Friendly Honda — Local services in Springfield

My minivan was having some bouncing and the ride was getting bad - so I called my Honda dealer, first appointment available two weeks out, but we were planning a car trip the next weekend. I said is this a reason not to drive it - advisor i spoke to said no problem. So we bounced around the road for 500 miles, made it home, and took it to the dealer the next week. I dropped it off for my appointment in the morning. The service advisor, Brian, told me he’d call me that afternoon after the diagnostics. Having heard nothing at all by about 445 I called the service department after being on hold and two different call backs by other advisors because they had to check what was going on. I was informed that the “right rear shock is blown,” and “the car is unsafe to drive”. They said that a loaner would be available in the morning around 8. So I arranged rides to cover that evening for my kids sports and the next morning for me. About 7:15am the next day Brian called back, he told me about the shock and said that they would order the part and that I could get in the next couple weeks. I was very upset and confused and asked if it was “safe to drive?” Brian just acted like I was crazy - “of course it’s safe ma’am.” First, you didn’t call me about my car all day - and it ended up being there overnight. Second, now you are telling me it’s safe when someone else said it’s not. Brian had no idea about the plan for a loaner and even audibly scoffed on the phone about it. Then he explained that his grandmother was ill and he had to leave early the day before. I told him, I was sorry about his grandma, but I needed to speak to a manager to clarify my car’s drivability. He said his manager was not there, she would be in later and would call me. No phone call came. I got my ride to the Dealer and I picked to up the car, paid $168.00 for the diagnosis and left.

This is the second time that the car had been kept overnight because of a miscommunication. Last summer in July of 2024, the service advisor had also had to leave because of a crisis with an ill family member, communication had broken down, and no one updated me on the vehicle. They actually had never even got to my car at all that day. I was pretty unhappy. I spoke to the manager of service, Erin, she assured me that there were procedures so that if someone has to leave the other advisors could take over. She got me back in and it was OK.

Erin didn’t call me this time, but I am not sure how I can trust this service department again. In this circumstance, after much confusion, and nearly 45 minutes, the advisors did make a plan that was satisfactory to me (the loaner). If Brian had known about the plan and acknowledged the safety issue, I probably would not be giving this review. Continued poor communication under Erin’s management has lost Friendly Honda a customer.

I picked up the car and drove it to a nearby shop who got me in that day, and did the repair in a couple of hours. They replaced both rear shocks in for less than the estimate for just the right shock at the dealership. They also seamlessly communicated between staff members as I picked it up from a different advisor than I dropped it off to due to her break. I was stunned, I had already waited for weeks for Friendly Honda just to diagnose it.

I am posting this review so that they can improve their system for communication within their department, and so that other customers know what they are...

Purchased my first brand new car from Honda of Illinois and it was overall a smooth process. I negotiated in 2 free oil changes because of how much I was driving for work. After about 8 months, someone had told me of the issue with gas getting into the oil so I brought it in for a check up as my oil was pretty diluted and at a high level. They brushed off the issue and told me they knew about it, but couldn’t do anything yet because Honda hadn't issued anything for it. They could change my oil for a charge, though. I was almost due so I went ahead and did one when I was there just to be on the safe side. When it came time to pay, they tried to charge me - even though I had 2 from the initial car purchase. They did take off the charge, but this was the first instance of no communication between the sales side (what all packages and warranties that should be on your account) and the service side.

Second instance was when I had a nail in my tire. I also purchased the extra tire warranty which would have covered this, but they still tried to charge me. They ended up taking the charge off, but not after me having to explain that the warranty should be on my account.

A few months later, I finally get the recall notice for the gas in oil issue. Great! I called and they couldn’t get me in for 2 months. I explained that my level was pretty high again but that was still the quickest they could get me in.

When I set up the appointment, I asked for a courtesy vehicle for the day, too. My apt was at 9 and I pulled up around 8:45. She asked if I needed a ride today and I said yes and was directed to wait for someone as they were busy. At about 9:45 I hadn’t heard from anyone so went and asked about it. She thought I meant I wanted to use the shuttle to take me home; I live 45 minutes away, so that wouldn’t work. I specifically remember asking for a car that day when setting up the appointment, but they didn't reserve one for me and by the time this had all happened, they were out of cars. All I got was a sorry, and had to wait around in the waiting room for a total of 3 hours.

So disappointed in the level of service received, especially being a 2 time Honda customer and even purchasing directly from Honda of Illinois both times. There is zero communication from the sales and service teams. They don’t even run my car through the wash - something they did every time when I took my Civic to the Honda in O’Fallon. There was nothing that was done to fix my situation when I was stuck there, other than a “sorry” wait for a few more hours and your car will be...

We found a certified used honda accord on car guru. The dealership (Janelle) was quick to respond to our inquiry. We were pre approved from our local bank. Went on a Wednesday evening around 530 to drive the car and liked it. Decided to work out a deal. They under bid our trade by a minimum of $2,000. They refused to lower the car price. Finally they decided they could "un-certify" the car to lower the price. Todd was convinced he could get our payments where we wanted them by financing it through them. We left with the car and signed paperwork Wednesday at 8. We were moving stuff from our old car to our new in a dark parking lot with no assistance. Todd told us if there were any issues we would hear from him on Friday. Flash to Tuesday. Get a call that we need to put $1000 down because they can't get the financing done. We said no we'd go to our own bank when we got off work. They contacted our bank for us. Called us before we made it to the bank. Our lending officer wouldn't loan the amount They were asking for. We spoke to her and it was true The loan was too much for that car. She told us she would do it but it wasn't a good deal and she thought we should ask for more for our trade. Todd called us back again, they had a great deal from a credit union in Decatur. Only $500 down but we would have to buy this bumper to bumper 36,000 mile warranty or they couldn't do it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Is this 1985? I asked for clarification if I was hearing him correctly. He said it was as good as the deal was going to get. He said if we didn't like it then we should bring the car back. I said ok. And that's what we did. You lost a sale Susan's Honda AKA Honda of Illinois by being shady and greedy. We drove to Morton Illinois and bought a Honda Accord EX. 8, 000 more miles for $1500 less dollars and they gave us $2500 more for our trade in. The total financing difference was around $4,000 difference. The car is a different color and it wasn't a Honda dealership just to be fair. Oh, and the car wasn't certified, but neither was yours in the end. Our new car does have the remaining balance of warranty though. I have both sales agreements. The experiences were night and day different. The best part is we have 2 more cars to purchase over the next 2 years. I'll drive an hour to Morton. I won't even look...