I have a 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan. I love it! We bought it new & it is nearing its 36,000 mile warranty period. How do I approach my Honda dealer’s service department about having them ‘check everything out’ before the warranty expires?
You open the glove box, remove the owner’s documentation, and read the maintenance schedule that came with the van.
If there is anything required at 36K miles that hasn’t already been done you can have the dealer do it. Otherwise there is nothing to do.
If you ask them to “check out everything” they will, and you’ll get a hefty bill for lots of unnecessary “services.”
The only things your Honda needs are the things listed in the factory maintenance schedule.
This “getting near the end of warranty check out” should be performed by a independant mechanic. The manufacture doesn’t like the dealer “upselling” warranty.
The service department would probably love to look your vehicle over for non warranty work.
In addition, shop carefully for a mechanic if you don’t have one already. Indy’s can find a lot of unnecessary repairs, too. Talk to you friends, neighbors, and work associates to find a trustworthy mechanic and explain to them that you want someone to maintain the car for the long haul. Tell them that they come highly recommended. That will show you did your homework.
You need to keep a couple of things in mind.
If you want them to thoroughly inspect the car this means you are going to have to pay for this inspection. A mechanic should not work for free; and warranty work is about as close to free as it gets anyway.
Warranty will not pay for an inspection of anything unless it’s directly related to a warrantable repair.
Unless something is actually faulty then warranty is not going to pay for replacing something that may go bad the following week, month, or year later.
In regards to just about everything on a car, there is no way of inspecting it as a means of determining if the part in question is borderline or not. When the warranty is up it’s up, and anything after that is your responsibility or possibly (and in very limited circumstances) maybe a Good Will warranty.
You should have an independent mechanic (not a dealer and not part of a chain.)
That mechanic should check it out, but likely there be nothing that would be covered under the warranty.
Dealers are generally no better or worse than independent mechanics. There are good and bad in both flavors. However dealers will almost always charge more for several reasons.
BTW there is no obligation to go to the dealer even when the car is under warranty, except for those items covered for free.
You will probably enjoy being warranty free for a long time. It’s what I like about used vehicles. I’m happy that On-star finally quit calling me to extend their program which I NEVER had anyway. Even a good thing can be a pain.
That is a odd concept,finding it enjoyable that you have to pay for repairs out of your own pocket,to each his own.
I agree with Oldschool on this. Find a good inedpendent shop and simply keep the maintenance up to date.
Dealerships LOVE to have people come and have everything checked out. They com eup with list of things that allegedly need doing, like changing the air in the tires or flushiing the windshield washer system, that not only are totally unnecessary but also not covered by the warranty.
Taking a car in to have eveything checked out is analogous to walking into a room full of pickpockets with a blindfold on.
That is a odd concept,finding it enjoyable that you have to pay for repairs out of your own pocket
Well I have found it enjoyable when I figure that IF I had bought the extended warranty I would have paid many times more for the warranty coverage than I am paying for my repairs.
What do you think of the comming, not maybe CA regulation that any time your vehicle goes into any shop for anything the shop must set your tire air pressure?
Joseph how did you pull a extended warranty issue out of my comment to dodgevan?You were the first to bring extended warranty into the thread,fine with me,but definitely off topic. There I made it clear who I was asking my question (Joseph) and I made it clear what comment I was refering to,no chance of someone mistaking who was asking who about what.
When people cut and paste (and Joseph I know you love to cut and paste) your post into their post is this a intimidation technique or is it a harmless “lets make things clear technique”?
Most defects covered by the warranty will happen within 4000 miles or 90 days of the time that the vehicle is placed in service. I keep up the maintenance as required by the owner’s manual. If the service department of the dealer seems competent and prices the services reasonably, I take the car to the dealer. If I don’t like the service department, my independent shop does the work. I had a real problem with the Toyota 4Runner with the dealer on a warranty repair. After the dealer finally got things right, I never went back. My independent garage handled the servicing from that point on and everything was functioning properly as the warranty ran out.
On the other hand, with my 2006 Chevrolet Uplander, I noticed a strange bumping sensation in the steering wheel. I returned to the Chevrolet dealer and the service writer, a very attractive young lady who really knew automobiles (rare, I know in a service writer) explained that the problem was most likely the intermediate steering shaft. She ordered the part and it was taken care of under warranty. I’ve gone back to the dealer for servicing because the prices are not out of line and the service department appears to be competent. However, I did nothing special as the warranty ran out.
My recommendation is to do the maintenance as specified in the owner’s manual. If you have had good experience with the dealer’s service department, stay with them. If you have a good independent shop, go with them. The warranty is to cover factory defects. If all is working correctly with your Honda, don’t worry about it. Don’t go looking for trouble.
I sure did work on a lot of vehicles all over the warranty mileage range. With GM’s 3/36 BMW’s 4(or was it 5)50 and KIA’s 10 100K. That being said there probably is a data base somewher that can objectily tell us at what point most warranty work is performed. My practical experience says you are wrong but I don’t like anecedocal eviedence even if it’s mine.
Perhaps for internal engine complaints your figure is reasonable. But definitly not for AC, electrical,interior trim,squeaks and rattles,entertainment systems,window regulators,door locks,these items make it way past 4K 90 days before they show up.
I think it’s an excellent example of government run amok.
It must be so you can save gas while sitting on the freeway next to that Mexican tractor-trailer with the parts falling off.
I’ll defer to your observations. I was thinking essentially of the power train. I remember in a statistics class back in 1963 when Chrysler corporation extended its power train warranty to 5 years or 50,000 miles. The statistical distribution showed that there wouldn’t be many failures after the initial 4000 mile 90 day warranty.
In those days, we didn’t have many air conditioned cars and I guess we put up with squeaks, rattles and interior trim faults. I can also see potential problems after 4000 miles with the entertainment systems. Many of the cars my parents owned didn’t have radios. Perhaps my information is only applies to the 1957-58 Studebaker Scotsman.
This worked great, we had a different view on a subject and it did not degrade into any type of name calling or harrassment,your are a Gentelman Sir.
Thank you for the compliment. We are, no doubt, from different generations. I think of a modern car as a car manufactured after World War II. There weren’t any cars built between February of 1942 and the fall of 1945 that were sold to the public. I remember, as a little kid, going down to the Studebaker in the summer of 1946 to see a new Studebaker. It made the 1939 Chevrolet my parents owned seemed ancient.
My first VW job here in Tucson was at a garage that had no lifts and previously sold Packards.The old guy that ran the place was really proud that he previously was a Packard Dealer, still had all the Packard signs and such on the walls but we were working on VW’s.