Space Coast Honda - Service Center

I've owned many cars - worst service I've experienced First of all, I don’t generally do reviews or surveys. I will do a survey for a sales person upon initial delivery of a new vehicle as that is what t First of all, I don’t generally do reviews or surveys. I will do a survey for a sales person upon initial delivery of a new vehicle as that is what their commission is based on. To fill out a survey is merely going to cause a single individual a problem vs. really accomplish anything. If I do reviews, it is on a few sites and is for either very poor service or extremely excellent service. This one is for very poor service. Since there are some personnel in this dealership that perform good service, I have taken that account in my rating. I purchased a brand new 2016 Honda Pilot Touring towards the latter part of 2015. I had previously bought a 2014 Pilot at this dealership and brought it in for a problem and also requested info on the new 2016 models as I had done some reading about them. I had previously owned a couple of CRVs (2007 and 2012) I had bought up north, an Acura MDX (2003) a few Mercedes (three with one being an SUV) and a couple of GMCs in the mid and late 1990s. I have owned several cars before those and dealt with many dealerships in different locations. Therefore, I have owned Honda products for about 15 years. First, I had some problems with noise which basically turned into the AC system basically falling to pieces. I had to bring it back a couple of times and I don’t fault the dealership for that. I had read about the gasoline input having no cap and I asked about it as there was apparently a hidden funnel one would use to add gasoline. At this point the dealership had a different service manager, who was excellent. He was not aware of the feature and upon my inquiry brought out his service technicians to make sure it was communicated to them. They were unaware as well. Shortly after this time period, there was a new service manager and things were obviously not the same in terms of dealing with customer problems and communicating things internally (he might be better in every other way but there is no way he belongs in the position of dealing with customers when he won’t deal with issues that arise). The vehicle had an auto idle function. When one would come to a stop light and depress the brake it would drop the RPMs down to nothing. There were shorts of a second or so occurring with the radio and other things such as it dropping out of auto idle and then increasing of RPMS. I brought the vehicle in on November 7, 2016. Was told it was a battery sensor and it was all fixed. Was not. I brought it back in on November 22, 2016 for the same issues. Was told the exact same thing and a new battery sensor was out in. It did not resolve the issue. Brought it back again on December 2, 2016 and this time was told it was a wiring harness and it was replaced. I had intentions of getting a new CRV (was thinking about going in the last week of 2017 and getting a new 2018 and probably around the middle of 2017 I would have replied there was a 99% chance I would do this). The problem started to recur probably around August of 2017. I actually stalled out in traffic on Route 4 once as well (which I conveyed to them in addition to the other problems and specifically mentioned in writing the wiring harness issue in my service appointment request. Brought the vehicle in for its 30,000 mile service on October 17, 2017. Waited for it for a few hours. The mechanic came out and asked me a couple of questions and proceeded to tell me that a USB dash cam I was using was the cause of the problem as it was drawing too many amps and that he wiped out some computer codes which might be contributing to the problem. I tried not to laugh and when I asked him directly about the wiring harness is basically just looked at me with a blank stare. Went 5 minutes down the road to Sam’s Club and noticed that in spite of me waiting those hours they didn’t even reset the maintenance gauges. I called the service advisor I had and left a message and never received a return call. I had to bring the vehicle back for its auto butler treatment in a few weeks which I did on November 6, 2017. In those few weeks, I asked a couple of mechanics with about 65 years of combined experience about the service technicians statements and they laughed. I rode around without the dash cam and experienced the same problems with shorting out of the radio after a stop and the RPMs increasing after a second when auto idle was engaged. I rode around with auto idle off and the problems were not present. Therefore, it obviously was confined the issues I had the previous year that were never fixed properly. I mentioned some of the things in my request for the auto butler treatment. I had a few weeks to think about the issue before bringing it in for the auto butler and decided that unless their service manager was going to do his job and at least talk to me and make an earnest effort to acknowledge the issue, I really don’t want to deal with their inept service department. Even if I got the thing to fall under the lemon law act, I really did not want to deal with people who are not capable of doing their job (if their bosses want to keep them, it’s their choice but I’ll pass and go elsewhere). I decided to make inquiries on 4 vehicles. I eliminated one due to the fact it did not offer real leather seats. I visited Lexus the day before I went for the auto butler at Space Coast Honda and made arrangement to visit Cocoa Hyandai after I dropped the vehicle off and contacted the Space Coast Honda internet sales guy (who was excellent as was his boss) after that. In fact, the internet sales guy sent me an email and wanted to talk to me and I sent him the following response: “Name Omitted, I have your quote and I'm not interested in spending time talking on the phone. I don't have questions at this time. After I have my car in tomorrow AM for its Auto Butler, I'm visiting Hyundai next door. When I'm done with them, I'll come and find you. I visited Lexus today. As I briefly mentioned in the conversation yesterday, the experience so far particularly with service has been less than what I would call desirable. For example, I've had to bring it in multiple times on more than one occasion (I think the first time was 3 times for a problem). One problem can be acceptable to do that, but when it happens more than once, it gets to be old. Since I spent so much time some of the employees noticing me joked that I may as well have a shirt and collect a paycheck (it was amusing at the time). I am going to talk to service tomorrow AM and let them know nicely. I'm sure next door (at Hyundai) they may want to see my car but I don't plan on doing that tomorrow morning. The purpose is to listen to offers (I'm not going to tell anyone how to conduct their business) and then I'm going to leave without making a commitment, have a nice lunch and absorb the positive and negatives and then likely sometime between early afternoon and the next day either make a decision (and that could be not to buy any new vehicle at this time) or if I have more questions I will contact you (or your counterparts at the other dealerships). I appreciate the effort. As I noted in our conversation, I don't intend to start with the haggling nonsense about what I think is fair and have the back and forth. All I want is your best offer on the car and the trade and you can move on to the next customer. I've owned two CR-Vs, two Pilots and before the CR-Vs I've owned an Acura MDX. Before that I had a Mercedes SUV and before that a couple of GMCs. So I have plenty of experience with the genre. For a bit way back then, I had more than one car (owned a Mercedes SLK-230 and leased an SL-500 for 4 years). “ I had let the service adviser (on November 6, 2017) know about some of the problem (including not even getting a return call after my 30,000 mile service) on the auto butler service request and relayed the rest to him, including the email exchange above in detail. I figured I would give them one last chance to see if the service manager would even come out and say anything to try to keep my business (which of course he did not). I had considered all the positives and negative ahead of the auto butler appointment. In the end, at this time, I did not want to go further away for service to another Honda dealer (and Space Coast Honda has been talking about getting an Acura dealership in the area for some time – would be a disaster for Honda but that’s their business). I figured if 5 years down the road I wish to reconsider a Honda, I can look at those choices (and obviously with the reviews on Yelp I am around the average). More

