Some message flashes but too quickly to read. There is no control for a second or two and then the car is back. At 70 MPH this is frightening. The dealer had no clue and wants to keep the car awhile. Does anyone have an idea what is going on or what to check?
What to do: Take it back to your Honda dealer and leave it. Tell them you want a loaner in the meantime. Make sure you get a receipt for the visit no matter what the outcome is. If they don’t want to give you a loaner, explain (again) that you consider it a safety issue and ask them to contact American Honda for an OK on the loaner. This is a warranty issue and the dealer is an agent for Honda. They can only do what Honda lets them do. If you don’t get satisfaction, contact American Honda yourself.
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What @jtsanders said is exactly right. I just want to add that the loaner has to be the same kind of car they sold you. If they sold a CR-V, that’s what you get. This is not your fault, it’s Honda’s problem. Do not negotiate.
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Not the case. The dealer will have a certain amount of loaner cars and they decide what to use.
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That is correct. While the loaner will almost surely be a new car, you cannot dictate the exact model of the loaner car that you are given while your car is being fixed.
I think that wentwest may have the issue of “loaners” confused with the issue of a replacement vehicle if the car owner is successful with a Lemon Law claim. Yes, under the Lemon Law, you have to receive the same make and model, with the same optional equipment, in exchange for your flawed vehicle, but that is the result of an existing statute. There are no statutes regarding loaner cars!
I agree, there’s no statute about loaners. My point was that this person just paid out good money to buy a specific car, an Accord hybrid it appears, and it’s not working correctly right out of the box. If Honda wants to keep her new car while they try to figure out what’s wrong, fine, but I think the substitute car should be a like kind, not a generic Civic that they keep in the yard as a loaner. Honda might be strongly motivated to get her car fixed if they lend a similar car. My suggestion was based on a simple idea - she bought an Accord Hybrid and should be driving it right now.
In addition, start documenting all problems, and research the lemon law in your state (it varies). While the hope is they fix it, if not you need to know what you have to do to get it replaced if they can’t.
Is this a 2017 Accord Hybrid?
Thank you for your sound advice. The car is at the dealership now and I have a loaner.
Yes. And it is at the dealership now and they gave me a regular loaner with the dealership advertising on it.
The dealership is serving you well by asking to keep the car until they figure it out. Good for them.
In terms of what cold cause that symptom, complete loss of power would usually be either loss of ignition (an electrical problem) or loss of fuel (a fuel pressure problem). My guess, the ignition switch is failing. Do you have a lot of stuff on your key ring? If so, suggest when you get your car back and fixed, remove anything on the key ring which isn’t absolutely necessary. As you go around corners whatever is dangling will torque (twist) the ignition switch and eventually can damage it.
Just in case it gets worse, get ready to fight. So, whenever you talk to a dealer/manufacturer, summarize everything they said and you said, and e-mail it to them. In my opinion, it’s better than sound recording, since it can be on paper. Document everything. If they say anything (that is, in person at the dealership), tell them to write it on the invoice or something official and sign it. Proceed as if you are getting ready for a lawsuit. Being firm like that may send them a message that you are serious, so you may not have to sue, but just in case you sue, document everything. President Coolidge said, “Oral agreement is not worth the paper it’s written on.”
Good advice, Roger. I am documenting. It could be my driving. When I went in to the dealership they turned off the lane change alert and since then I have not had that “out of control” feeling. They are treating my complaint seriously and want me to feel safe driving at all times. So we’ll see.
Hi George, no stuff on key ring, in fact the car starts with a push button. I felt it was an electrical issue.Here’s the latest. The service dept turned off the lane change alert and asked me to try that. Right at this moment I have had no further issue. So…it could be over sensitive systems on the car, less than steady driving on my part, or something else entirely. The dealership wants me to feel safe driving so they have been supportive to work with. So far so good. I am still documenting but it could be that the issue is resolved. Thank you for your input. It helps to know others care. Happy Holidays!
@Miss_Karen-You might want to have someone who will offer an honest opinion ride with you to see if you do not stay in your lane as well as you should.
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I completely forgot about the lane change control business. We had a thread here about that recently, and I just bought a 2016 Honda CR-V in June that has that system. The lane keeping system has two different things it does. First, when it is on it beeps whenever you get too close to a lane marking line on the pavement, and stops beeping when you get back into the lane completely. That’s a bit annoying, but I suppose that’s the whole point.
The other function is what seems to have tripped you up. If you press the button on the steering wheel just under the cruise control buttons you turn on the system that actually makes the steering move a bit to re-center the car in its lane. The first times you use that it will feel like you are losing control of the car. The car will appear to wander freely in the lane and the steering will feel very loose. Once you understand what’s going on, and that the car is trying to help you, rather than simply falling apart, that feeling of lost control will disappear to a great extent. I’ve tried driving with my hands off the wheel (just hovering above it actually) and it will stay in its lane automatically most of the time, but the car must have some sort of sensor in the wheel because it will start beeping at you to hold the wheel.
I also found that the adaptive cruise control is pretty neat, but there’s a learning curve with it, too.
It’s a good idea – diagnosis wise – to turn off all the automatic features that you can possibly turn off. If the problem goes away and stays away, then you can turn them back on one at a time. Might be able to narrow it down that way at least. Turn off any cruise control, lane change functions, radar-controlled automatic braking, etc …
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Sounds like normal operation of the Lane Keep Assist.
I think many people aren’t ready for the systems that come on cars today. With today’s Pre-collision systems (auto braking) and steering assist, an hour of training should be provided. Not everybody will easily adjust to these video game inspired new vehicles.
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