| first service experience re: brakes , 7500 mile service and LOANER
- Click HERE for Original Thread
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| Hockey68 |
Background: 2004 black MDX purchased new at Ardmore Acura (now Piazza Acura of Ardmore).MDX Now has 6000 miles. I needed an oil change, inspection and I wanted them to address a shaking steering wheel upon braking that I felt strongly was due to a run-out (warping) of the brake rotors.
The experience started off not so great but ended well. I would recommend the dealer just keep yourself informed and be clear about your needs. Overall my initial contact was not on par with Lexus or Infinity, which is a shame because it hurts thier image of a premium brand which Im sure they want to convey.
When my wife called and stated the reason for the visit she also stated she would like to have a loaner. Without going into thier entire response I will paraphrase the service guy. "We will not give you the loaner unless you have the 7500 mile service done" Wow did that seem like a cheesy thing to say. As far as I was concerned the brake issue was warranty work. There should be no question of a loaner with advance notice(which I gave). This statement does not jive with what the salesman stated when selling the car...."with advance notice we will always arrange for you to have an Acura loaner." I would have been happy with any loaner.
I then called the dealer service dept. I expresssed my concern over the actions of this service writer and eventually received the loaner without needing to get the 7500 mile service.
The good news about the dealer. They addressed the brakes by surfacing the rotors and replacing the pads. Feels much better. I can only hope the brakes remain this good.
BTW The loaner was a TL. Silver with (filthy) black interior. Nice car though. Very quick once the revs spool up. In the lower 2 gears this is instantly. Beyond that, in medium speed 3rd/4th gear traffic I felt the downshift pause and lack of low torque made the engine feel turbocharged with turbo lag. Handling was great. Ride favored the firmer side for sure but it was quiet . This is definitely a sport sedan and will not be mistaken for an Avalon in ride quality, which is cool.
Nothing ground breaking here just wanted to share the experience and remind you to be clear with the dealer as to what you expect if you are to consider thier product again. |
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| dipersp |
Glad you had a semi-good experience with them. Problem is, they should have NEVER resurfaced the rotors. Taking more material off is only going to make them warp again faster. If there was something wrong at 6k, they should have replaced them.
Ardmore is TERRIBLE! I went there when I was first looking to buy an MDX. Sales guy spent time with me, but just didn't seem motivated to sell. They didn't have anything on the lot that I wanted, so he said to just come back in a month or two and see what they had. HUH?!?! I finally went elsewhere.
Unfort., they're my closest dealer, so when my moonroof leaked the first week I had it, there I went. First visit - they stole the change from my "not an ashtray" and dinged a door. They said NO ONE could have taken the change as they do background checks on everyone. They did fix the ding, no question asked. Service manager said he wished they had an entire football field to park cars, but they don't so it happens. Wrong answer.
Over the course of the next year, they never fixed the leaking moonroof. I battled with them and corporate for a long time and never got a good answer. I finally took the MDX in WHILE IT WAS leaking, and a service writer looked at it and said they'd order a piece of glass (Was leaking between the glass and the seal, NOT the glass and the body.) Would be in on Friday. I called for the next two months, glass never showed up. Corporate finally made them order it, and when I showed up, the manager of the shop said they'd test it again and only then if it leaked would they replace it. I asked for my keys and left.
So, long and short of it - stay away from Ardmore Acura, now Piazza, and any other dealerships he might own.
Oh, yeh. . . And I always had to scream and yell to get a loaner too. But they always got me an enterprise, so I drove junkers. That's class. They even had my MDX for 4 days once and didn't want to get me a loaner! |
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| Hockey68 |
Is fighting to get a loaner a problem with all (premium) dealerships or just Acura dealers or maybe just Ardmore? It's very frustrating when it was promised from day one.
Regarding the brakes. I definitley agree that less material only worsens the ability of a rotor to handle heat from braking. My MDX did have about 90 miles on it when purchased. I guess I was hoping the reason the rotors warped was because those miles did not have proper rotor/pad brake-in which resulted in glazing then warping. Now with a new machined flat surface maybe I can seat the pad properly which makes the pad contact more consistant and consequently reduces hot spots and glazing and warping.
For those who might not understand this concept. If the pad is applied to a brand new surface it may not "seat" and form a consistent surface with the rotor. Extemely aggressive braking on a brand new rotor may result in glazing. This is kind of like surface hardening of the rotor in random spots. This reduces the pads ability to "bite" at that spot. This intern reduces effective and consistant friction on the rotor surface area. The result is more pressure needs to be applied at the pedal and more friction will be apllied to less rotor surface. This equals inconsistant temps thoughout the rotor and also some very high temps making the rotor warp causing more high and low spots and more extreme hot spots.....on and on it goes....In other words this problem will never "heal" itself and can reduce braking distance dramatically. |
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| komondor |
I don't seem to have a preoblem getting a ,loaner from my dealer. Previously there was a wait of about a week or 2 to get a lonaer the last time i called they sais they had plenmty of loaners now?
I was a little confused until I checked out my loaners glove box. They had the window sticker from the car and the pice was marked that it was a loner and had no dollar value. So it seems that Acura actaully supplies loaner cars to the dealers.
Just my 2 cents |
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| 04SSMDX |
RE: getting loaner cars, I really think it varies by dealer. When purchasing my MDX, my salesperson said getting a loaner car was no problem. But, when actually trying to get one, service will not give them unless the service will take more than 2 or 4 hours (I forget). Plus they will only allow you to get the loaner on the day of service. So no dropping off the night before.
Nothing like when I had a Lexus, getting a loaner for anything was never a problem. Of course I did not pay $50k + for this car. |
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