Nice place to get my Honda serviced It's been awhile since I've been to Space Coast Honda. They have definitely changed in my opinion for the better. Mike in the service dept was very fr It's been awhile since I've been to Space Coast Honda. They have definitely changed in my opinion for the better. Mike in the service dept was very friendly and helpful and got me in very quickly. I stopped going there in the past because they were just downright rude everytime I went in. It has changed. I'll be back for sure instead of giving out of my way to get my vehicle serviced elsewhere More

Very satified We bought our new CR-V from Darnell Johnson at Space Coast Honda. We were very satisfied with our buying experience, and we would recommend them to a We bought our new CR-V from Darnell Johnson at Space Coast Honda. We were very satisfied with our buying experience, and we would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a new car. It was nice to go to a car dealership and not go through the high-pressure sales tactics that you find elsewhere. More

Excellent service! Excellent service and very reasonable! They went above and beyond, even washed and vacuumed the car! Waiting area was also nice. Thank you for grea Excellent service and very reasonable! They went above and beyond, even washed and vacuumed the car! Waiting area was also nice. Thank you for great service! More

Service to 2016 Pilot Love this service department!!! They take care of everything needed and are exceptional at it!! They treat us like family. Thank you Space Coast Honda Love this service department!!! They take care of everything needed and are exceptional at it!! They treat us like family. Thank you Space Coast Honda!!! More

