Acura of Fremont — Attraction in Fremont

Long review but its been a nightmare so i felt its important.

To give some context, I have been a customer of Acura of fremont for the last 9 years. I bought my car with them and every service to date has been done by them. They were always expensive but it gave me peace of mind that I am going to a professional legit dealership who will be competent and won't try to send me in circles. I have never challenged them or their recommendations. They weren't always the most transparent but it didn't bother me as much. But this time they just crossed a line.

On 1/5/2024, my wife took the MDX in for an A1 service. Out of that service, the recommendation also came to get the brake pads fixed. We don't screw around with brake pads so we agreed. All in all, after a VIP discount, I paid them about $730. However, after I picked up the car from the dealership, on my way back every time i braked the steering wheel pulsated and the car is very unstable. My wife drove and we felt the same. We got an appointment to take it back. Once they checked out the car, the service rep Justin Winn called back and said its the front struts and rear shocks leaking and i would have to pay another $2250 - now i am not an auto expert but those parts don't seem to have anything to do with the brakes. Moreover, the week before when we had the brake pads changed, the service rep then (Reshad) had marked the struts and shocks as green. I have attached a picture of the inspection. So between the time the service was done and we took it home, the car was still at the service center so if something happened to the shocks and struts, it is then on the dealership. Also he couldn't release it on the friday evening (/12) and wouldn't give me a loner either so i don't have a car- thats the customer service part. On Saturday he texted us at 8.30 am to come pick up the car and said he would have us talk to the mechanic and we could take it on a test drive but he was not going to be able to do anything else. When we got there Justin wasn't there and we had to explain everything to a new guy Syed. He tried to help us or at least pretended but it was all punted on Justin. No mechanic, no justin and no information had been passed down. Syed said justin would call or email us but nothing yet. By this time, i was done - i had an unstable car and a very bad experience. I left with the car and went to nor cal tires and wheels. They test drove it, said it had nothing to do with struts and shocks but had resurfaced the rotors while those rotors should have been replaced. He replaced the rotors for me for $300 an the car is now great. I have also put a picture of old and new rotors also.

So, all in all, for someone who has been there customer for 9 years (and aa VIP member), Acura showed incompetency, unaccountability, safety and a total lack of empathy for a customers time, money and weekend situation. They screwed up the rotor (safety issue) after charging me $700 for brake pads and then gave a wrong diagnosis for fixing it that would cost me $2250 more. When I tried to ask them to print out when my tires were changed last, Syed said he couldn't (they have my full history) and I had to take a picture of his screen with my camera since I didn't want to have to do anything with them for anything else (including tires replacement). It is unfortunate but for their name, this was the worst experience I've had with any auto service and I am not going to go back...

A year ago, I upgraded my 2014 RDX to a 2016 RDX. The sales person I worked with, Branda, was great and a year later, I still get emails from her checking up. With that said, my one star review is not towards sales, but for service; more specifically the service rep, David (or Dan, but the guy who's desk is the first desk when you walk in). Anyway, last week, I called, left a message that I needed to get service for my RDX and I also went online to schedule the appointment, where in detail I told them what type of service was needed: B1 and radio connection issues. During the weekend, I also received a call from Acura Fremont Service in which I told the gall that I scheduled an appointment online and what time and she confirmed it on her end. As I spoke to her as well, I reiterated the reason I was coming in for service: B1 and radio connection issues. However the schedule these appointments, they clearly have in advance the information as to why a particular car is being brought in for service.

When I arrived today for my scheduled appointment at 8:30am (15 minutes early at that), the service rep, David came out. Then we sat at his desk and again, I told him what I was there for: B1 service and radio connection issues since they had recently replaced my radio due to some software issues that I had a year ago and they were finally able to resolve. (ONE YEAR!) He goes on to tell me that he will need the car for the day in order to diagnose the problem, especially since they were the ones who recently touched it. I asked if I would be able to get a loaner car and he said, "No, they have to be reserved in advance." Well, how was I suppose to know that this would be an all day thing. He then went on to tell me that I should have checked the "loaner car" request button when I made the appointment. How the HECK was I suppose to know that???? Should I just go ahead and check the box just because in the future???? I would think they see the online appointments as they come through and to say the least, I made the appointment a week in advance! How do they not know what to expect from cars coming in???? I never had this issue when I would take my car to Los Gatos Acura. Every time I made an appointment, a service person would call me to confirm and let me know what the appointment would entail. But again, coming from this idiot's mouth, it was my fault that I didn't check the "loaner car" request button. I guess I was suppose to know that getting an oil change is done in one section of the garage and any other service, like the radio, is done in the main section of the garage!!!!

The sad thing about all this, I was really determined to keep this car, but now, the just made it more clear that I need to just give them back this car when the lease is up and never buy...

I don't usually write reviews but my experience while purchasing an off-lease 2015 MDX was so horrendous that I have to write a review to warn other.

The sales people use high pressure tactics to sell cars. The sales person that we worked with pressured us (me and my 8 month pregnant wife) to skip lunch to sign the sales contract, even though we told them we were hungry and wanted to go grab lunch, but they kept saying "it'll be really quick...it'll be really quick." The signing process ended up being well over an hour and we didn't even get a chance to carefully consider and look at all the documents that we signed.

They will do anything to make a few dollars even if it means putting someone's safety at risk. The MDX we looked at had one completely bald rear tire and a rear passenger door that didn't fully close, which are both safety issues, and the sales manager expected us to take it on a comprehensive test drive. We only drove it on the local roads and didn't risk going on the highway in that death trap. They promised to replace the rear tires with new tires and fix the door after we sign the sales contract. OK, fine. Being an Acura dealers, I was expecting the new tires to be the factory Continental brand tires, but they ended up being some cheap General brand tires. And the other two tires felt balder when we picked up the car than when I first test drove it.

They have the worst service of all the Acura dealers we've visited in our car search. When we went to pick up the car 4 days after we signed the contract, the interior wasn't even cleaned, even though we were told the day before picking up the car, it would be "fully detailed." There was brown sticky substance in the rear door handles, and we found a kid's toy in the rear arm rest. And there was also crusty brown stuff on the headliner. So we had to sit in the waiting room for them to clean the interior.

Less than a week after picking up the car, I inspected the under body of the car again for any signs of oil leak, and found grease all over the rear passenger side half-shaft, which means the rear differential has a leak from a bad seal or the drive shaft boot is bad, and both are expensive to repair. I'm pretty sure the grease wasn't on the rear drive shaft when I first inspected the car, because, being an engineer and having worked on a few cars and motorcycles, I always looks for grease/oil on the engine, on the drive shaft, and near the CV joint and dampers. This means the dealer initially cleaned the rear drive shaft in order to cover up the problem. Good thing this car still has some factory warranty left. I'm definitely getting this fixed at another Acura dealers.

This is the epitome of a terrible car dealer, so whatever you do, avoid this place...