Honda of the Desert

Has anyone gone into this dealership test driven a car … worked numbers for a possible trade in? I did that gave them my drivers license & VEHICLE REGISTRATION … sale’s gal took it out of my car for a possible trade in & did not put it back or give it back to me. She did give me my driver’s license back tho. I called to advised I don’t have it & I don’t remember her giving it back to me. I thought she put it back into the car. Once I realized I didn’t have it I called them to advise they must have my vehicle registration … and «They can’t find it & did not make a copy of it. Hmmmmm … «BUT I don’t need it to trade my car in». Funny how that works. So you have to go back to them… I don’t think so. I will pay the DMV fee for a copy & tell the world what a SHADY move it was on their part. Make sure you get your VEHICLE REGISTRATION back people. I guess that’s what they do if you don’t buy on the spot. Lesson learned.

This review is for their service.
Their sales staff is great but service department sucks. They’ll try and do everything possible to get out of work; especially if the vehicle is under warranty. They’re either lazy, totally incompetent or both!
I had an issue with the iPhone Navigation App not working in my 2015 Civic EX. They tried to tell me that my car would not work with an iPhone 6; only models 4 or 5. This didn’t sound right to me, so did my own research after coming home and eventually called HondaLink Technical Support. Turns out it WILL work in my car. We determined, after the tech had me go through a series of steps in my car in the garage, that the unit or wiring in the car was at fault. These bozo’s could have done the same thing!
Soooo; I decided to take my car to Unicars Honda and give them a crack at it. After some period of time, they determined that the problem was with the vehicle wiring harness. They ordered a replacement and one week later installed it, while I waited.
My Navigation App now works as advertised! Beware of shoddy workmanship at this dealership!

Service was good but the wait is too long. 2 hour wait with appointment made at 9 am. Next time I’ll try getting there at 7am when it opens.

I purchased a certified pre-​owned Accord a few months ago. The car was priced well, low mileage and certified, so I drove a couple of hours to get there. I was encouraged by the positive Unilocal reviews, but my experience was all but disastrous. To be fair, I left messages for the GM to call me to discuss my situation, as I do not believe in throwing down a bad review without giving the company a chance to resolve it, but I received no call back to numerous tries. I am giving my situation here to help others be aware of the issues that this dealership has.
As I mentioned, I jumped at the opportunity to get a low-​mileage certified pre-​owned car and drove down after the salesperson on the phone said that the car was in perfect condition. I arrived for a test drive and the car had a dent in the quarter panel. When I asked how this passed the 118 point certification, he said that it was lot damage and that it would be taken care of and made to look like new again. We worked out the price and they put me in a loaner for a week while they prepped the car. I drove the 2 hours back to the dealership with my wife and the body work was impeccable, so I was satisfied and took it home.
I work early and come home late, so it wasn’t until 5 days later I noticed that my driveway was spotted all over with oil. I got a couple of car ramps and rolled it up to look underneath. My heart sank when I noticed that the entire underside of engine compartment was wet with oil with drips forming in multiple spots. A 3 year old Honda with 18K miles on it should be dry as a bone, to say the least. I attempted to call the sales manager a few times, then I resorted to calling American Honda (Corporate) to resolve the issue. My concern was that my car had obviously not been inspected before passing it on to me, or it would have easily failed certification.
American Honda was great and worked with a local dealership, close to me. I could not trust Honda of the Desert to do the repairs and I was not willing to drive out there again. RSM Honda did the work and coordinated with American Honda, complying with my request to completely inspect the vehicle to ensure that it met the standards for certification. There were cosmetic issues in the cabin, 2 half shaft seals underneath, the brakes needed replacing and the underside and engine compartment needed to be completely cleaned to be able to visualize any new leaks. It took two visits to get all the work done, but I was given a loaner vehicle and the car was made almost new again. Kudos for the work!
The problems continued. Months afterward, I did not get a payment notice. Multiple calls back to the finance department, talking to multiple people and was told over and over, «Honda Finance approved you and should send you something soon.» Finally, I pushed the issue 2.5 months later and it turned out that my paperwork was lost. It was just gone. I told them I had my copies, but they said that I needed to sign all new paperwork. I told them I was concerned that all my financial information was on the credit app, etc. I told them I do not want my credit to be run again, as it had been more than 30 days since my last inquiry. «Don’t worry, you’ve been approved already.» They sent a driver out to see me at my home and I signed paperwork after taking over an hour to match up line by line with my old copies to ensure nothing, including my financing, was different.
A month later I received a credit monitoring alert that a car financing account was opened after a brand new inquiry in my name was made by Wells Fargo. I made more calls, unreturned. Called Honda Finance, no account. Concerned that the ‘lost paperwork’ resulted in a fraudulent transaction, I placed a fraud alert on my credit. Finally, I called Wells Fargo and asked about this new account. It was for the car I bought. They ran my credit and financed me with a new bank without letting me know. When I did get a finance guy on, he made no apologies and said that the rates with Honda went up and they used WF to make sure I had the same interest rate. He actually said, «You should thank us for keeping it the same.» I voiced my dissatisfaction in a direct way, but was still tactful. I kept trying not to be ‘that guy’.
It was then that I requested over and over to talk to the GM, left messages and received no reply. I have come to like my car, but the entire process was terrible. It really cast a shadow on how I feel about Honda dealers. They are not the «Helpful So Cal Honda» people that they portray, at least not at this dealership. To date, I don’t feel as if anyone there has any care about how my experience was. So, since they did not want to hear my story of how they ruined my car buying experience, I am sharing it here. They had an opportunity to avoid a bad review, but I feel a responsibility to share this with the public, as their overly high Unilocal review rating brought me in.

