John Martin

Review of Trident Honda

I bought a Honda approved vehicle in February 2020...

I bought a Honda approved vehicle in February 2020 from Trident Honda. The buying experience was good, but as time has gone on I have some serious issues with the outcomes!
The car was just what I was looking for and being an 'Approved vehicle' it seemed, on the face of it , to be fine. I made the mistake of only checking the major aspects of the car and not checking every minor detail of the vehicle myself - I foolishly took the salesman's word for it that everything that should work does and any issues would be picked up in their 'multi point' checks before I took delivery. All seemed well initially, but I noticed in the first week that the accessory sockets (12v) were not working. Not being local enough to return to the dealership easily, I called into my local Honda dealer one and found that 2 fuses were blown (this despite the checklist I have a copy of saying the 12v outlets were checked as working?). More recently I have found significant water in the spare wheel well. Initially I thought this might be residual water from an enthusiastic valeting, but having emptied it out, I find it returns after each heavy rain. I simply can't believe that this could not have been noticed whilst the car stood on the forecourt for more than a month during the wettest January/February I can ever remember! With 2 significant issues (that should have been picked up) having arisen in just a couple of months, I now have major concerns about what else may be wrong and was not checked despite the assurances it was. Being beyond the statutory return period I'm now at the mercy of whatever the 'warrantee' can (or can't) deliver for me and the inevitable hassle and time of arranging repairs /investigations whilst I while away endless hours sitting in dealership waiting areas drinking coffee and fending off over eager salesmen trying to get me to 'upgrade'! I had hoped that buying an 'approved' vehicle would have reduced the chances of this outcome but sadly this is not the case. I think that Honda UK should take some of the blame for this by not having sufficient oversight/Quality Assurance of their 'Approved' system. Suffice to say I would not recommend Trident Honda in particular or Honda Approved in general.