Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Fidelity, Illinois

Fidelity, IL Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Extended warranty on 2006 Honda Certified Odyssey? [aristotle]

by kipk on Fri Nov 06 04:46:05 PST 2009

I believe you are going to find that aristotle is correct. If the car is over 36 months old, or has over the 36K miles, Honda Care will not cover it. That info comes directly from the Folks at Honda Care per my phone talk with them. If the dealer sends them such an application, they will reject it. I've been trying to get my "Honda Care" 7/75 extended. The 7 years runs out Jan 15, 2010, but the car only has 39K on the odometer. Dealer has done all the service work according to the Honda recommended schedule plus dealer recommendations. Makes no difference to HONDA CARE. On used cars past the mfg warranty, a dealer can sell you an EW issued by another insurer. Most Honda dealers in our area use "Fidelity" EW. They are owned by Toyota. I've spent countless hours researching the various EW companies. Seems that many of them issue warranties that are virtually worthless. The one that seems the best is "Easy Care". At one time they issued the "Honda Care" warranties. That stopped when Honda Finance went into the EW business and Easy Care was purchased by Ford. . Easy Care would issue a bumper to bumper 36/36K on my car for $1900+. A 48/48k for $2200+. Pricey to say the least. Fidelity will issue a 48/48k for $1500--$1600. I read several accounts of folks real unhappy with Fidelity. Here is a typical example of the many I found : A guy buys a used car and the dealer sells him a Fidelity EW. Like most EWs, Fidelity covers against mfg defects in materials and workmanship. But not against normal wear items. ( FWIW: Normal wear generally means batteries, tires, wiper blades, light bulbs, seat covers, brake shoes/discs, belts, rubber hoses, and such) Fidelity carried it to a whole new dimension Something went wrong with the suspension that was going to be expensive to repair. Fidelity said that the components had 66k miles on them and had simply "WORN" out. Can't expect things to last forever. So they deemed it NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR and would not pay. Can't sue them because not suing them is in the contract. Fidelity does agree to arbitration. Guess which arbitration they agree to use! Fidelity's! http://www.consumeraffairs.com/auto_warranty/fidelity.html And yes! When a a person buys a Toyota, the EW is Fidelity. Hopefully they cover the "Bought New" Toyotas better than they do used cars. There are cars that seem to run forever with few problems, while others of the same make and model just seem to be trouble prone. Our EW on the Pilot payed for itself with repairs we didn't have to pay for. Our CR-V EW (Honda Care) payed near $3000 on an AC system that had to be replaced at approximately 39k miles, and unknown dollars on an electrical problem that involved replacing the Computer, 2 sensors and 2 other components valued at $1100. Plus 6 days in the dealer's service bay and the rental car at 49k miles. At $100-$125 per hour, it doesn't take long for an EW to pay for itself, if it pays. I got so disgusted with shopping for a good EW, that I traded the Pilot for a new Ridgeline. Got the 96/100k Honda Care EW on it. Seems the drive trains on Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and some others last a long time. It is the other stuff that is so costly to fix. Kip

Off current subject a bit!

by kipk on Wed Oct 28 05:57:36 PDT 2009

The Honda Care 7/75 will end on our 03 Pilot, January 15th 2010. Bought the car new in January 03, and the Honda Care at the same time. Pilot now has 39K on the odometer so the mileage is nowhere near expiring the warranty, but the time frame is. I talked with the above dealerships about extending the extended warranty and figured Honda had something that would fit my needs because of the low mileage. Something I could purchase that would be good until I reached the 75K mark. Nope! Then I called "HONDA CARE". The lady said that when my current contract runs out they are finished with me. FINISHED WITH ME! Makes me wonder if "TIME" will cause stuff to start falling apart even though the mileage is only about half of the original Extended Warranty's coverage! It is a shame that they don't have a plan on the new cars covering more time and less miles, which we wanted. Say 8/60k or 10/70k. I like Honda Care, as they paid out a heap of money on my wife's 03 CR-V by the time it reached 49K miles. Because of the last episode, which required replacing the ECU and several other expensive components, which was covered, she was afraid to keep driving it because her Honda Care would also be ending soon. With no replacement available. So she traded it for a RAV4, and bought an EW.. Toyota Extended Warranties are "Fidelity", which is actually owned by South East Toyota. (SET) Fidelity is also an after market "Warranty" source for other makes of cars. Our logic is/was that when the original EW expires, we can start it over again. UNLIKE HONDA CARE! Some of the area Honda Dealers use Fidelity for covering their used cars. So they can sell me a Fidelity Policy, bumper to bumper 48/48K for $1485. More $$ than a Honda Care on a new car, but it would do what we need done. Don't understand why HC won't do the same thing. HOWEVER in researching this thing, I've discovered that Fidelity doesn't cover as advertised on other makes of used cars. Hopefully they will do us right on the new RAV4, if we need it. All that to ask this question: Does anyone have any experience with any of the aftermarket Extended Warranties. Or anything I can do with covering the Pilot, short of trading for a new one? Thanks, Kip

Re: media in cars [boomchek]

by berri on Tue Oct 20 18:18:33 PDT 2009

I think people liked cassettes even after CDs first came out because you could easily dub and copy them. Its only in the past decade that computer software that could easily accomodate this effort came about. The earlier stuff was somewhat complicated for an average computer user to use. I like to burn customized CDs from my music, but I usually make an extra copy in case the original gets damaged so I don't have to go through all that original recording effort again. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a car unit that had both cassette and CD since I still have a lot of old stuff on tape. IMO the fullness of an old LP fidelity comes out better in analog tape than the compressed world of digital, but then given all the noise while driving a car its probably academic and I'll admit using Dolby technology to reduce tape hiss also uses a bit of compression. But heck, we replaced $5 LP albums with $9 cassettes and then $12-14 CDs, so why not spend a bundle of fixed cost on a hard drive or I-pod instead.

Re: Getting refund [tidester]

by carpied on Wed Aug 12 08:23:37 PDT 2009

The official HONDA CARE warranty will NOT refund any premiums paid if you don't use it. The (questionable) Fidelity-backed EW will refund your premium, minus a $50 admin fee. In my book, that is not worth the much higher cost. Most people will use a warranty of some sort during the life of the car. Even Hondas aren't built without some sort of problem down the line.

Re: Difference between HondaCare and Fidelity [pbjellytime]

by nortsr1 on Wed Aug 12 07:30:40 PDT 2009

The difference is that Fidelity is under investigation (please read some of the previous posts about warranties and the HONDA warranty is backed by HONDA)!!! You better get a refund fast and get the HONDA Warranty!!!

Difference between HondaCare and Fidelity

by pbjellytime on Tue Aug 11 14:35:04 PDT 2009

Ok, I haggled 09 Civic LX for 10,211 after 2 rebates (a Texas one) and $50 tint. Now, I was buying for a friend of mine. He came in and signed the papers but bought the Fidelity warranty 7 years or 100k miles for $1400. He also got a windshield repair warranty for "free" on top of that. Did he get screwed? What's the difference between HondaCare and Fidelity? Because all I hear about is HondaCare NOT Fidelity. I know Fidelity you pay a $100 deductible every time and it covers everything except wear/tear.