My Honda was totaled by a teenager who was texting while driving a few weeks ago, so it was time to get a new one. So, I bought another car from Mark yesterday, and once again, it was an outstanding experience.

I went in for an oil change. My invoice said «complimentary car wash» but I got my car back dirtier than it was before I got there. My windshield was a hot mess. This place sucks.

Our experience here was rather poor. We were shopping for a CR-​V on Black Friday and were told, prior to taking a test drive, that the 2015 models are being offered at a 20% discount off MSRP. Once we sat down to discuss the price, trade in, etc, our sales person begun ranking back and forth to speak with «management.» Things went south pretty fast:
— although they came down on the price, it was a huge hassle and ended up being not anywhere close to a 20% discount
— they blamed the sales person for making a mistake on valuing our trade-​in at
, but «we’re willing to take the hit» for their mistake. KBB and other dealerships have validated that the sales person’s assessment was correct
— We were told that Honda doesn’t offer any financing specials, however, pretty much every other dealership we spoke to are currently a running 0.9% for 36 months or 1.9% for up to 60 months on 2016’s, some evev on 2015’s (unless the Internet sales managers were lying, experience here was also mixed)
Will not be coming back here, not even for service.

Decided to stop at this Honda Dealership as we previously had a good experience with sales and customer service about 15 years ago. By the way, we stopped at the Honda in Indio a couple of months ago and they were not willing to even do a deal.
We saw Del and asked her to assist us. Del was co-​partnered with Melinda as she was new to this dealership. Del listened to want we wanted and was able to show us a couple of different colored CRVs. She was so helpful and very sweet to work with.
Thanks to Melinda and Gil we were able to broker a deal for a 2015 CRV, with exactly what we wanted except for the color but we are happy with the color available.
Gil approved a very nice discount and increased our trade-​in value for our 2012 CRV and also gave us a great interest rate that worked for us.
We had a very experienced finance manager named Steve who handled our paperwork and he finished in short order.
We thoroughly enjoyed working with Del, Melinda, Gil and Steve. Go see them.

We were very pleased with our sales lady Melinda who sold us our brand-​new CR-​V. She gave us a lot of her time to explain all of the new features including the back-​up and lane change camera, and where all of the other goodies were and how to operate them.

They get one star because I cannot give them zero stars. The sales team is great. The service team simply put… is a disgrace to the Honda family. They forget to order things, they order the wrong part, they delay installation, they find out a specific part is not covered in the 7-​year warranty we bought. In short, they are bad bad bad. Never again…

5 months ago I bought a used car from Honda of Desert, it was good price looked great and we sealed the deal. Part of the deal was that they would pay to fixed for my gas pack as it was broken. 2 months later, I had not heard from them and when I called they said that nobody had ordered the gas cap and to make the long story short, someone had dropped the ball and they had to «re-​order» it. When the gas cap finally came it was not the right color. Nobody even checked so I drove to the dealership just to be told that they did they made a mistake. I was like «okay, stuff happen» and kinda let it go.
Fast forward 2 more months (4 months after I purchased my car), my license plate have not yet arrived! When I called Honda of the Desert, it became apparent to me that (yet again) someone had dropped the ball and I was waiting to get my plates in vein. I had to put up a fight and put a lot of pressure on them to finally have my plates issued. I had to take time off work to be able to coordinate this. As you could imagine, driving without license plates for a significant amount of time was pretty stressful.
In addition, last week, I had some issues with my battery and when I went to the dealership of my car (not Honda) to have it looked at and replaced, I was told that the car that Honda sold me had a used battery and was not covered under warranty. I called Honda (again — right?) and they said that they would not replace my battery. As you can probably imagine, I was pretty pissed. I am pretty rational person but in this instance I felt that I was tricked. I do not understand why nobody told me that the used car that I bought did not have the original car in it? My car is a 2014 model and has less than 15 000 miles. Just saying.
Again, I understand that stuff happens and that cars are not perfect and worry-​free. I get it. What I do not get is how unorganized people seem to be there. You call one department, they give you XYZ info and you call some other department and they give you ABC info.
For me business with Honda is over. I am working harder than them and for this I do not want to go back to do business with them.
This is my experience.
P. S. I also talked on the phone with consumer advocate and she said that they would not be able to replace my battery but they would be able to fill my gas tank when I returned to the Honda. As you can imagine, I declined.

This dealership has been helpful in assisting me with my lease buyout options.