Beware of this place I was a customer of theirs for over 10 years and I'll never go there again. I brought both of my Honda vehicles there for years for their over-priced I was a customer of theirs for over 10 years and I'll never go there again. I brought both of my Honda vehicles there for years for their over-priced maintenance and repairs. Then they "serviced" one of my cars poorly (an Odyssey) so I would have no choice but to replace it. They also added a bunch of "recommended" repairs to force me to make up my mind. The Service Manager himself (Julio Raimundo AKA JR) suggested several times that I talk to Fil Catania from Sales to see what kind of deal I could get for my broken (and now very depreciated) car but I kept telling them both I wasn't interested in buying a new car at that time. When I tried to have the car towed to have it repaired elsewhere, they told the tow truck driver that I did not pay my bill and they could not release the car. This took place several hours after the Service Manager (Julio Raimundo AKA JR) personally walked my bill to the cashier where I paid it in full. I had to return on the following Monday (taking take time off from work) to try and have it towed again, and that's when I found out about their dirty tricks from the tow company dispatcher. When I confronted JR he tried to laugh it off as some beef the towing company had with them. No apologies or nothing. On top of that, both JR and Fil the Salesman came out to watch my car being put on the flatbed. In the end I had the car repaired for half of the cost the Space Coast Honda Service Department wanted and also found out that most of their "recommended" repairs were bogus. I now bring my cars to a local garage for maintenance and repairs, which has saved me thousands of dollars over the past year. The actions of the Space Coast Honda Service Department and their Sales department have caused me a tremendous amount of grief, frustration, and expense. I tried to contact the owner (Scott DeMasso) to inform him of the poor customer service I received from his employees and also sent several letters but I never heard back from him. Space Coast Honda has lost my business PERMANENTLY and I consider myself an "Ex-Customer for Life". In the end they lost out, because I recently purchased a 2017 Subaru Forester which is an awesome car. I had to learn my lesson the hard way about dealing with this business. I hope you don't have to too. P.S. If you purchased a car from them and they put that tacky "Customer For Life" license plate holder on the back of your car, basically you are giving them potentially thousands of dollars of free advertising that you will never be reimbursed for. They should be paying you to do their advertising. More

Think twice before Buying Prepaid Oil Changes I have always been happy with the sales experience at Space Coast Honda. That is why I bought my last two cars from Space Coast Honda. The excitement I have always been happy with the sales experience at Space Coast Honda. That is why I bought my last two cars from Space Coast Honda. The excitement of the new car soon wore off when the car finally needed an oil change. No worries......I bought the prepaid option. What they failed to tell me is that the pre-paid oil change routinely takes two hours. But wait, I have an appointment so it should take 15 minutes right.....nope ...still two hours. Let's hope Scott figures out the formula for providing great customer service in the service department. More

Space Coast Honda service department Don't walk, run, from this dealers service department. They don't diagnose issues and provide cost effective fixes. Poor Communication verbally and Don't walk, run, from this dealers service department. They don't diagnose issues and provide cost effective fixes. Poor Communication verbally and written. Verbally they don't call back and explain issues, actually they just don't call back. Their written action plan doesn't describe issue in any detail and recommends services to the consumer that won't really benefit them. Example ticking noise on acceleration was the issue, mileage on car 80,000, CPO warranty in effect. Recommendation replace engine with used 70,000 mile engine, cost 5000.00 dollars, also recommended, front end alignment (might be okay with this one). Flush and replace power steering fluid, Replace Transmission fluid, replace cabin air filter, preform front differential service, replace rear differential fluid, fuel induction service. So instead of diagnosing where the noise was coming from and fixing the root cause of the issue they want to replace the engine with a used engine. Like I said, don't walk, run from this service department!!!!!!!!!!!!! More

Best dealership around I have been dealing with this dealership, service reps/technicians for over 20 years and found all to be the best in each of their respective fields. I have been dealing with this dealership, service reps/technicians for over 20 years and found all to be the best in each of their respective fields. Looking forward to another 20 years. Keep up the good work! More

Worst customer service ever !!! I bought used Honda and decided that it would be best serviced at Honda dealership, boy was I wrong. I needed an extra key, oil change tire rotat !!! I bought used Honda and decided that it would be best serviced at Honda dealership, boy was I wrong. I needed an extra key, oil change tire rotation and balance and the gas gauge on it was not working properly. I was told to come back next day to pick up my car. I paid close to 700 dollars for above services and got a "need to do list" from them that quoted me another $2500 in parts and labor, as soon as I left the dealership, I got to a gas station to check on my newly fixed gas gauge, to my complete dismay the gas gauge still was not working and the newly programmed key failed to open the car. I called the dealership and was told to bring car back and leave it there for another day(!) when I came back again I was told that the receiving unit for a gas gauge that was "faulty" and changed by the dealership for almost $400, is only part of the problem as now the control unit was the one to blame for the malfunctioning gas gauge. I was quoted another $1000 dollars in parts and labor for the control unit, making total bill of what needed to be done well over $4000 dollars, and when I said that I can't pay as much right away was urged to do it ASAP as "broken" control unit will burn my newly changed receiving unit and I will need to pay more. Completely devastated I brought my new car to my own mechanic, who fixed the whole list for little over $300 dollars and calibrated the receiving unit of gas gauge for free, saying that whoever put a new receiving unit there forgot to calibrate it. So the gas gauge is now working surprisingly without me paying over $1000 dollars to fix yet another thing that didn't need to be fixed. And I will never set my foot back to this rip off and totally incompetent dealership. More