Why won't Honda Corp take responsibilty and fix consumers A/C?

My husband and I purchased a brand new Odyssey Van in June 2006. Absolutely love the van. We have had no problems until we realized our air conditioner wasn鈥檛 working recently in May 2008. Our van only has 24,000 miles on it. I called Fairfield Performance Honda service and was told if it is a rock that damaged the condenser it is not covered. I said, a rock and she replied; yes rocks can damage the condenser. My husband and I never have heard such thing. Without Honda even looking at my van they already knew exactly what was wrong. So that day I got a phone call from service and sure enough they said a rock has damaged your condenser and it would not be covered because that is consider road debris and it will cost you 800.00. The service person said they see this every week and then he said I mean once a month so I was curious and got on the internet to see if anybody else have had the same problem and sure enough hundreds complaints with the same problem. I contacted Honda America Corp and they said sorry it is not covered because it is road debris damage. It鈥檚 not my fault and thousands of other consumers fault that they poorly designed the Honda Odysseys and Honda Accords. I noticed on the new 2008 Vans and cars they have a protection on the front now. But that鈥檚 not fair for all the people who have purchased a van or car 2007 or earlier. I think that they should have a recall on this matter and fix the problem. I didn鈥檛 pay $30,000.00 for a van to have this problem. They need to put some kind of protection on the van so it doesn鈥檛 happen again. I just want to let all other consumers beware of this so they don鈥檛 make the same mistake we did. I am contacting the Consumer report, Better Business Bureau all news media and papers until this problem is taking care of. I already have one local TV station doing the story. If we would have known this problem before we wouldn鈥檛 have purchased it. I think Honda is treating their customers very poorly on this matter and should definitely have a recall. Thank you for listening to my complaint and hopefully we will get this solved.

It would cost Honda millions to fix this issue. I would guess they don't consider it a safety hazard, so they feel it is of no need to repair it.

The condenser is $180 for the OEM fit after market version. I doubt, and I'm sorry to say this, is that you'll never get them to fix it. It would probably be cheaper to take it to somewhere other than the Honda dealer. My friend's Volvo got its condenser ruined by a stone too, it costed $400 to replace it with labour included.

Unfortunately, being that it is right in front of the rad, it's in a really good spot to get damaged, but they should have put a splash cover up to protect it.

I really hope this all works out for you, and I wish you the best of luck.

Also, when you do get it repaired, if I were you, I'd try and find a cover off of a newer van that was in a wreck, or look for them in a part catalogue, because it will most likely keep on happening.

Just a side note to the people who replied before me:

I like Honda, and Toyota and all, but seriously, stop with the domestic car bashing, it isn't the 90's or early 00's any more people... Ford and GM make really good quality cars now. And don't reply with "They're junk!" to me unless you're a mechanic, or you have a lot of experience in these matters, and by the way, just because your mom owns one doesn't qualify you to be rating the quality of cars.

On a side note, I have worked on a lot of A/C systems, and a lot of cars for that matter, and I've always found the A/C systems on domestic cars to be far superior to those of imports and Japanese makes.

be thankful you didn't buy american, you'd be worrying about alot more than a/c at 24k miles

Just remember that this is no different than having a stone hit your windshield. Contact you insurance agent this should be covered by your comprehensive insurance. This issue is not limited to only Honda vehicles it has happened to many makes and models. It would be impractical for Honda to pay for all repairs caused by road debris, let alone any other manufacturer.

I think it would be way too costly for Honda to recall their cars or replace everyone's a/cs because a lot of these cars have already been sold. And Ozeki is right. My dad bought a caravan a year ago, and the power steering, power door locks, and power window got messed up.

It could be alot worse. They have already remedies the problem if what you are saying is correct with the added protection on the newer models. Things get over looked from time to time. I can tell you that Honda does a good job warrantying there products. My Grandma had an seven year old accord that had a transmission problem and Honda fixed that for free- a seven year old car, common that is pretty nice of them to do. I have yet to have a problem with my now six year old prelude so I think they make a good product. Try owning an American car once and see how much you will be paying for repairs.