mgiven

Hi all…

I’m in the process of buying a “certified” Civic. I found a particular Civic on the Honda.com (corporate) website by using the search parameters to only display certified civics. This led me to one particular vehicle I was interested in that came up as certified. I then repeated this process on the specific dealer’s page and only searched for certified Civics and again got this vehicle in the search results.

The description page on the website for this vehicle shows the price and the “Honda Certified” logo and says in the text description “**HONDA CERTIFIED**” which to me and my knowledge of English as past tense and already certified. The description goes on to further state that it has been “inspected” (past tense) and “repaired” (past tense) and “guaranteed” (past tense) and lists it as having the 1 year/12,000 mile and 7 years/100,000 powertrain warranties. Even further, the Carfax report clearly shows the car as being “offered for sale as a Honda Certified Used Car” on 1/24/11.

I went to the dealer on 2/3/11 and they started with the price on the website as the basis and took information and began the financing process and showing the car and all. Then before finalizing the deal they added a $995 charge for “certification” which is they said is the cost to get the car certified and for the warranty.

This raises a lot of ethical and potentially legal questions:
Is this a common practice? Is this even near the cost for certification? And maybe most importantly…Can they advertise one price and list in the description something that is clearly “already an included benefit” and then tack on a charge for it later? I thought an advertised price can not be changed for something that is already in the advertised description? I am meeting with them on Monday and will ask for the complete charge be removed or I’ll walk, but any other ideas of what to add to strengthen the case?

Thanks…sorry so long.

Mike

MindBomber

Although it may seem unethical, charging for the extended warranty is common practice among all dealerships regardless of make.

It is a Honda certified used vehicle, meaning the dealership has had their technicians inspect it and bring all maintenance up to date. The dealership technicians have also ensured that there are no catastrophic mechanical failures imminent before accepting the trade in, so you should be relatively confident that you're buying a mechanically sound vehicle from Honda. The warranty is always extra however, just like when you buy a laptop and they push you to buy a $500 warranty.

I would not buy the warranty, Honda hasn't held up the reputation for quality they are known for very well in the last few ten years, but it's still a Honda. It will only be worthwhile in the unlikely event that something catastrophic happens, unless you really like the peace of mind.

TRIZ

iTrader: (14)

The longer your on this site, you'll notice that anything that goes wrong with your car you'll be able to fix on your own with this site and the knowledge of its members.

I bought my car in 06 with no warranty (it was used, an 01) from a private seller. It was a good car and nothing wrong with it except needing its 60k mile update. Since, there havent been any problems that I couldnt fix.

Now on the other hand, I took my girls car in last year for a broken bleeder valve that I discovered when doing the breaks and guess what, they denied fixing it because we had'nt been in for the 25k mile check up (which you gotta pay for)... warrantys are garbage. They waste your money. If your transmission or motor fails, they will cover the cost most likely, but basic stuff like headlights going out, oil changes, replacing air filters- all the normal stuff that you'll have to shell money out for, isnt covered under warranty... Now that being said...


I'm not completly sure I agree that the "certification" is actually a warranty in disguise. If it is, do this:
You: Hey, I'm not really sure what this certification charge is, is it a warranty?
Them: blah blah blah
You: Oh so if its just a warranty I dont want it and would like to take the car "as-is"

If its just a charge separate from the warranty then you'll have to come up with another argument. I'd pretty much just tell them that the car is already overpriced compared to what the exact same vehicles are selling in your area (eg craigslist) and that the additional charge for the certification that has already been done and advertised to make you interested in the car is something that makes the car way overpriced and just a dealbreaker.

They could be messing with you because of your financing. Or if you seem like a non-educated buyer then they will take full advantage of you to line their pockets.

As a last resort... The worst thing they can do is sell you a car and have you come back and return it. Returns on commission suck and are usually more then what they actually got in commission in the first place (to make them sell to only well qualified and interested buyers and so their friends dont come down but a car, give them the commission and then return it n screw the dealership)... so if you start giving the impression that you'll buy it and pretty much drive it and test it to see how happy you are with it and its price- and if your not your not happy your going to bring it back.. then that sucks for them. They will bend over backwards to make that not happen. Sales are tricky.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

certified means someone checked the fluids and looked under the car. pretty useless. you could easily certify your own car for free.

mgiven

I should have added more. I DID call Honda Care who oversees the Certification process. The additional 7 year, 100,000 limited powertrain and 1 yr/12,000 non-powertrain warranty portion of the Certification IS a part of Certification. It is bundled and can not be unbundled. The a car is either Certified and comes with the 150 point check, carfax report AND warranty, or it does not. A dealer can upsell and try to add what they call a warranty wrap and add to the non-powertrain coverage up to the same 100,000 miles as the powertrain coverage. BUT that is not the case here. They are trying to charge for the portion of the warranty that comes with the certification.

Hope that makes more sense.

Thanks! A lot of good responses already

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

hondacare is a joke too. they will deny any claim and say you abused the car.