After we had our third child under the age of five (yes that's crazy, and no it wasn't intentional), it occurred to us that we were going to have to join the ranks of many families and buy a minivan… Because this is one of the bigger purchases we've ever made, we decided to go to a well known dealership that one could trust. You think, the bigger the name, the more trustworthy right? WRONG.
Town & Country Honda in Gladstone sold us a vehicle that we found out later had so many issues it wasn't hardly worth what we paid for it, almost $17,000! I should've seen the red flags, but we were desperate to get something quickly as our current vehicle couldn't hold three car seats. We settled on a 2007 Honda Odyssey and and took it for a test drive. I noticed that there was some pretty loud road noise while driving it, but figured that's all it was… road noise. After all, this is a well known dealership and it could be just minivan noise that I've never experienced before. After a long sales process, we finally found a number that we agreed upon and got ready for the purchase. Last minute, my wife noticed that an armrest had a major tear in the leather and she wasn't sure about this deal. The manager said that it was an easy fix and that they had a leather person that can fix it no problem. On this contingency we agreed to buy the vehicle. At this point I should stop to say that when this leather issue arose, a shop manager that was involved had said, and I quote, "this is why I don't like selling our shop cars!" That should've been a red flag for me right there!
We took the car in to get the armrest fixed 24 hours later, and the covering that they put over the armchair was so horribly fabricated that it looked nothing like the rest of the leather or even the other chair across from it. We let it go, said we'd deal with the ripped arm, and went on our merry way. A couple of weeks later I realized that the "road noise" was getting louder. We took it into the dealership and found out it had a bad wheel bearing in the front right wheel. Even though I protested that it was there during our test drive, they still made us pay for the parts while they did take care of the labor. They said I should've known and paid for an extended warranty, but because I didn't, we were on the hook. Begrudgingly I paid the bill ($137) and again went on my merry way.
A few days later I found a rattling noise in the back hatch and realized that the back window at one point had been shattered because the remnants of glass were in the door. I didn't put it together before, but when we first were about to buy the vehicle we had to wait until the front bumper had been repainted and put back on the car. The car had also had it's radiator replace... Had this car been in an unreported accident?
Another couple of weeks go by and the air conditioning went out. We were just about to get into summer and had no air-conditioning for a family vehicle with infants/toddlers onboard. Life got chaotic. I was in the middle of buying our first house 2,400 miles away, uprooting our family from all that they knew, and working three jobs, so there just was never enough time to try and get the van back to the shop. On top of that, I was told it's probably just in need of a refill so I just planned on refilling it as soon as I had 60 bucks in my pocket. We hit some hard times and I was never able to make it happen. For that summer the car was so hot that we borrowed my parent's vehicle to drive the kids around, and with all of the fight I had to do to get the wheel bearing fixed, I was pretty sure the dealership would do nothing about the AC unit anyway.
When we finally moved to Tennessee (we shipped the vehicle on a trailer), I drove the van and realized that the road noise had not gone away (even though it had been "repaired") and took it into the local dealership to get it diagnosed. The same sound that had been there since we test drove it, turned out to be another bad ball bearing in the right rear wheel and the alignment was all screwed up. I explained this to Town & Country Honda, yet they said there was nothing that they would be willing to do about it since the vehicle is no longer in the area and we didn't buy the warranty. I protested again that it was the same issue the car had before we bought it, but they fought us tooth and nail and denied any repair.
A couple of months later, I bought a refill kit for the AC unit, and found that it was completely overcharged on the pressure gauge. I contacted the T&C Honda again and told them what I found because it could have only been done by their service department. They told me they had replaced the air condenser and radiator before we bought it (more evidence of an unreported accident?) and that if it was overcharged, it was definitely their fault. At this point I told him I need to get it fixed and they agreed to pay to get it done. Let me say this just once, because it's about to come up again, I AM NOT A MECHANIC, I cannot diagnose car issues on my own!
We finally got it taken into the local dealership (which was very hard because they have been so slammed busy you had to schedule an appointment a week and a half in advance and bring the car in at seven in the morning). As a working man with five jobs and sole provider for my family, I just couldn't get the time to be without a vehicle. When I finally did, it took over a week to get T&C on the line. Vince at Crest Honda of Nashville, called and told me that they had such a horrible time trying to get T&C's service department to call them back, that he needed me to intervene and call them to push the process forward.
I called the service department and was put on hold for 15 minutes. I hung up and contacted the general manager to discuss what the issue was, and it seemed he was ready for me. He stopped me in my tracks when I start to describe the problem, told me he had just talked to Vince, and then refused to pay for any repairs whatsoever. Apparently I had taken too long in order to deserve his help. He said the failed AC was due to a bad air compressor, not the condenser nor that it was overcharged, and that it's not their problem. Even though I told him it had gone out only a month after we bought the car, he argued that I should've come to them earlier in order to solve these issues. When I brought up the wheel bearing issues and that we would have to pay for that even though they existed BEFORE we bought the car, he boasted that they helped us take care of part of that problem already, but that because we didn't buy the extended warranty that we were out of luck for the other wheel bearing and the AC. We paid $16,835, we've had this car for little over a year, and this is what we got:
• Ripped leather interior never fixed (sale was based on this contingency)
• Two bad wheel bearings (over $300 in repairs)
• Alignment issues (over $150 repair)
• Rear brake replacement (over $100 repair)
• Broken AC ($815 repair)
• And faulty automatic sliding doors that jam constantly (Lord knows how much that'll cost)
Town & Country Honda of Gladstone Reviews
After we had our third child under the age of five (yes that's crazy, and no it wasn't intentional), it occurred to us that we were going to have to join the ranks of many families and buy a minivan… Because this is one of the bigger purchases we've ever made, we decided to go to a well known dealership that one could trust. You think, the bigger the name, the more trustworthy right? WRONG.
