Pro and Cons - Toyota Camry vs Honda Accord vs Nissan Altima

wrote:

Get the one where you get the best support from the dealer.

Get the Camry, but we're biased here, it's the Camry group.

He posted to all groups.

Face it:  all those cars are so similar, it really doesn't matter which
one he gets.  He could throw a dart on the wall and end up with a good
car.

What he DOESN'T want is to end up with a good car but absolutely no
support, with a bad dealer who won't fix warranty items and who doesn't
take care of him and his $25,000 purchase.

It all comes down to his support system. Does he have a friend who works
on Hondas?  Get a Honda.  Is the Honda dealer 50 miles away, but the
Nissan dealer 3 miles away?  Does the Nissan dealer have a good
reputation in the community?  Yes?  Then get the Nissan.

And so on.

He's looking for a 2007 and you're anticipating vehicle problems on the most
reliable cars in America.  A dealer turning away a warranty repair....Are
you kidding me?  Dealers have 2 or 3 people who do nothing all day except
bill the factory for warranty repairs.  It's easy money for them or are you
thinking about disputable issues beyond the 3/36 total 5/60 powertrain
warranties?

Warranty work pays a pittance compared to customer pay work.  Yeah, they
can balk at it, and/or do it badly, or give it to the worst guy in the
shop, or whatever.

The point is, to them it's just another car, to you it's $25,000 out of
your life.

Not true! Honda warranty pays the going rate for the area.  Usually at least
95% of the posted door rate. Warranty parts also get a similar return.
Considering the negative aspect of receiving poor survey feedback, a dealer
would be more concerned about their warranty work thereby getting the best
techs to do the repair.

 "Howard" <howardh1951-at-hotmail.com> wrote:


They have a separate schedule, irrespective of the going rate for any
area.

Trust me.

Nope!
They have THE schedule. Factory times are what is recommended for any
prescribed job. It's the dealer who creates his own schedule over and above
what is recommended. It's what gives gouging dealers a bad name

 "Howard" <howardh1951-at-hotmail.com> wrote:


TIMES, yes.  Pay rate?  Honda doesn't pay the $80/hour or whatever is
current for pay customers off the street.

They pay the prevailing rate in the area.
A dealer submits a request for a rate increase based upon surveying other
dealers (not just Honda) in the area and an audit of the applying
dealerships effective labor rate. From those figures and the actual warranty
rate sought, the District Rep submits to national and a decision is rendered
.
I've worked in 3 Honda dealerships since 1973. My current (23 years) Service
Dept's door rate is $99 per hour (we are on the lower side in our area) and
our current warranty rate paid to us is $95 per warranty flat rate hour. As
soon as we have enough time to produce an effective labor rate that would
allow us to seek an increase we will seek that same $99 per hour. And like
dozens of times in the past as rates have increased, Honda will grant that.
Of course we need to know when the right time to apply is.
You are partially correct in that Honda doesn't pay the "street" rate.
That's because the customer labor rate rises first and the warranty labor
rate increase application soon follows. That's why I stated they are usually
90-95 percent of customer rate. But there are plenty of times the rates are
the same.
A dealer who turns away warranty work is leaving up to 30% of his business
on the table as well as eventually running out of customers after he pisses
them all off.
Yeah, there are alot of gouging, uncaring dealers out there, but they won't
be there long. If they want to run their multimillion dollar business in to
the ground, we don't
I'm not bragging or advertising (no location given), just wish there were
many more legitimate dealerships out there so the ones in business that are
doing the right thing don't get judged by the rest.

I joined the Camry group because I have problems with my 07 Camry. I
wanted to know if the other owners experienced the same weird things
that I have experienced with the car. So I wouldn't call myself
biased. The reason I chose the Camry over the Accord when I purchased
the car last year was due to the "new body" design. It was love at
first sight. But like most relationship there will be some love-hate
issues. I hate the Automatic transmission response of the 07 and have
been with the dealer several times for warranty work due to said
issue, and up to now the response time is still the same, but a little
bit better. If your going to test drive the Camry, try accelerating
quickly from a turn on an intersection or full throttle from a rolling
start and see if the car will hesitate. Anyway it wouldn't matter if
you got a stick shift. The Camry stick shift is only available with
the 4 cyl. Check what tires comes with the Car, some owners said that
the brdigestones didn't last for a longtime and were noisy at high
speeds, my car came with michellin and they are fine. The 07 Camry has
no coupe version like the altima and accord. The Solara is just a
carry over from the 5th generation camrys and not the 6th gen 2007s.
There were no consumer reports yet when I bought my Camry in 2006 and
there are several websites now that reports discontented buyers of
camrys. Try to google <2007 camry transmission> and see what pops
out.

Dealer support is also good to consider since I've been back to 2
different dealers for warranty support and none of them turned me down
and I didn't even purchase the car from them. Though Toyota of North
Hollywood kept me waiting for a very loooong time before finishing a
simple fix.

And lastly, If the 2008 Scion Xb was already out there last year, that
would have been my car now =)