Bryce G

Review of Beverton Honda

I was contacted by Honda about a recall of a passe...

I was contacted by Honda about a recall of a passenger side airbag. I called Bob Lanphere's Beaverton Honda to schedule an appointment. The appointment was set for 2 months in the future. One month before the appointment I received a call saying the part was unavailable and that my appointment was cancelled. They said they would contact me when the parts came in to reschedule. 2 days before the date of the original appnt I got a call to confirm my appointment date and time. Surprised, I reminded them of the cancellation call. The representative told me that the parts had arrived 3 days after that cancellation call and they just kept the original appointment. The problem: they didn't contact me to see if that was still a good time.

So I take the car in for the appointment. After a bit of a wait, I am greeted and checked in. After the check in process, I am told they do not have the part and that I was contacted a month earlier to cancel the appointment. A bit annoyed, I reminded them of the phone call two days prior. After a few minutes, they returned and conceded that I was right.

They accepted my car for service at 9:30am and said it would be done by 1:00pm. Bear in mind that the recall notice from Honda stated the repair should take 45 minutes to perform. I settled myself in their wifi lounge for the long wait. The lounge was relatively quiet to work in, but dusty from recent construction and unfinished. The positive was the free wifi, coffee, and fruit offered to guests. The temperature was well below a comfortable level. I had to keep taking walks outside to warm up.

1pm came and went without any updates from the service team. I waited patiently until 1:45pm. Unable to find my service contact I asked a random employee to check the status of my vehicle. After 10 minutes, I was told that, "It's not ready yet." I inquired about an estimated time. He only said, "It's just not ready yet, I don't know anything else." I asked him to have the service rep that checked me in come speak with me to give me an estimated time of completion, now that it was an hour late.

For 30 more minutes, no one contacted me. I found another employee and asked him to send the rep to find me in the lobby. 10 minutes later he finally came to tell me the car was still NOT ready. He said that they were just finishing up with it and would have it ready in 5 minutes or less. Well, 25 minutes later I approached him in his office. He tells me that they are driving it up right then. 5 minutes later it finally arrived, more than 2 hours after the original completion time. They kept the car for 5.5 hours for a job that Honda says takes 45 minutes.

As I climb into my car, the representative hands me some paperwork with no explanation. Later, I looked at it and it was a checklist inspection they did on my car, something they didn't talk to me about before. The report estimated ~$1600 in repairs, including changing the rear differential fluid. I changed that fluid myself 2 weeks ago. They said I was leaking transmission fluid and needed to replace the seal. That is not true. My car leaks a very little amount of motor oil out of the VTC oil control valve ($23 at Bob's Honda, $10.83 at another Honda parts store), which thanks to gravity, runs downward onto the transmission. They may have just looked at everything that had oil residue on it and said it should be repaired. They also called for a change of spark plugs, with an associated cost of $409. It takes me 30 minutes and $12 to change all my spark plugs. When I contacted other shops for estimates of this job I was quoted everywhere from $87 - $196, but none were anywhere NEAR Bob's price. Whether incompetent or dishonest, I would NOT trust their estimates of needed repairs.

On top of all that, now the passenger air vent doesn't work!!! Unfortunately, I will have to waste even more time getting them to fix their mistake.

Update: They gave me no trouble in fixing the vent quickly. The Service Manager, Matt, was very friendly. A second star given for Matt.