Town & Country Honda in Gladstone sold us a vehicle that we found out later had so many issues it wasn't hardly worth what we paid for it, almost $17,000! I should've seen the red flags, but we were desperate to get something quickly as our current vehicle couldn't hold three car seats. We settled on a 2007 Honda Odyssey and and took it for a test drive. I noticed that there was some pretty loud road noise while driving it, but figured that's all it was… road noise. After all, this is a well known dealership and it could be just minivan noise that I've never experienced before. After a long sales process, we finally found a number that we agreed upon and got ready for the purchase. Last minute, my wife noticed that an armrest had a major tear in the leather and she wasn't sure about this deal. The manager said that it was an easy fix and that they had a leather person that can fix it no problem. On this contingency we agreed to buy the vehicle. At this point I should stop to say that when this leather issue arose, a shop manager that was involved had said, and I quote, "this is why I don't like selling our shop cars!" That should've been a red flag for me right there!
We took the car in to get the armrest fixed 24 hours later, and the covering that they put over the armchair was so horribly fabricated that it looked nothing like the rest of the leather or even the other chair across from it. We let it go, said we'd deal with the ripped arm, and went on our merry way. A couple of weeks later I realized that the "road noise" was getting louder. We took it into the dealership and found out it had a bad wheel bearing in the front right wheel. Even though I protested that it was there during our test drive, they still made us pay for the parts while they did take care of the labor. They said I should've known and paid for an extended warranty, but because I didn't, we were on the hook. Begrudgingly I paid the bill ($137) and again went on my merry way.
A few days later I found a rattling noise in the back hatch and realized that the back window at one point had been shattered because the remnants of glass were in the door. I didn't put it together before, but when we first were about to buy the vehicle we had to wait until the front bumper had been repainted and put back on the car. The car had also had it's radiator replace... Had this car been in an unreported accident?
Another couple of weeks go by and the air conditioning went out. We were just about to get into summer and had no air-conditioning for a family vehicle with infants/toddlers onboard. Life got chaotic. I was in the middle of buying our first house 2,400 miles away, uprooting our family from all that they knew, and working three jobs, so there just was never enough time to try and get the van back to the shop. On top of that, I was told it's probably just in need of a refill so I just planned on refilling it as soon as I had 60 bucks in my pocket. We hit some hard times and I was never able to make it happen. For that summer the car was so hot that we borrowed my parent's vehicle to drive the kids around, and with all of the fight I had to do to get the wheel bearing fixed, I was pretty sure the dealership would do nothing about the AC unit anyway.
When we finally moved to Tennessee (we shipped the vehicle on a trailer), I drove the van and realized that the road noise had not gone away (even though it had been "repaired") and took it into the local dealership to get it diagnosed. The same sound that had been there since we test drove it, turned out to be another bad ball bearing in the right rear wheel and the alignment was all screwed up. I explained this to Town & Country Honda, yet they said there was nothing that they would be willing to do about it since the vehicle is no longer in the area and we didn't buy the warranty. I protested again that it was the same issue the car had before we bought it, but they fought us tooth and nail and denied any repair.
A couple of months later, I bought a refill kit for the AC unit, and found that it was completely overcharged on the pressure gauge. I contacted the T&C Honda again and told them what I found because it could have only been done by their service department. They told me they had replaced the air condenser and radiator before we bought it (more evidence of an unreported accident?) and that if it was overcharged, it was definitely their fault. At this point I told him I need to get it fixed and they agreed to pay to get it done. Let me say this just once, because it's about to come up again, I AM NOT A MECHANIC, I cannot diagnose car issues on my own!
We finally got it taken into the local dealership (which was very hard because they have been so slammed busy you had to schedule an appointment a week and a half in advance and bring the car in at seven in the morning). As a working man with five jobs and sole provider for my family, I just couldn't get the time to be without a vehicle. When I finally did, it took over a week to get T&C on the line. Vince at Crest Honda of Nashville, called and told me that they had such a horrible time trying to get T&C's service department to call them back, that he needed me to intervene and call them to push the process forward.
I called the service department and was put on hold for 15 minutes. I hung up and contacted the general manager to discuss what the issue was, and it seemed he was ready for me. He stopped me in my tracks when I start to describe the problem, told me he had just talked to Vince, and then refused to pay for any repairs whatsoever. Apparently I had taken too long in order to deserve his help. He said the failed AC was due to a bad air compressor, not the condenser nor that it was overcharged, and that it's not their problem. Even though I told him it had gone out only a month after we bought the car, he argued that I should've come to them earlier in order to solve these issues. When I brought up the wheel bearing issues and that we would have to pay for that even though they existed BEFORE we bought the car, he boasted that they helped us take care of part of that problem already, but that because we didn't buy the extended warranty that we were out of luck for the other wheel bearing and the AC. We paid $16,835, we've had this car for little over a year, and this is what we got:
• Ripped leather interior never fixed (sale was based on this contingency)
• Two bad wheel bearings (over $300 in repairs)
• Alignment issues (over $150 repair)
• Rear brake replacement (over $100 repair)
• Broken AC ($815 repair)
• And faulty automatic sliding doors that jam constantly (Lord knows how much that'll cost)