[Cadman]

How many Honda Owners do we have on here?

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

As popular as the Honda Rancher is, I would expect to see quite a few people

 

[Gunny]

Yeah, don't hear much from them boys .... of course, don't hear a lot from some of the others .... seems a lot of guys are go'in BRP lately !!! :seesaw:

 

[3TV]

Did somebody say BRP?

I'm sorry, this is a Honda thread, isn't it.

I have owned a few Honda's over the years myself:

1983 Honda CR 480
1984 Honda CR 250
1985 Honda CR 500
1987 Honda CR 500
1988 Honda CR 500
1989 Honda CR 500
1990 Honda CR 500
1991 Honda CR 500
1993 Honda CR 500
1995 Honda CR 500
1997 Honda CR 500
2002 Honda Rincon 650

Kids Honda's:

1997 Honda XR 70
1999 Honda TRX 90
2000 Honda 300 EX
2001 Honda 250 EX
2002 Honda 400 EX

Haven't owned a Honda since 2002 though, due to a very poor local dealer.

 

[Gunny]

Yup, this is a Honda thread ... Ah 3TV .... tell me .... what haven't you owned ?? :rotfl:

 

[Cadman]

Gosh, 3TV you have had every Honda built. Honda's are great. BRP is a good quad, I love the 2-up quads. I hope Honda builds one someday.

 

[3TV]

All of those CR 500 dirt bikes were from back when I was desert racing. I had a Honda support ride back then that helped out alot, because I was a poor college student. Honda makes a good product, and I have never had a problem with their equipment. I no longer own Honda's for a couple of reasons. My worst "dealer experience" was from Ron's Sporting Goods, the local Honda dealership in Cedar City, UT. Back in 2002 I owned a 2002 Honda Rincon 650 that had a torn rear axle CV boot. I went into the dealership to ask what it would cost to replace it, and Ron himself told me that they would fix it under warranty, so just bring it in. I brought the ATV down to the dealership that same day. To make a long story short, it took the dealership 9 weeks to get the parts ordered, wait for the parts to arrive, and replace the CV boot, and that was with me pestering them about once a week to make sure they were still thinking about doing the work. When I finally was able to pick up the ATV Ron handed me a bill for almost $300. Apparently the Rincon needs major disassembly to get the CV boot out, so labor charges were high, and it turns out, now that 9 weeks had passed the ATV was no longer under warranty. Ron told me straight to my face that he didn't care if the ATV was under warranty when it came into his shop, it wasn't any more, and he wasn't going to submit the bill to Honda for an ATV that wasn't under warranty.

I haven't set foot inside Ron's Sporting goods, or owned another Honda in the 8 years since that day.

 

[Bull800]

I had a 2003 Foreman 450ES and had a lot of good times on it. Slow as moses though and would not go in mud at all.

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

All of those CR 500 dirt bikes were from back when I was desert racing. I had a Honda support ride back then that helped out alot, because I was a poor college student. Honda makes a good product, and I have never had a problem with their equipment. I no longer own Honda's for a couple of reasons. My worst "dealer experience" was from Ron's Sporting Goods, the local Honda dealership in Cedar City, UT. Back in 2002 I owned a 2002 Honda Rincon 650 that had a torn rear axle CV boot. I went into the dealership to ask what it would cost to replace it, and Ron himself told me that they would fix it under warranty, so just bring it in. I brought the ATV down to the dealership that same day. To make a long story short, it took the dealership 9 weeks to get the parts ordered, wait for the parts to arrive, and replace the CV boot, and that was with me pestering them about once a week to make sure they were still thinking about doing the work. When I finally was able to pick up the ATV Ron handed me a bill for almost $300. Apparently the Rincon needs major disassembly to get the CV boot out, so labor charges were high, and it turns out, now that 9 weeks had passed the ATV was no longer under warranty. Ron told me straight to my face that he didn't care if the ATV was under warranty when it came into his shop, it wasn't any more, and he wasn't going to submit the bill to Honda for an ATV that wasn't under warranty.

I haven't set foot inside Ron's Sporting goods, or owned another Honda in the 8 years since that day.

I can't say that I blame you at all 3TV.

I will say, Honda makes a good machine. I only wished they made something with more power and extra features like a locking Diff.

 

[Cadman]

Honda doesn't market the way BRP and others do. I suppose they feel like they don't have to get out in the public view more because just about everyone attributes the Honda name to quality which is true but I still feel like they need to innovate every once in awhile instead of staying behind the other manufacturers and exceed expectations from a Honda product.

 

[bustamove]

All of those CR 500 dirt bikes were from back when I was desert racing. I had a Honda support ride back then that helped out alot, because I was a poor college student. Honda makes a good product, and I have never had a problem with their equipment. I no longer own Honda's for a couple of reasons. My worst "dealer experience" was from Ron's Sporting Goods, the local Honda dealership in Cedar City, UT. Back in 2002 I owned a 2002 Honda Rincon 650 that had a torn rear axle CV boot. I went into the dealership to ask what it would cost to replace it, and Ron himself told me that they would fix it under warranty, so just bring it in. I brought the ATV down to the dealership that same day. To make a long story short, it took the dealership 9 weeks to get the parts ordered, wait for the parts to arrive, and replace the CV boot, and that was with me pestering them about once a week to make sure they were still thinking about doing the work. When I finally was able to pick up the ATV Ron handed me a bill for almost $300. Apparently the Rincon needs major disassembly to get the CV boot out, so labor charges were high, and it turns out, now that 9 weeks had passed the ATV was no longer under warranty. Ron told me straight to my face that he didn't care if the ATV was under warranty when it came into his shop, it wasn't any more, and he wasn't going to submit the bill to Honda for an ATV that wasn't under warranty.

