Car Dealer Rant

First of all, I like our honda and our subaru, both are pretty reliable cars and work well. But they require maintenance from time to time. But dealerships just like to rip you off for service. Because that's where they make their money.

Our 2001 Civic had a bunch of repairs this week.
There was an airbag inflator recall which I brought the civic into Lakeshore Honda. I had had an SRS light on for some time but didn't find much on the civic forums about it except how to reset it myself. I'd reset it a bunch of times and it always came back. I was hoping that it was the airbag inflator.

The dealer said that they would scan the SRS system and find out if it was the airbag inflator. They replaced the airbag inflator and then scanned the system again for the code. What annoys me is that they say they have to scan the various subsystems of the SRS to find out the code. If they were going to do it anyways for the airbag inflator, why wouldn't they get ALL the codes from the SRS system.

You see. The recall is free. So they have to get some money out of you anyways. So they tell you they need to scan it again to find the others. So $104.00 just to tell me that the SRS check light is because of the drivers belt buckle. So that's all I paid for. Because if I wanted to replace that, it would cost $284.00 plus labour bringing it to $384.00 + taxes.

I found out that the SRS system has a lifetime warranty on it in the US. But in Canada it's only 5 years/100,000 km. So I was going to have to pay.

They also told me I had a huge crack in my exhaust manifold. Another $1300.00 plus labour + tax. The lower control arm bushings were cracked and broken and needed replacing, a $362.00 cost. And then they were telling me that the brakes needed adjustments. Another $200.00 + labour + taxes. So about $2000 to $2700.00 for just going in for a recall. Wow! This recall was going from free $$ to major bucks. Oh but there was a 10% off parts and labour. What a deal . I should jump on it while it's hot off the toilet bowl waiting to be flushed.

One thing I found on the Honda canada site was that prices will vary from dealer to dealer for parts and labour. And they do...slightly. Still expensive. But hey...they have to pay for their ferrari's, hummers and villas somehow you know. Recalls don't cover those.

I'm sick of getting taken to the cleaners at these dealerships. Which is why I do my own laundry as much as I can. And if you know a mechanic that you can trust. Use him or her. Not everyone can be like Andy B, but we can try. And more importantly resist parting with our money so easily.
So before I decided on anything I called a bunch of other places including the dealer in the US to get some prices.
I didn't get a price on the part in the US, but they were the ones who told me that in the US it would not cost anything to replace an SRS component. It's a safety issue. But it's a different story in Canada.

Honda Canada doesn't care if your SRS fails, you pay if it's beyond the 5 yr/100,000km base warranty.

I ended up getting most of the work done at our mechanic. He replaced the manifold with a used one that was still in good condition, the vent shut valve for the P1457 code. (I got the part in the US for half the cost compared to here in Toronto, I wonder if the buckle would have been half the price too I didn't get that info...the service guy wouldn't give it to me). And John did the bushings and rotated the tires (something I could've done but it's so much easier if it's on a lift, plus John probably didn't even charge me for it).

The only thing I did was the belt buckle for the SRS malfunction. I knew the part was going to run $250.00 + tax. But labour was an additional +$100.00 + tax. But it's easy enough to do yourself.

What you need to do is:
1. remove the caps off the bolts at the back of the seat
2. loosen all the bolts
3. disconnect the harness to the buckle
4. lift up the seat so you can remove the plugs that are holding the harness wire to the seat
5. loosen the 1 bolt and remove the buckle from the seat
6. do the reverse to install the new buckle and reinstall the the other stuff
7. reset the SRS check light. I found this on the CivicForums.com basically all you need is a paperclip to short the connector as you turn the key to II position. The light will go out.

Easy PEASY! It took me an hour and I didn't know what I was doing. At the dealership they'll charge you an hour. It should take less than 30 mins to do this. But hey...the dealership will charge you an hour but will take 10% off. What a deal!

Total cost for all this. $900+ for John's work, $288 for the buckle and $104 for scanning the SRS system to tell me that the driver's buckle was defective. So about $1300.00.

More than I wanted to spend, but better than the alternative - lining the dealer's pocket with my money.

What bugs me is that if they did a scan of the SRS for the recall, why didn't it also obtain the code that the buckle was defective? I know why. Cause the recall was free. I called other dealers to see if they would tell me the same baloney, and they do. The Buggers.

I even brought this to Honda Canada's attention and the CSR just said "sir I'm not a service technician, I cannot comment."

Ya, because you know its a scam.