El Cerrito Honda — Local services in El Cerrito

Update 7/11/24 - we contacted the owner who replied to this review. He did not help - we are still without any loaner car after the brand new CRV we bought from this dealership broke down after 2 months / 3k miles. Doesn’t feel very good paying a $600/mo car payment on a new car you don’t have :(

Bought a new 2024 CRV Hybrid 2 months ago in April and completely REGRET my purchase!! Took it on a long roadtrip to Palm Desert 4 days ago with my daughter for a dance competition. Made it down here ok but after we got settled into the hotel I went back to the car and the engine started shaking violently and threw the attached warning message. Took it to the nearest dealership/Honda service, which was 20 min away in Cathedral City and turns out the engine was mis-firing on cylinder 3 due to a bad fuel injector. As you can see on the pic, the car only has just barely over 3K miles!!! Part is on backorder until July/August - so now my car is stuck here 500 miles away from home! Apparently this is becoming a wide-spread problem for Honda with a bad batch of fuel injectors - both El Cerrito and the dealership here in Cathedral City said they have several cars with the same fuel injector problem at around the same mileage. Also, if you do a search online you will see many posts of the same problem. The dealership here in Cathedral City gave me a loaner, but if I drive it home I would have to drive it back when my car is ready. I don't think I should have to do that - this is Honda's problem and they should provide me with a rental car to get home and ship my car back to me after its fixed - but they are not willing to do that. We opened a case with Honda Cust Care but so far all they said they can do is put the order for the part at "the highest priority" and told us to call Honda roadside, but when I called them, they said they won't cover a rental or tow the car that far. So I'm returning the loaner car tomorrow to Cathedral City and renting a car out of my own pocket to get back home. Called El Cerrito Honda to see if they would give me a loaner for when I get back into town - but they are only willing to give us a loaner for a few days, not a month or more until the car gets fixed. They don't seem to care that our new car is unusable after only 2 months after purchasing it from them. So now I am going to either be without a car until July/Aug or will have to rent my own car until then. And then I will have to spend more $$ and time to make the 8 hour drive down to Cathedral City when my car is finally fixed. Extremely disappointed in Honda... We bought the car when we did with this trip in mind - I wanted a reliable car I could count on. We chose Honda for its reliability, but I guess that was a mistake. But what's been even more disappointing than a new Honda failing mechanically like this is their complete lack of customer care. If you are thinking of buying a new Honda, I would seriously reconsider. The brand is NOT what it...

If I could give zero stars, I would. After years of servicing our 2017 Honda Pilot at El Cerrito Honda and repeatedly reporting a “transmission system problem” warning light—only to be consistently told it was “nothing to worry about”—our transmission catastrophically failed at 63,000 miles. This happened on a snowy freeway, where we suddenly lost power with trucks flying past us, and ended with smoke pouring from under the hood.

Despite years of documented complaints, the dealership never diagnosed the issue. We later learned that there had been a warranty extension for a known torque converter defect in 2017-2018 Honda Pilots—a defect that ultimately destroyed our transmission. We were never notified. It was only thanks to Freddie, the assistant service manager, that we found out about the warranty extension after the failure occurred.

Because of Freddie’s help, American Honda did agree to pay for the new transmission, but wouldn’t cover the $500 deductible, or reimburse us for the very expensive flatbed tow to the nearest dealership 60 miles away, or the rental car we needed to continue our trip while stranded out of town. American Honda categorized this as a "workmanship issue", meaning it should have been caught by El Cerrito Honda's service department long before the catastrophic failure.

While Freddie was exceptional—apologetic, responsive, proactive, and the only person who treated us with respect—the rest of the experience was appalling. Sheriff Demetri, the General Manager, was dismissive and condescending, and refused to take any responsibility. During our phone conversation with the service manager, Rosemont Wayne, I was repeatedly spoken down to—until my husband got on the call, at which point the tone abruptly changed.

We contacted Taz Harvey, the dealership owner and COO of Harvey Auto Group, to express how poorly we’d been treated. His response? He ignored every concern we raised and told us we should “do something nice for Freddie”, and that we should talk to the sales manager about getting a “great deal on a new car.” After all we had just been through? Absolutely unreal.

In the end, we retained a lawyer and won our case against American Honda. I can’t disclose the amount, but I can say this: El Cerrito Honda failed us completely—on service, safety, accountability, and basic human decency.

This was not just a breakdown. It was a longstanding, documented issue that went ignored until it left us stranded, in danger, and out thousands of dollars. If you’re considering buying or servicing a vehicle here, do so at your own risk. We will never return—and strongly urge others to go elsewhere.

UPDATE, several days after business response: it's clear that my review wasn't read and that this is a boilerplate reply. However, I was contacted by two different people from El Cerrito Honda, both referring to a supposed "inquiry" from me and asking if I needed service or...

Beware that this dealer inflates their prices over MSRP via mandatory junk add ons. See the ridiculous $995 “PROTECTION PACKAGE” that was thrown on- I asked for it to be removed and was told that it is “mandatory with every car we sell”. Notice how there is no description of what’s included in the protection package. When I asked, the salesman said it was for:

Door cup protection guards- small piece of film placed under the door handles “to protect from your fingernails”

Door edge guards - thin piece of film same as above, but meant for if you open your door too fast and hit something.

Wheel locks

That’s it! And they try to charge $1000 for it. Go ahead and look up yourself what those items actually cost.

They might’ve taken it off if I pressed harder (I repeatedly brought up how ridiculous it was and the salesman said his manager might be able to take it off 🙄) but it’s a scummy business practice to try and force people to pay an extra thousand dollars to begin with.

Also I’m pretty sure the salespeople get some kind of reward for getting someone to do a credit application, because the salesman was really pushy. I didn’t come in prepared to fill out a credit app, I figured I should at least have my pay stubs/exact info ready. The guy didn’t seem to care about it being accurate, he just wanted me to sign and seemed annoyed when I didn’t want to. I doubt they’d ever confirm it but idk why else he’d be so focused on that specific aspect, fairly early in the process.

Undecided if I’ll get a Honda but obviously I didn’t buy from this dealer. There are more honest places out there.

Edit to respond: if the package is mandatory, then include it online with the other specs of the car and the price increase. If it’s optional, then let people choose not to buy the package. As I said, there is no description in writing of what is included in the protection package. I even asked if I could get it in writing, specifically what is in the package and the salesman said something like “well no because it’s what I just described”, and we left it at that.

Edit 2: not sure if the dealer is being intentionally obtuse with their response that my photo is evidence of their transparency- Once again.. why couldn’t I get a written description of what is in this protection package?

And as for the “all accessories are optional, you don’t need to purchase them” response from the dealer: why tell customers it is mandatory and that every car that leaves the lot needs to have it? Please don’t tell me that was a rogue salesman lol.

I don’t want anything from the dealer so I’m not sure what I’d gain from contacting you.

Bottom line: mandatory add ons are a shady practice, and this is the info I wanted to find when I was looking at...