I haven't set foot inside Ron's Sporting goods, or owned another Honda in the 8 years since that day.

I know how you feel about some clown who treats their customers like garbage. If you think about it, chances are no matter who manufactured the ATV, this idiot would have made you feel the same way if it was under the same circumstances.

Honda does build reliable ATV's but does seem to be satisfied way longer than it's customers about what equipment they offer us in the way of options. Saying this, Honda might not be the so called leader in the option catagory, but it leads in reliability as far as I've seen.

I know this bone-head left a bad taste in your mouth about not only that dealership, but Honda as well. And honestly Honda had nothing to do with any of this, as a matter of fact Honda never had a chance to say they would or wouldn't honor the warranty because numb-nuts never informed them of the problem in the first place.

My only wish is this happened much more recently to the point where you could call Honda Customer Service and inform them of what happened. You may have ended up respecting Honda for it's dedication and decision. And still hating the fact bone-head didn't do his job and screwed the customer over in the long run.

I will say Honda will distance itself from Dealers who mis-represent their name, and they will pull their Franchise if enough complaints come in from it's customer base.

If you had good service and satisfaction from Honda before? I would still buy Honda products. Just I would NEVER buy from this idiot ever again no matter what he sold.

Trust me. If he treats other customers like he did you? He won't be in business long.

 

[Smoothbassman]

I would have blown my top with service like that!!! Insane that he treated you that way.

My Hondas have been good to me. They just lack innovation that moves a consumer like myself. There is no reason why Honda can't make a power steering Rincon 800 with a true locking front diff. They just choose to make a 700xx peice of crap instead!

Honda is done in the ATV market unless they change their ways in 2010.

 

[formguy]

Three hondas in the garage right now. TRX250, Rancher350 and a Rincon. The Rincon has over 8k miles on it and runs like new. That makes it THE best toy I ever bought. I beat the bag out of it and it just seems to enjoy it. After owning a Yamaha Banshee, a Warrior and worst of all a POS POpo 500 Sportsman this machine makes ATVing affordable again. The wifes Rancher just passed 2k miles and the ONLY part that has been replaced is the tires. I do wish my Rincon had more power, but with reliability like it has I will not trade it in until it is completely dead!

 

[bustamove]

I would have blown my top with service like that!!! Insane that he treated you that way.

My Hondas have been good to me. They just lack innovation that moves a consumer like myself. There is no reason why Honda can't make a power steering Rincon 800 with a true locking front diff. They just choose to make a 700xx peice of crap instead!

Honda is done in the ATV market unless they change their ways in 2010.

Smooth, I was sitting here wondering why Honda doesn't build a Locking Front Differential? I mean if we look at their engineering, research and development, and winning race cars they have produced during the years we all know Honda can do this anytime they want to.

The question is why haven't they?

The only guess I can come up with is their Lawyers are afraid of the possible Litigation involved. These 4 wheelers with the locking front differentials are a hand-full to maintain control over if your experience level is sub-par.

Being a sub-par ATV rider is nothing to be ashamed of. I could be rated sub-par because of the limited experience I've had on ATV's. Although I do have tons of experience in lots of others areas, I would still not understand all of the pit-falls unless I experienced them for myself. Basically learning how different the front locking differential handles in different situations. Something you can learn on paper, but really learn and understand when you actually do the thing you are studying. Kind of like OJT (on the job training)

I can only think Honda is worried about someone who has the money and buys one of their units, and then doesn't have the experience. They end up busting down some narrow trail with the front differential in the lock position, get ready to go into a hard turn, and BOOM! The next thing you know is the ATV and rider are mashed into some tree because their ATV wouldn't turn fast enough, or wouldn't turn at all (according to them).

We who have and use common sense understand that we are the ones responsible for our actions. No-one else! But in this day of BLAME IT ON SOMEONE ELSE, these manufacturers are paying through the nose for problems like these because of ignorant people Litigating against them. And some actually win!

Honda may feel any money they make through the sale of any ATV with a locking front differential wouldn't even be enough to pay for the cost of Litigation against them when someone does something stupid and blames Honda, and then wins it's Litigation against them. But this is just an idea?

The only reason I even say this is my wife has worked for Lawyers a good part of her life. You should see and hear some of the horror stories people come up with. You couldn't begin to believe how much money is awarded to someone who has no business doing what they did in the first place, but gets big bucks because they weren't at fault. It's a croc, but it happens. Unwarranted Litigation ruins many things for us as consumers. This may just be another item on the list.

Now.....For all who disagree with what I suggest? That is fine. Please remember this is ONLY an idea of why Honda may-not be producing any of their vehicles with a locking front differential. Other than this, I don't know?

This is my idea. If you have another idea please let us know. I personally would really love to know the correct answer. As Im sure others would too. One other item. Please don't get me wrong here. There are some who Litigate because the manufacturer is negligent and did somethig to cause an injury or death. In no way am I blasting these people, the Lord knows they have already been through enough. I'm speaking about those who have no business Litigating because of their own lack of understanding.

 

[formguy]

The way Hondas front end works, if you grab a little front brake it sends power to the non-spinning tire, Like an H-1 Hummer. If you are smart enough to do this you're all set.