From the moment I walked in the door, I felt welcome and attended to. The customer service was professional and courteous. All my questions and concerns were addressed and I never felt pressured. When I returned for the courtesy maintenance, I was treated with respect and felt welcome in the same manner as when I purchased my car. I will definitely be a returning customer!!!

Dropped car off 4 days ago. Did not receive one call from service advisor. I had to initiate all communication. Today was told car would be ready in hour and half. WRONG. Here I sit waiting Update: I received a wonderful call from the dealership apologizing for my experience. This was nice.

Very, very pleased with my transaction with Honda a few days ago. We went in, was greeted by Ramiro, who was very professional, pleasant and knowledgeable. He tried to find out what my needs are in looking for a car. I got something in mind when I came in to the dealership, and after pointing out the features that I would benefit from, I found out that it’s not really what I wanted and what I needed. Ramiro made sure that I will drive home the car that suits me well and that I’ll be happy with, and that’s what I got! We drove home super happy with our new car!
Thanks to our agent for being so patient otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten this pretty baby! :D
Now, this is to be continued after we get our first car service. :)

Moved to the desert about 4 years ago and decided to treat myself to a new car. I chose Honda of The Desert and have been totally pleased. I have received some of the best customer service from everyone there in all departments. And if there is a problem they make sure that it is taken care of to your satisfaction. Thank You to all the staff and a special shout out to Jody

My partner bought his car here 3 years ago and has always had it serviced here. Today he took it in for the“60,000″ service, which in my mind is a way of sucking $$$ out of your wallet. There was clear evidence afterwards that some services that were stated as having been done on the printout had in fact NOT been done. Had to take the car back and have the situation rectified. Makes us question how much of the total work was even done at all. Have lost all faith in this dealership. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Better yet if your car is already out of warranty find yourself an independent mechanic who might not be so ready to rip you off as dealerships so often do. NO MORE HONDA OF THE DESERT FOR US. You have lost a loyal customer, and one with a big mouth that is only too happy to spread the word.

Tsk, tsk.
My first Holiday Car Sale was no holiday.
I would have loved to tell all my friends and family that I got a car from here because of their «Memorial Sale», but sadly it didn’t happen. Isn’t the point of having a car sale, is to sale the cars to qualified, loyal, Honda family? «Sale the cars to make room for the new ones.» We take our Honda for maintenance only at Honda of the Desert and I still felt like they didn’t know us. If I’m a repeat guest anywhere I expect a great experience «all the way through». THEY SAID, THEY WILL «WORK» WITH «US”(but that didn’t happen).The entire property was decorated well, with balloons, flags, and a jumper with a Mexican wrestler; but what’s the point of the decorations, and hype if I didn’t get to be part of it?
I absolutely have to say that Gregg Garcia did an excellent job showing and sharing his knowledge of the car we tested out. For every question I had, he had an answer. He was absolutely not at all pressuring us to get a car.. Gregg was right on the mark showing us the little features the car did. We told Gregg what we needed once and he understood that. I wish all customer service was like what Gregg did. The entire time Gregg was with us it was all calm and cool… then Miguel came.
I wish the short time we shared with Miguel was up to par with Gregg’s standards. Miguel didn’t understand our needs, insinuated that we could be liars? (He used that word-​liar). More than once we had tell him what our needs were… then he left to talk to his superior… then comes back, offers us something we didn’t need/​or even looked at? Who does that?
The only thing I got from this experience was holiday car sales are just like other cars sales, on any regular day but with decorations.

I’m not a fan. I like Honda, but the customer service here could definitely improve. Unfortunately my IMA and Check Engine lights both illuminated shortly after my warranty expired. In retrospect, it had been failing for a while before the lights came on. Anyway, others in the same situation had their batteries replaced gratis or at a deep discount (like in the $ 500 range). Honda informed me that it was up to the individual dealership whether they wanted to replace it for free. So, I show up at the dealership (because they couldn’t tell me over the phone), they test my battery… yes, you need a new battery.
So, back to my original question. Oh, that’ll cost you about $ 4k, I’m told. So I was like, I’ve heard that dealerships can replace it the hybrid battery for free. The representative kept my paperwork «because he was going to look for a battery.» Of course I never heard from him again.
Before my last visit I visited their webpage to check for applicable specials. Free rental car with service over $ 350? Definitely.
So I get there first thing in the morning. I’m asked if I’m going to wait. No, what are your transportation options? We have a shuttle that could maybe take you to the mall. There’s a … and a … there. Or you could…
Now, if you know me, you know that there’s no way on earth that I’m going to voluntarily spend 7 hours in a mall (unless the Apple Store is giving away free
Mac Pros!). Well, how about a rental car?
There’s an Enterprise nearby, but it doesn’t open until 8. Even when I used the word «rental», she never mentions the rental car deal.
So, I find my own transportation. Kinda like I’m finding my own hybrid battery.

So this is a strange review but customer service is awesome here. I was driving down the strip looking for a gas station as I ran out of gas. Micheal J Jackson greeted me immediately as I rolled in with no power and helped me get to work as I was racing because I was late. Even thou I don’t have a Honda I am sure to send people there way and as for him. Thank you guys for your help in my time of need.