Honda Problems

Did you change it yourself? Is the car performing as you would expect after the change? The first thing to do is to make sure the belt was correctly changed. If the belt change has been correctly done there is not reason it should affect the fuel consumption. Once you’ve established the belt is ok then start digging deeper into the normal things that would affect fuel consumption.

Yours is one of a number of reports we have received in recent weeks that complain about the cost of GPS updates and that the updates are not always right up to the minute with the latest mapping. It’s not restricted to Honda, either; it applies to many other brands. It’s a new problem for carmakers that haven’t in the past had to makes changes as rapidly as they do with GPS systems. Another carmaker, the subject of a similar complaint to yours, says they are the mercy of their parent company and they don’t get the updates for some time after the parent company has released them in the home market. That means local owners have to wait while people who have bought an aftermarket unit have access to the latest updated much earlier. Updates for the aftermarket units are also cheaper, it seems people who buy the factory units are paying a premium for the privilege.

Personally I wouldn’t, the Honda should be reliable enough not to need the extra warranty period, and the RACV roadside assistance is as good as you would get from Honda. In fact the RACV provides the roadside services for most of the carmakers anyway. If you choose to take up Honda’s offer check who it is that is actually providing the warranty, it might be the dealer and not actually Honda itself, and carefully check what the warranty covers so you understand what it is you are getting for your money. Quite frankly these extended warranties are mostly money making deals for the car companies and not much else.

Two years is a long time for a car to be held in storage, but the car industry has been through a tough time with the market depressed until recent months and sales on a steep slide, and cars have sat unsold as a result. I wouldn't be too concerned that the car is two years old, or that it has been in storage, I'm sure the dealer would have serviced it before putting it on the road.

I understand that Honda has doubled the warranty on the CVT transmission because of problems like your daughter has experienced. At least one other owner I am aware of has had the CVT transmission replaced free of charge. I would approach Honda directly and ask for assistance with this problem.

Most engines are optimized to run on one fuel or another, and that's the fuel they run best on and deliver the best fuel economy, but they also have 'knock' sensors that detect pre-ignition and adjust the ignition timing to avoid it. That means that while they have been optimized to run on one fuel they can also run on another, lower quality one. Generally your car will run better on premium unleaded than they will on regular unleaded. But we were let in on a little secret and that is that the regular unleaded we are buying is no different to the premium on sale. It seems it's more economical for oil companies to produce one type of fuel instead of two. What they do is guarantee the minimum octane rating of the fuel they produce, in the case of regular unleaded that's 91 whereas premium is a minimum of 95, they don't talk about the maximum octane rating. In that case we are wasting our money buying premium when regular is the same fuel. That was last week, what they will do next week is anybody's guess. Why do we pay more for premium? Simple, clever marketing by the oil companies that has convinced us it's better.

We have had a few reports of issues with the paint on Hondas, but they’ve been complaints of fading and usually it’s on red coloured cars.

It's not possible to say without actually seeing a detailed quote of what the dealer proposed to do, but you could do that if you had such a quote. It's hard to justify a difference of that amount, but I would guess he would charge you a substantially higher labour rate and a higher price for the parts. Even with all of that it's hard to justify the difference, and it further underlines the need to have a detailed written quote for work to be performed and it justifies the use of independent specialists who are often factory trained anyway.

No, it should remember your driving style and start off again normally. If it shifts in an odd way then take it to a dealer and have it checked, but it’s most unlikely that you will do any damage to the transmission.