Monthly Archives: September 2024

Three days ago, a tiny rock hit the windshield of my Honda 2023 HRV. This caused a crack that spread half-way across the windshield in less than one day. My wife and I went to the local Honda dealership and asked them to fix it. They did not. They said they could reorder the part. But there wouldn’t even be an approximate date for delivery. I asked what did that mean. Could it take two weeks to get the part? A month? More? I was told yes to all three.

I asked why I should ever buy Honda again.
Because everyone else is as bad as they are.
Now, there’s a slogan for you.

I said that the crack would soon be road illegal, that I had multiple doctor appointments coming up, including minor surgery. How was I supossed to go to all these appointments with an unsafe car? They basically said the same thing as I wrote in the first paragraph of this blog, but that I could call Honda National and asked for an expedited delivery, which would arrive in fewer days, although the actual number was still uncertain. Oh, and they blamed it all on supply disruptions, which I’m guessing for them started with the onset of Covid in 2020. How could they not have restored their supply lines in four years?!

I asked the dealership why they were doing nothing to help. They said they had, for they had given me a number to call.
Would they call  their National Line for me?
No.

So we went to State Farm, our insurance company. My wife called the claims department. I asked if they could help get me a replacement windshield. Although they didn’t have to do so, they called a recommended company. Then I discussed what had been said on the phone call. My wife was still talking to claims. The man whom I had been talking to said since I was still there, he’d call the glass repair company again and ask more questions. (The company would replace the windshield at our home.) My wife said she was still trying to find out if the check for the insurance claim would be paid to Honda or to us. A woman in the office said that she knew that the check would be written to us.

Hooray for State Farm.

We called Citywide Auto Glass when we got home. They would indeed replace our windshield the next day between 1 and 5pm. Would they be using a Honda windshield? Yes they would? How could they get a windshield so quick? They got it from a local Honda dealership. How could they find a dealership that had one? They called around. Why couldn’t my local Honda and Honda national find this same windshield? Those Hondas wouldn’t call around. Would I void my warranty by having Citywide Auto Glass repair my windshield? No, Honda didn’t do this type of repair, they farmed out the work to companies like Citywide Auto Glass. The cost for the repair job was about $300 fewer than if Honda “had” fixed it. Yay, Citywide Auto Glass.

I’d also like to point out the lane sensor for my HRV is so often wrong, especially on mountain roads. Then there is the sensor for nearby cars on the sides. I was going up an onramp for a freeway. This onramp had almost no lead onto the freeway. There was a semi coming up on my left. This is, of course, exciting. The thing to do is speed up as fas as you can, as there is the side of the overpass on the right, and then move to the shoulder to the right. However, the Honda car sensor, sensed the semi and turned the wheels sharply to the right. If I had not successfully fought the change of the direction, I would have crashed into the side of the bridge and quite possibly. flipped over the railing and plunged down onto the road below. I have deactivated all their safety sensors and will never buy Honda again.

Well two companies will get my future business.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.