Triple-H

And yet you reply....

S2kRob

I don't think they care much.

You would think for their flagship model they could get somebody to come out but they don't want to do the right thing.

TAM S2

that's actually open to debate... what you may think is the right thing may not be what they are thinking...

think about it this way... you could either say "i'll give special treatment to the customers that bought the higher model items and ignore the other (majority) customers"... or "i treat alll my customers with the same attitude"...

i don't think any side is right or wrong... just that there are all different perspectives you can look at it...

i'm personally not so much worried w/ honda canada, but more specifically at dealers... that's just me...

we should go for beers soon!!!... (with or without honda canada!!)...

TAM S2

in fact, we should have a get together to discuss this... the more i think about it, the more i don't understand why there is an issue w/ HC???... they don't sell the cars themselves, the dealers do... the dealers provide the mechanics to service the car, right???...

maybe i'm missing something here... pls don't flame me!!... i'm just a chinaman trying to avoid SARS!...

OhioRacer

Hey, what the heck is going on with that? That SARS is scary stuff. I heard they were cutting back flights between Cleveland and Toronto over this. I read 4 people died up there so far. . Be safe.

comets

Exams period for me baby!
But who cares! Lets go for some tea and dim-sum in some SARS infected place?

OhioRacer

Personal .02, but I think you will have better luck working with dealers. We have been very fortunate to have Jeff from Ganley Honda down here (who some of you have met and know as hardtopguy) help us out on numerous occasions. Jeff hosted our 1st meet at the dealership and gave away a spoiler and some other goodies, not to mention excellent food. He even brought in a regional muckety-muck to talk to us. He (and I presume Mr. Ganley ) see the value in this stuff and I have to believe it will pay off in spades for them. I know I will bring my S2000 to them for any and all service and will buy my next Honda car from them. Hell, I even took my sons Dodge to Jeff for service. The dealers are the ones with the most to gain in sponsoring events because they will get service business and dealer loyalty. All American Honda (or Canada) needs to do is keep building high quality vehicles and keep the R&D focus that Mr. Honda started.

Mindcore

I have a few thoughts on this..

Firstly, the way a car company carries itself is a philopshy..I don't believe that it was ever Honda's policy to treat its customers like they purchased a $400k motorcoach.
Other companies had no choice to act this way to secure market share. Face it, Honda will sell cars not matter how poorly they treat thier customers.

Now, I'm not saying Honda treats thier customers like shit, but I can name a dozen companies that do it better.

Case in point, I bought a $50k car, when its in for service, the best that they can offer me is a rental car at thier "discount" rate of 35 bucks a day...That is disgusting in my opinion.
Hey, maybe its not fair to treat me better then the 20k civic owner, but I can spend 30k on an infiniti and revcieve MUCH better service..

ok, thats out of the way...

The Salamander...last year, I put a lot of effort into trying to get Honda Canada to participate, even a little bit.
Net result was a huge waste of my time, as I talked to more voicemail then my vaccum cleaner!

Limited effort was put forth from a few dealer, as thier hands were tied by parent company Honda.

Now, Sac2kdays seem to have finally gotten somewhere with Honda, partly because one of the organizers is a Honda employee..Hell we have at least one Honda employee on this forum..He did all he could, and still came up with nothing.

There have been points in time, where I have yelled I will never buy a Honda again..not becase of thier product...but thier service and attitude.

I can't deny thier quality, but IMO, they have rested on those laurels far too long..

You know what, outside in my driveway is $95,000.00 worth of Honda product..

I want them to kiss my ass, I could spend that money somewhere else and have my balls massaged by someone that shows appreciation for my business..

Now, don't get me started on the VIP Pilot drive.. Vince and I attended...and it was to say the least, a joke..Needless to say, this shows how little Honda is in touch with what it takes to impress a perspective customer..

It was a great truck, but again, the product is the only thing that saves thier ass.

I'm happy that Honda reads this, but they might as well surf porn at lunch if they are not going to take what we are saying serious..

Thus far, the only thing I have seen Honda take from this site, is member invented products, stolen to improve thier cars...that is really really sad.

I'm not looking for a tickle up my ass from Honda, only an understanding that its loyal ( why again ) customers like us that have made them what they are.. It would be nice to be apprecited once in a while is all..

It costs what? 3 grand to host a track day? You want us to believe we spent out money on S2000's because its the spirit of F1? Back it up..host a couple events over the summer, create an aura that what we have purchased is something special...don't force us to come to that conclusion ourselves

My rant is done

S2kRob

The problem is the "Honda doesn't care" argument falls apart when it comes to the NSX. That car has MAJOR support from Acura in the US. They pull out all the stops at the NSX events.

Anyways, I don't really care if Honda supports us or not, but I do want a decision maker to hear me out that the idiots aren't bringing over Monte Carlo Blue. Yes, I have a sick obsession with that colour.

Anyways, I don't think I'll be buying another Honda after the S2000. The rest of their product line is pretty bland and boring to be truthful. I see them drifting from Sochiro's philosophy rather badly, because most Honda's fail to stir my soul. (Well, okay, I think the Element is cool).

OhioRacer

All excellent points, and I even got a few laughs out of your post. I can tell you from my experience with BMW that they do exactly what you propose. They do massage my balls when I go in for service. Hell, I don't even HAVE to go in for service. They'll send someone to my office to pick up my "low class" 325 and leave me a 5 series loaner FREE. This of course is AFTER I scheduled my appointment on their WEB-BASED scheduling system. No more phone calls to Suzy receptionist to patch me into "Joe" in service (who puts me on hold).

Secondly, I got a card in the mail inviting me to come drive the new 7 series against other competing cars at their expense at some local autocross or some such thing. I almost shit a brick. I called my salesman and said, "Are you sure you know what your asking me? You want me to come drive your brand new $80,000 (US) car and thrash it around a track?" Yup.

Keep in mind my 325 costs almost the exact same price as my S2K, so it's not like I'm driving some hugely expensive car to get this kind of ass-kissing. Oh, I forgot, when I picked up my car the salesman gave me a coupon for $60 for the BMW toy store. I promptly picked up a nice embroidered golf shirt. Not a big investment on their part...but it's remembered by the customer. Alright, I'll shut up and go back to my own forum now...sorry.