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Car Troubles
May. 8th, 2026 07:43 pmI had the car in to get the tires swapped.
Entering the garage, I apparently went by a sensor that tells them my wheels are out of alignment, and I should have that fixed. My $60 bill has now jumped to $200.
Saw that the oil was at 20% of its life, so I asked for an oil change too. I'm supposed to get free ones. I had to point this out to the guy, who suddenly remembered that platinum members get it with the A or B service. I opted for the B service, since this includes the tire swap. It also includes a basic inspection. My bill is now at $375.
I get a call from Village Honda, and they tell me that the inspection revealed that by front brakes are well past needing to be replaced. Ok. I'm not happy about that, but brakes are kind of necessary. My bill is now a little over $1000.
Also, my tires are almost bald and are well past the point they need to be replaced. Ok, they warned me about this last fall during the previous tire swap, so not unexpected. I tell them to go ahead and replace the tires. Note that they do not give me any options on what tires to use, and they install the most expensive ones they have. My bill is now $2400.
Later that same day, I get a phone call from the shop manager. He tells me that one of my CV joints fell off while they had the car up on the hoist. He assures me that they didn't do anything to precipitate this, but it happened on his watch so they're going to pay to replace it. But, they couldn't get the part until the next day, so I couldn't pick it up yet.
Next day, they call me up to tell me my car is ready. I go to pick it up. I discover that my tires are $240 each, when most of them are between $120 and $180.
The tires have a $100 rebate through Michelin, so I have that to look forward to at least.
I also spoke to the shop manager again, who assures me that there was absolutely nothing that they did to my car to cause the CV joint to fall off; and that they were going to replace it free of charge just because. And I'm certain that Honda does this sort of giveaway all the time without liability coming into it. /s
On the bright side, the car is much safer, and these tires are likely to last until I'm no longer driving it.
Today I get a text from Honda asking me if I'm satisfied. I reply "no", so their customer service manager is going to phone me tomorrow. He's going to hear about all of this, with a key focus on: 1) give me a choice of tires, and 2) CV joints just randomly falling off seems rather... far fetched.
I'm also going to ask for a service order related to the CV joint, since I never got one and there is currently no record that it's been replaced. Maybe it didn't fall off, and they made it up. But why though? But if it did happen, I'd sure like a record of it.
In related news, the reason I didn't go to archery practice tonight is because my car won't start.
Entering the garage, I apparently went by a sensor that tells them my wheels are out of alignment, and I should have that fixed. My $60 bill has now jumped to $200.
Saw that the oil was at 20% of its life, so I asked for an oil change too. I'm supposed to get free ones. I had to point this out to the guy, who suddenly remembered that platinum members get it with the A or B service. I opted for the B service, since this includes the tire swap. It also includes a basic inspection. My bill is now at $375.
I get a call from Village Honda, and they tell me that the inspection revealed that by front brakes are well past needing to be replaced. Ok. I'm not happy about that, but brakes are kind of necessary. My bill is now a little over $1000.
Also, my tires are almost bald and are well past the point they need to be replaced. Ok, they warned me about this last fall during the previous tire swap, so not unexpected. I tell them to go ahead and replace the tires. Note that they do not give me any options on what tires to use, and they install the most expensive ones they have. My bill is now $2400.
Later that same day, I get a phone call from the shop manager. He tells me that one of my CV joints fell off while they had the car up on the hoist. He assures me that they didn't do anything to precipitate this, but it happened on his watch so they're going to pay to replace it. But, they couldn't get the part until the next day, so I couldn't pick it up yet.
"So, CV joints just fall off?"Anyway, I am... somewhat skeptical about this description of events, since I imagine CV joints, given their position and function, would require a great deal of force to just fall off.
"Well your car is very old."
"So they just fall off when the car hits 240,000 Km? How many times have you seen that?"
"Um. Never. But I assure you it wasn't anything we did."
"Uh huh."
Next day, they call me up to tell me my car is ready. I go to pick it up. I discover that my tires are $240 each, when most of them are between $120 and $180.
"Sure is nice of you to pick the most expensive tire for my car. Sure would have liked to have been given an option to use something cheaper."The advisor proceeds to $100 in savings here and there and my $2400 bill goes down to $2300. In retrospect, why wasn't it just $2300 to start with. Nice to know I'm on the "doesn't deserve the special price" list.
"Let me see what I can do about that."
The tires have a $100 rebate through Michelin, so I have that to look forward to at least.
I also spoke to the shop manager again, who assures me that there was absolutely nothing that they did to my car to cause the CV joint to fall off; and that they were going to replace it free of charge just because. And I'm certain that Honda does this sort of giveaway all the time without liability coming into it. /s
On the bright side, the car is much safer, and these tires are likely to last until I'm no longer driving it.
Today I get a text from Honda asking me if I'm satisfied. I reply "no", so their customer service manager is going to phone me tomorrow. He's going to hear about all of this, with a key focus on: 1) give me a choice of tires, and 2) CV joints just randomly falling off seems rather... far fetched.
I'm also going to ask for a service order related to the CV joint, since I never got one and there is currently no record that it's been replaced. Maybe it didn't fall off, and they made it up. But why though? But if it did happen, I'd sure like a record of it.
In related news, the reason I didn't go to archery practice tonight is because my car won't start.
