American Honda No Longer Honoring its Extended Warranty on Cracked Blocks?

[Newbieowner]

Honda not honoring and standing by its product, at least not in North Carolina. I, like so many others suffered an overheating on my Honda Civic 08, with a engine overheat and shut down. Almost killed me on the highway. Car is covered under the new extended warranty American Honda issued on this and while other owners have been given new engines and had their old ones swapped out, my dealer is now saying American Honda is NO LONGER honoring this but instead will only replace the lower-small block and not replace any of the damage done to the upper part from the overheating. Now they want me to pay for everything involved in restoring this vehicle when the cracked engine block is entirely RESPONSIBLE for the overheating and the damage above.

Can anyone tell me how I can shout this up the line to compel American Honda to continue to do the RIGHT THING here in NC and cover all my damages and not try to offset what is clearly and admittedly their responsibility from a manufacturing flaw. Help! Has anyone else heard about this chance in policy? What's the news people?

 

[Failsafe88]

Lawyer up

 

[cgpEJ6]

What other damage do you have?

 

[young_]

Lawyer up

This.

 

[Newbieowner]

Ok, lawyering up is one step, perhaps the last step in the process here, I think. The question I am asking of the forum and my fellow Honda owners and community relates more to a public campaign and who to speak to at American Honda beyond my dealer. So, here's who I am looking for:

North Carolina Regional Manager, name and contact.
American Honda Public or Media Relations dept, contact.
Car bloggers and other social media sites to spread the word. Contacts please.

What's interesting to me, aside from my own situation, is that this appears to be a change in policy toward a defect
from American Honda. This policy change moves from covering all damage due to overheating from their manufacturing defect to covering just the small engine block and hanging everyone out to dry.

It is this policy change that can be news that is interesting. How does Honda handle a manufacturing defect in their vehicles? How does Honda honor its commitments to its owners for safety and reliability? How does Honda own up to their mistakes and keep customer loyalty? These are community questions not just for Honda owners but all car owners. How does the consumer keep Honda accountable for its mistakes and its policies.

Thanks for whatever help you all can provide including just moral support. Best.

 

[lethal6]

Thread moved. Please keep the tech sections for actual technical questions.

 

[cgpEJ6]

Have you tried simply going to another dealer?

 

[sleeper si]

lawyer up

 

[Failsafe88]

By the time you try and get the entire ho da community to follow you which I doubt will happen you will probably be 10 years older. A lawyer you can talk to and find out what they say. Your best plan of action is to go against the dealership who gave you warranty. I still need to get my defective sun visor fixed just haven't had time.

 

[Newbieowner]

Stay tuned. Developments happening. American Honda will replace small block but not cover upper damage. Will post something tomorrow as we negotiate this. But that's what it's come to with this NO RECALL/EXTENDED WARRANTY.

What's interesting about this case is that this lays bare the PR strategy that American Honda has been using. That's what makes this an interesting story. No doubt everyone remembers what happened to Toyota a couple years ago and its recall problem. Damaged the brand. Honda with his cracked engine block went a different way. They avoid the RECALL for safety, which never should have been allowed, and went with an Extended Warranty, unlimited miles or 8 years. Honda avoided a RECALL this way. Customers who overheated got a whole new engine installed, no cost. But now, after a couple of years of this policy, Honda has changed it. It wants customers to pay for damage above the cracked block and doesn't want to swap out the engine. It avoided a recall situation by issuing an extended warranty and made good on the damage, but time and closing in on the end of the 8 year warranty, for 06 models, has them changing their policy to offset costs.

Why is this important? Because they avoided what was obviously a recall situation in favor or an extended warranty for public relations. That's what makes this a story. Toyota=recall. Honda=extended warranty no recall and backtracking on the full coverage of the warranty. Safety issues? Tossed aside.

 

[lethal6]

Our Toyota store puts the local Honda dealership to shame with their sales. They are far from being a damaged brand. People tend to forget very fast and move on to the next thing.

You are also looking past the fact that Toyota's recall a couple years ago was a SAFETY thing. Your cracked block isn't a safety hazard and in no way is in the same ball park as a sticking throttle. Yes a cracked block is a terrible thing, especially on a newer car but it isn't in danger of killing thousands of drivers. You can't even compare this with Toyota's recall.

I guarantee you if it was an actual safety concern they would be replacing them under the government's safety regulations.

I do hope you get this resolved but to me it sounds exactly like a warranty issue and not a recall. I believe for it to be a recall it needs to be a high percentage of affected vehicles or manufacturing units. This cracked block affects some but not enough to justify a recall situation from what I have read. Statistics might prove otherwise, but by the sound of it you probably haven't even gotten that far in the quest for knowledge.

Take for instance the VW/Audi sludge campaign. They are replacing a lot of motors under this campaign, but it isn't enough affected nor is it an actual safety concern so they are keeping it at just a warranty thing. Same boat as your cracked block problem.

Another example would be the Intermediate Shaft Bearing failure on Porsche's that takes out the crank shaft and in turn destroys the engine. Porsche has finally acknowledged it and is replacing engines for no cost under certain warranty concerns but in no way is it a safety thing nor is there enough to make it a mass recall.

 

[lethal6]

Also for what it's worth a guy at work just had the engine replaced in his wife's 2008 LX for this very thing. I remembered him having the engine replaced a month ago so I sent him the link to this thread wondering if this is the conclusion they had come to as the reason for it overheating and dying. He said that they honored his warranty no questions asked. You might want to give another dealership a try. Maybe in another state if you have the access. Might just save you a ton of hassle. Either that or call a Honda rep directly (I am sure you can get this information from your dealer or even through google). Hell even emailing Honda U.S.A. through the website might get you further than posting on a forum full of members of which none are affiliated with Honda in any way other than some of them drive and/or work on them.