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The industry has a reputation for a reason and turnover is high...
The bad ones don't stay around and in the end your reputation is all you have...
We would get referrals from local mechanics... also longtime family businesses... people would bring in their cars for repairs and the mechanic would say I can do the work but the money might be better spent towards something newer... never a kick back... just whatever car was chosen would go back to the mechanic for a full inspection which is a smart thing anyway.
Buying on time was a sure way to find yourself upside down... unfortunately it is the accepted practice now...
Do a little homework and find a good Independent Honda mechanic in your area. $1200 to fix the A/C on an almost 10 year old Honda sounds a little ridiculous to me. And as far as the clutch...it may need a new one at that mileage and could very well be the reason the transmission doesn't shift right.
Yes, that's exactly what I've been doing. Calling around to independent shops and other dealers. Actually, the $1200 was a quote on an entire AC assembly (compressor, clutch and coil) from a private shop. One dealer locally wanted $1600 PLUS the cost of running diagnostics! Another $165. Forget it!
So I've been calling around and getting more info from other dealers and private shops. I think the best situation for me is to just get an "evac and recharge" which fills up the freon, and if the leak is slow (freon shouldn't be decreasing unless there is a leak), I could get another year or so out of the car, which another private repair shop suggested. Total cost: $139. The slipping clutch is only in first gear, so not too bad. Still very drivable. So, I doubt I'll do any sale or trade-in at this point. I'll just keep it another year or two since I put good tires on it and a new battery a couple years ago. Thanks for all the comments.
My check engine light keeps coming on. I bring it to my mechanic. The code comes up as cylinder 3 misfire. He changed the sparkplugs and the coils - twice! First time it was out for a good week, then came back on. He changed the coil a second time and it came back on later that day. Then he says he thinks is a carbon build up. I get the seafoam, put it in my tank, drove around for a full tank of gas to kill it off, bring it to him, he turned it off last Monday. It stayed out for a total of 400 miles. Saturday night I'm in State College and it comes back on again. I'm guessing now I need an injector?
Since any car dealer would lie to you if they could get away with it, I don't think you have any obligation to disclose anything that they can't find themselves.
Once, I took my VW convertible to the dealer for service. It just so happened that I wanted to sell it. A salesman came running out to ask if it was for sale and I said yes, and I wanted $6500 for it. He got back to me later, saying that it had been in an accident, so it might not be worth that much. My response was that since his dealership had done all the repair work, there couldn't possibly have any reason to question the condition of the car. Dealers are on their own, as far as I'm concerned.
Since any car dealer would lie to you if they could get away with it, I don't think you have any obligation to disclose anything that they can't find themselves.
Once, I took my VW convertible to the dealer for service. It just so happened that I wanted to sell it. A salesman came running out to ask if it was for sale and I said yes, and I wanted $6500 for it. He got back to me later, saying that it had been in an accident, so it might not be worth that much. My response was that since his dealership had done all the repair work, there couldn't possibly have any reason to question the condition of the car. Dealers are on their own, as far as I'm concerned.
Two wrongs never make it right...
Unfortunately, rationalization is the way of the world...
We recently traded a Forerunner that we didn't know was having 4x4 issues. It wouldn't go into 4x4 mode they found out on when they took it for a test drive to give us a trade in price.
Of course they low balled us but we got them to come up to what I thought was fair.
We took it to a Toyota dealer in case they wanted to buy it from us but since the 4x4 wasn't working they were not interested. The used car buyer said it was locking up which is a modular problem and not a cheap repair.
We then went back to the Jeep dealer since they knew the 4x4 was having problems and they had given us a price that wasn't too bad.
Dealers take the trade in on a test drive and might even bring into the mechanic shop for a quick review. They now what they are doing so if they miss something that is big and obvious shame on them.
I wouldn't worry.
I spent 6 months working for a dealer in the finance dept. I didn't sell cars, but I handled the invoices, helped with accounts receivable, and accounts payable. Most people don't have a clue how much money even small dealerships bring in, as long as they have their own service dept. I'll give an example, because this one deal shocked the holy crap out of me and I still remember it. A gentleman brought in a Chevy Tahoe for a trade. I don't know what he told the salesman, or what was said the other way, but they paid he guy 4,800.00 for the truck. They sold him an Escalade. They made 11,200.00 off of the sale itself. GM was giving it's dealers a $500.00 bonus for each Escalade sold, so they got that too. Because the gentleman financed through GMAC credit, the dealership got a $2,500.00 bonus for that. They got a couple hundred for the gap insurance, and about 500.00 for the extended warranty. That Tahoe trade in, the shop spent about $800.00 in wholesale parts, and they sold it for 9,600.00. In their system, you could pull up any vehicle on the lot and see what it cost, what they spent on it, and the final profit. This dealership averaged about 80,000.00 profit a month while I worked there. Seeing all the money they made, and the fact that I was being paid 8.00 an hour, I left. This was a major GM/Cadillac dealer in north Florida.
You have to remember that dealerships pay wholesale prices for parts. That 1,200 A/C compressor will cost them 600.00. Because their mechanics get paid no matter what, the labor cost's them nothing. Most of the time they only work on the new inventory when they don't have any customer cars to work on.
Also, don't hate the salesman, their commission at a major dealer is a joke.
I spent 6 months working for a dealer in the finance dept. I didn't sell cars, but I handled the invoices, helped with accounts receivable, and accounts payable. Most people don't have a clue how much money even small dealerships bring in, as long as they have their own service dept. I'll give an example, because this one deal shocked the holy crap out of me and I still remember it. A gentleman brought in a Chevy Tahoe for a trade. I don't know what he told the salesman, or what was said the other way, but they paid he guy 4,800.00 for the truck. They sold him an Escalade. They made 11,200.00 off of the sale itself. GM was giving it's dealers a $500.00 bonus for each Escalade sold, so they got that too. Because the gentleman financed through GMAC credit, the dealership got a $2,500.00 bonus for that. They got a couple hundred for the gap insurance, and about 500.00 for the extended warranty. That Tahoe trade in, the shop spent about $800.00 in wholesale parts, and they sold it for 9,600.00. In their system, you could pull up any vehicle on the lot and see what it cost, what they spent on it, and the final profit. This dealership averaged about 80,000.00 profit a month while I worked there. Seeing all the money they made, and the fact that I was being paid 8.00 an hour, I left. This was a major GM/Cadillac dealer in north Florida.
You have to remember that dealerships pay wholesale prices for parts. That 1,200 A/C compressor will cost them 600.00. Because their mechanics get paid no matter what, the labor cost's them nothing. Most of the time they only work on the new inventory when they don't have any customer cars to work on.
Also, don't hate the salesman, their commission at a major dealer is a joke.
Sounds about right. They don't build those fancy showrooms from losing money on deals.
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