Miguel Martinez

Review of Pohanka of Salisbury- Honda St...

WARNING: DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE

WARNING: DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE

Absolute worst experience I ve ever had at a mechanic/dealership. My car broke down right before Christmas. First time ever breaking down. It s a 2012 Honda Civic. Very reliable car. I m new to the Salisbury area so I was trying to figure out somewhere that would be qualified and get me back on the road in time for Christmas, so I thought why not just take my car to the Honda dealership, since I have a Honda. Got my car towed there. Wait time was long, but I didn t mind because it was Christmas Eve. The girl working there calls my name and asks to speak with me. She informs me I hate to give you bad news but you re gonna need a new engine... it s going to cost you $3,024 . I was in absolute disbelief. I knew there could be no way that was true. I firmly believed that it was just the water pump. The girl even admitted we would just hate to see you spend the money on a new water pump and that not fix the issue, when if you replace the engine it will come with a new water pump... Yeah except there is a $2,600 price difference and you re not even sure that I need it. Of course you would hate to see me not spend 3 grand on a new engine. They told me that I could do payment plans through a company they re affiliated with or they could have a member of the sales team come out and value my car and I could use it as a trade it in towards another vehicle. HELL NO. So you can give me some lowball offer and put me on payments when I literally just paid of my car? I asked to speak with the mechanic who looked my vehicle. This sealed the deal for me, when the mechanic couldn t give me a real answer and simply said that smoke came out of my engine and that s a sign of engine failure. THE ENGINE WASN T EVEN SMOKING WHEN I BROKE DOWN!! There was only a small amount of steam coming from the coolant that was leaking. And check this out, he didn t even take my car into the shop like he was supposed to. I paid $80 for him to look at it in the parking lot. I knew I had to get my car out of there. So after Christmas I had it towed to a different mechanic that someone referred to me. He checked out my car (actually checked it out) and voila what do you know, it was just the water pump and belt! Zero signs of damage done to the engine. Cost me $414 and had it fixed perfectly. It s been running like a dream since I got it back. They seriously were trying to rob me. And if they weren t, then that mechanic (I believe his name was Joe) needs to lose his job for coming to that ridiculous conclusion, and depriving me of the service that I paid for. I was told by the service manager of Pohanka Honda of Salisbury that he trusts his mechanics determination that my car did in fact need a new engine, but that I would be receiving a refund for the $80 anyway. Guess what... It s January 9th, still haven t received that $80 back!! I don t care at this point. Just wanted to take the time to hopefully deter someone else from making the mistake of taking their car here like I did.