmission fluid), and I'm just going to be a little more careful moving forward.

Four stars, still recommend, but pay attention to you maintenance schedule (or the lights that come on for Honda Maintenance Minder, there's a reference in the owner's manual) to make sure you're not being up-sold on maintenance you don't need. Additionally, apparently the service folks get a failing grade if you give them anything under 5 stars on the official survey. That, along with the commission-style seeming approach, shows fairly poor management that I'll be keeping an eye on in the future, but it's not enough to make me stop going.

Also this time I didn't get a complementary car wash >:(