Complaints / Canada / Ontario / Acura East Dealership

Acura East

Dealership: Acura East, Whitby, Ontario, Canada

Complaint #1: 

I purchased a NEW 2003 3.2 TL Type S A-Spec (only 850 were made and released only in Canada) in May of 2004 from Acura East. The car had 22kms. on it at the time.I gave them a week to detail the car paying attention to problem areas that i had noticed,for example swirel marks in the paint and to touch up a small mark on one of the doors.

June 4th I went to pick up my NEW ACURA.It was driven to the front of the showroom in all it's galory. Not one thing that I had pointed out to the salesman and the sales manager had been corrected in that week and to top it all off there were bird droppings on the roof.THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CLUE TO THE RELATIONSHIP THAT WAS TO COME WITH ACURA EAST. 

I returned to the dealership with what I thought was a problem with the car pulling back at around 60 kms/hr and I had got a small scratch on the front quarter panel(that I was more than willing to pay for).When I was giving the description and location of the scratch I was interupted by the service advisor and told LOOK LADY WE HAVE DONE A LOT ON THIS CAR ALREADY AND YOU CAN"T EXPECT TO GET ALL THE SCRATCHES YOU ARE GOING TO GET FIXED FOR FREE. The car now was maybe two weeks old. That was my second clue.

About the second week of August 2004 I noticed paint chipping off the hood in several places. Off to the dealership I go. This time the service manager looked at the car and his explanation of why the paint was chipping was #1 it is a black car and every mark shows and #2 he inferred that I had driven up the back end of a gravel truck and it was not their problem.At this time my car had about 2500 kms.

As time pasted I noticed more and more paint chipping off,not only the hood but the roof the doors and the trunk.THESE ARE NOT STONE CHIPS,as I have had 3 independant car painter inspect my vehicle.Their conclusion is that there is a problem with the paint or the primer or the metal. 

I would like to hear from any ACURA owners that are having any similar problem with their paint.My car is Nighthawk Black.

Complaint #2:

We recently purchased a 2007 Acura MDX privately. There was an irritating clunking the front end so I decided to take it to Acura East for service. I doubt with Ashley think it was very professional and who I have no complaints about.  My experience dealing with this dealership was to say the least difficult. I brought it in for the initial inspection upon Acuras advisement I changed full suspension and installed four new tires. I spent close to $4000 on these repairs.  I was advisable work was complete and that I should come pick it up and pay for at this point I did and I didn't drive this vehicle out of the parking lot before noticing that the repair hadn't been completed the clunking noise was still there.  This seems weird to me as this must indicate that the work was completed with no one checking the work or the fact that the repair didn't rectify the problem. I didn't have time to bring it back in right away but I did make another appointment two days before New Year's with Ashley pink. The appointment was for 8 o'clock in the morning to my surprise I received a phone call at 7:45 in the morning on the day of the appointment from someone who I had not even spoken with the floor Chris. He proceeded to tell me that no one was there to look at my car and I should not bring it in I should bring it in some other time at this point I had to tell him that I was already on the way with my two kids and I didn't have time to bring in another time because this is the time that the appointment was for. This made Chris quite perturbed and he told me that he did not want me having one of his cars for two days running around with it and I said to him that I wasn't the one who erred in the appointment.

So I dropped off the MDX and received a loaner car.  At this point I will told Chris exactly what the problem was because I figured it out myself through research and laying underneath the car in feeling the suspension this was a very simple repair it was the stabilizer bar bushings which is a very common problem with this particular vehicle. Not having heard any update on my car I called him on Wednesday at one in the afternoon and I was told they were analyzing it at that point I then waited till 4:30 in the afternoon and call back having not heard anything from them. I spoke with Chris again he told me that I had called several times and that he was aware and that they were still analyzing it and they couldn't figure out what it was. Finally late afternoon I received a call from Chris saying that it was not the stabilizer bar bushings at this point she told me "we remove the stabilizer bar and wired it up and drove it and it still made the clunking noise therefore it wasn't the links" I said I did not understand what he was even talking about I've never heard of that technique being used  to diagnose a car problem. He told me well if you want to repair done although it doesn't need it it's going to be $300 at this point I let Chris go and call back and talk to a service manager. I pleaded my case to him, told him that I already figured out what the problem was and I just wanted this done and it was also under warranty. The service manager said yes they would do it and they did complete this task I received a call of the car was completed and I went and picked it up. I took the first ramp to go eastbound on the 401 the moment I got it up to 80 km the steering wheel was shaking fairly heavily and it was pulling extremely hard to the right. Again the work was completed without checking how the car performed after the work was done. I then called again and made a third appointment for the balancing to be done for a second time although it is just been completed a couple weeks prior when the major suspension overall was done. I sleeping call me and told me that yes it did need alignment both the front right tire air and the rear tire work completely out of alignment. I found this difficult to believe because when I dropped it off it was running straight and the steering wheel was not shaking.  I talked to the service manager and explained why I should not have to pay for such a repair although he did not see my point of view and I was accused of hitting a curb when I had taken the last time.  Also that the last repair that was done to it didn't require an alignment  I responded that I didn't think it repaired it but I did drop the car running straight with the  tires balanced and now it is not running straight therefore it happen while in your possession.  I persisted and I did receive the alignment for free however when this repair was completed I went and picked it up and yes it was running straight but the tires were still completely out of balance because for the third time repairs were done and no one check out how my car performed after the repair was completed. I took it to another repair facility having been completely exhausted dealing with incompetence of Acura East. They did balance the tires and now the car is performing like it should.  I find this incredibly hard to believe I repair is simple as replacing bushings in a stabilizer bar was so difficult to diagnose  that I had to take my car back there a total of three times each time the vehicle was returned to me in an unfit state.  With no one checking the work that was completed or the overall performance of the car once the job was done I don't understand how a premium dealership can operate in this fashion.  I do expect some kind of compensation for this terrible experience that I've had.